{"488701":{"#nid":"488701","#data":{"type":"news","title":"ENGAGES Coast to Coast","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EYears from now, maybe when he\u2019s a surgeon repairing damaged shoulders and knees, Qwantayvious Stiggers can look back on his Project ENGAGES experience as a key that opened the door to opportunities he hardly knew existed.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EENGAGES stands for Engaging New Generations at Georgia Tech through Engineering and Science. Accordingly, the program raises awareness of engineering, science and technology at the Georgia Institute of Technology for students in economically challenged, minority-serving public schools.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EHeadquartered at the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, ENGAGES gives high school students a chance to work in labs led by some of the Georgia Institute of Technology\u2019s world-class researchers. Stiggers, a senior at B.E.S.T. Academy High School, spends many of his after-school hours in the lab of Krishnendu Roy. It is both a job and a rare education opportunity, and the experience has been invaluable, Stiggers said. But it was a trip far afield that clinched the idea for him that he has a role to play in the world of healthcare.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EDuring fall semester, he was part of a group of seven ENGAGES students who attended the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (AMRCMS) in Seattle.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003E\u201cWhat an eye-opener,\u201d Stiggers said. \u201cThe conference exposed me to a world of diversity I didn\u2019t really know about. It was great to see and meet so many other African-American people \u2013 people who look like me \u2013 pursuing the things that I want to pursue, doing the things that I want to do. It was encouraging.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EThat was kind of the point of the trip, admitted Manu Platt, professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, who co-founded and co-chairs Project ENGAGES with the Petit Institute\u2019s founding director, Bob Nerem.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003E\u201cI wanted them to go because I remember the first time I attended this conference,\u201d said Platt, a Petit Institute faculty researcher. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing when you walk in and there are all of these dark-skinned, brilliant kids, dressed to the nines, professional looking. I wanted our students to see this large group of young scientists that look like them, so they could interact and network.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EThat Seattle trip was a highlight for Stiggers in particular (it helped reinforce his dreams of becoming a physician with a yen toward research), and the ENGAGES program in general last semester, capped in December with the annual winter celebration at the Petit Institute. The atrium hummed with the chatter of students, their mentors, faculty, family and representatives from the participating high schools (Coretta Scott King Young Women\u2019s Leadership Academy, KIPP Atlanta Collegiate and Mays High School in addition to B.E.S.T., all of them in the Atlanta Public School system).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EThey gathered around and among a maze of student research posters. Then everyone packed themselves into the Suddath Room for an enlightening panel discussion among former ENGAGES students who are now in college: Amadou Bah (Stanford), Katrina Burch (Georgia Tech), Jovanay Carter (Dartmouth), and Imani Moon (North Carolina A\u0026amp;T).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EThe current group of ENGAGES students wanted to know what to expect from the college experience. The panel didn\u2019t sugarcoat its answers.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003E\u201cI study all of the time. I haven\u2019t been out since homecoming,\u201d Burch said. \u201cI usually go to sleep around 4 a.m., wake up around 9 on a good day, sometimes 8. So yeah, I\u2019m always studying.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EBah, who went from his Atlanta roots all the way across the country to attend Stanford, is one of Stiggers\u2019 closest friends, \u201cand he didn\u2019t hold anything back,\u201d said Stiggers, who has been accepted at Georgia Tech, but also is considering the University of Michigan and Stanford. \u201cAmadou said the course work was extremely difficult, but you can\u2019t give in to doubt \u2013 you\u2019ve got to push through. College is a whole different ballgame, he said. It changes you.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EThe same might be said of travel. It changes you. That was certainly the case for five of the seven students who went on the Seattle trip. \u201cIt was the first time they stepped foot on a plane,\u201d Platt said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EOnce in Seattle, the ensemble mingled with college students and scientists, met Nobel Laureates, heard keynote speeches from some of the most influential researchers and healthcare leaders in the country and saw or heard a mountain of research.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EMost of the 4,000 attendees were college students, but Stiggers, who will graduate high school this year, felt like he was exactly where he belonged.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003E\u201cIt was inspiring. They kept drawing me in,\u201d he said. \u201cIt felt like I was already in college.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p2\u0022\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Students inspired by Seattle conference and straight scoop from alums at winter celebration"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EStudents inspired by Seattle conference and straight scoop from alums at winter celebration\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Students inspired by Seattle conference and straight scoop from alums at winter celebration"}],"uid":"28153","created_gmt":"2016-01-20 21:52:53","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:20:27","author":"Jerry Grillo","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2016-01-20T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2016-01-20T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"488671":{"id":"488671","type":"image","title":"ENGAGES Seattle Seven","body":null,"created":"1453395600","gmt_created":"2016-01-21 17:00:00","changed":"1475895242","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:54:02","alt":"ENGAGES Seattle Seven","file":{"fid":"204381","name":"engages.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/engages_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/engages_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":4069420,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/engages_0.jpg?itok=0fGfDfbS"}},"488681":{"id":"488681","type":"image","title":"Manu and student","body":null,"created":"1453395600","gmt_created":"2016-01-21 17:00:00","changed":"1475895242","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:54:02","alt":"Manu and student","file":{"fid":"204382","name":"manu_and_student.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/manu_and_student_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/manu_and_student_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":3729118,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/manu_and_student_0.jpg?itok=J5ODicro"}},"488691":{"id":"488691","type":"image","title":"Amadou and Katrina","body":null,"created":"1453395600","gmt_created":"2016-01-21 17:00:00","changed":"1475895242","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:54:02","alt":"Amadou and Katrina","file":{"fid":"204383","name":"amadou_and_katrina.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/amadou_and_katrina_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/amadou_and_katrina_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":2071050,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/amadou_and_katrina_0.jpg?itok=MM52aZm-"}}},"media_ids":["488671","488681","488691"],"groups":[{"id":"1292","name":"Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB)"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"126581","name":"go-ProjectEngages"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJerry Grillo\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECommunications Officer II\u003Cbr \/\u003EParker H. Petit Institute for\u003Cbr \/\u003EBioengineering and Bioscience\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}