The highly anticipated virtual program of the 2021 Scholar Awards Celebration launched as scheduled on Thursday, November 18, at 8:15am, to a live audience of over 200 viewers via unique email addresses. Our production team reported an additional 54 logins after the live event, later that day, for a total of almost 300 unique viewers, and over 400 plays, meaning that several viewers watched the event more than once!

The 30-minute event began with the premiere of ARCS Atlanta’s first “brand film.” Current Georgia Tech ARCS scholars Kantwon Rogers, Carmen Chen and Hannah Holmes opened the 6-minute brand film with moving personal testimonies about what their ARCS Award has meant to them. Emory University President Dr. Gregory Fenves, Heart Lab lead biomedical engineering professor and ARCS Alumnus Dr. Michael Davis, and BlackRock Managing Director Ms. Chanel Frazier also weighed in with compelling narratives about the work of ARCS Atlanta.

It took many engaged and energetic SAC committee members to bring this virtual event to fruition, including (in order of their appearance in the brand film!) Leslie Petter, Shelley Woods Whiting, Ellen Adair Wyche, Susan McGonigle, Vikki Millender-Morrow, Beth Finnerty and Angelle Hamilton. Invaluable “behind the scenes” committee work was provided throughout the SAC planning by Erin Dasher, Nancy Chambers, Becky Riley, Vicki Riedel, Kathryn Graves, Pat Leake, Mary Dodson, Katie Houser, Susan Hawkins, Caroline Moise, Sara Jean Burke, Lee Doyle, Janis Henry, Sherry Lundeen, Barbara Marxer, Sally McDaniel, and Suzy Wasserman. And we are especially grateful to Visuals Director and Creative Consultant Tracey Woods (Shelley’s sister!), Kirk Baggott of Plaid Turtle, Megan McAllister and the team at Henderson Shapiro Peck, and Alexa Mallalieu and the team at Retro 8.

You can view the brand film and the 2021 SAC on the ARCS website here: https://atlanta.arcsfoundation.org/our-chapter/about-our-chapter/brand-film