On Wednesday November 13th, over 220 ARCS members, scholars, donors and guests came together to celebrate our fifty-three 2024 - 2025 ARCS Atlanta Scholars at our annual Scholar Awards Celebration. This year we had a new time and venue - 11:30am to 1:30pm in the beautiful ballroom at the Piedmont Driving Club. As last year, the 2024 celebration showcased all of our scholars’ research with art-gallery style posters. This format allowed members and guests to mix and mingle and enjoy a buffet lunch. I think we all would agree that we departed the event feeling even more inspired and energized by the incredible research of our scholars and the generosity of our members and donors who support these young scientists – certainly in keeping with our theme of “Igniting Innovation in Georgia”!
We were also privileged and excited to have Roche Diagnostics be our Presenting Sponsor in addition to sponsoring three scholars (one each from Emory, Georgia Tech and UGA). Many thanks to our members Jamie Deeter and Nancy Chambers for stewarding this relationship. In addition, we had four attendees from Roche Diagnostics at the event with Johnny Smith, VP of Commercial Enablement participating in our program. We hope this is the beginning of a continuing relationship with Roche Diagnostics!
We are happy with our attendance this year with over 220 joining us - good attendance by scholars, their guests, ARCS members, University Partners, VIP guests, Scholar Advisors and other guests. We have many pictures and a video of the program for use as needed to promote the mission of ARCS Atlanta. To see more pictures of the 2024 Scholar Awards Celebration, visit the Event Highlights page on our ARCS Atlanta website at this link: https://atlanta.arcsfoundation.org/event-highlights
Morehouse College was our highlighted school this year and we were delighted to have Morehouse College President Dr. David Thomas speak during the program. He emphasized the strong, long-tenured relationship Morehouse has had with ARCS Atlanta Chapter and that this relationship is a model for other organizations.
It takes a village to host a successful Scholar Awards Celebration and ARCS members rose to the occasion. I truly appreciate each of you who helped in so many ways to make this event a success – 20 Ambassadors, 2 Scholar Chairs, 2 University Reps, 2 flower arranging, 2 Roche stewardship, 1 Yearbook, Funds Development, and our Steering Committee - plus our outside partners – ASG, HSP, Piedmont Driving Club, Emory University (loaning us the easels) and Damon Peebles Photography.
Feedback so far has been positive with some good suggestions for next year. If you have not already done so, please take a few minutes to complete your event survey (sent in your email on Thursday, November 14). The 2025 event will kick off in early 2025, chaired by Janis Henry.
Thank you for allowing me to serve as Scholar Awards Celebration Chair and let’s continue to spread the word that supporting one scholar can ignite innovation and lead to lasting impact.
Ann Taylor
2024 Scholar Awards Celebration Chair
