We were “in orbit” over the success of our 2022 re-imagined Scholar Awards Celebration (SAC) and stayed the course with this newly designed format for 2023.  The 2023 celebration showcased all of our scholars' research with art gallery-style posters which allowed members and guests to mix and mingle at the beautiful Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience at Georgia Tech.  I departed that evening 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.

When envisioning our 2023 SAC theme, we piggybacked on two messages launched by ARCS National: Igniting Innovation for 65 Years for the Annual Report and the Invite to Ignite campaign to foster chapter growth.  Our hope for the 2023 SAC theme, Igniting Innovation in Georgia, was to evoke and reinforce a few key concepts: ARCS members serve as change agents promoting STEM in Georgia, and our scholars are on their way to becoming leaders who tackle real-world problems across the globe.

In our planning for the 2023 event, our mindset was centered on continuous improvement of our processes and creating tangible assets that could be used more broadly down the road to promote our overall goal of supporting outstanding scholars in STEM.  To this end, we accomplished the following:

• exhibited gallery style posters for all of our scholars (an increase from 28 to 49)
• created an original evergreen SAC logo
• worked with ARCS National to build a new registration system facilitating the collection of relevant and accurate registration data
• produced a video highlighting all 49 scholars and some historical context regarding the launch of ARCS National and ARCS Atlanta. (To view this video, please visit the Scholar Awards Celebration page via this link). https://atlanta.arcsfoundation.org/events/2023-arcs-atlanta-scholar-awards-celebration
• captured the live program on video, highlighting Dr. Ángel Cabrera, President of Georgia Tech and featured school for 2023, ARCS Atlanta President Carolynn Cooper, and one scholar selected from each school to present the relevance that ARCS brings to their research.  (To view this video, please visit the Scholar Awards Celebration page via this link). https://atlanta.arcsfoundation.org/events/2023-arcs-atlanta-scholar-awards-celebration

At the end of the evening, I hope that you also left feeling inspired by our young researchers and optimistic for the future. 

We are now wrapping up, paying the bills, and making recommendations to the board for SAC 2024.  We were on budget and spent a total of $20,901.12 for the event. Here is what else we know to date:

I truly appreciate all of you who helped in so many ways to make this event a success. Thank you for your support, time, guidance, and attendance. Special gratitude goes to the amazing 2023 SAC Core team: Ann Taylor, Carolynn Cooper, Sara Jean Burke, and Leslie Petter, as well as the ARCS Atlanta Funds Development Team.

To see photos of the 2023 Scholar Awards Celebration, please go to the Events Highlights page of our ARCS Atlanta website at:  https://atlanta.arcsfoundation.org/event-highlights. If you have not already done so, please take a few minutes to complete your event survey (sent in your email on Thursday, November, 16).  The 2024 event will kick off in February and be chaired by Ann Taylor.

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.

Betsy Kazazian
2023 Scholar Awards Celebration Chair