On Tuesday, July 26 at 11 a.m. 75 master’s degree students will graduate from PCOM Georgia, a health sciences university in Suwanee, at the Gas South District in Duluth. The graduates include 45 biomedical sciences students and 30 physician assistant students.
The graduates will hear from keynote speaker La Dawn Hackett, who is a 2008 alumna of the inaugural class of PCOM Georgia’s biomedical sciences program, who then earned an MD degree from the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. She then completed an Internship in internal medicine and four years of a diagnostic radiology residency at the Medical College of Georgia, before completing a one-year fellowship in abdominal radiology at Emory University.
Today, Dr. Hackett mentors students, from high school to medical school. In addition, she instructs first and second year medical students at PCOM Georgia about radiology. In February 2020, she was presented with an Alumni Award by Student National Medical Association leaders for her service to the PCOM Georgia community.
This enterprising physician established a small business in 2018 and is expanding her services to include content creation, healthcare consulting and video production for healthcare companies.
To view the ceremony online, tune in on PCOM Georgia’s Facebook or YouTube channels on July 26, starting at 11a.m. For more information on PCOM Georgia, visit www.pcom.edu.
GGC students can opt to attend summer resource camps
The summer gap between the spring and fall semesters can cause some students to fall behind on academics. A Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC) summer program seeks to help returning, new and transfer students connect with faculty, academic counselors and resources to support their college careers.
GGC’s Summer Preparatory Academic Resource Camps (SPARC) create academic bridges between the spring and fall semesters for students to experience supportive sessions. These sessions range from small group environments with GGC faculty providing brief class examples, to larger sessions where students are given information about resources available to them. This can include tutoring, peer mentoring and other support services, such as the Registrar’s Office, Counseling and Psychological Services.
Dr. Justin Jernigan, dean of the college’s Student Engagement and Success division, says that the idea of SPARC is something rooted in necessity. “Two years ago, we wanted an element that complemented and built on student experiences at Grizzly Orientation,” says Jernigan. “That’s how SPARC was born.”
With the goal of inspiring students at the forefront, Jernigan said that SPARC implants the idea of questioning in the minds of the participants. “It’s all about encouraging discussions between students, professors, advisers and schools. We’re looking to promote futures.”
U.S. Highways 441 and 82 to get EV charging stations
Georgia Department of Transportation (Georgia DOT) has received federal designation for two highways as Alternative Fuel Corridors from the Federal Highway Administration. The first route is U.S. Highway 441 from Cornelia in northeast Georgia to Dublin in east central Georgia. The second route is U.S. Highway 82 from Brunswick in coastal Georgia to Albany in southeast Georgia. These two routes will add 25 percent, or approximately 330 miles, to Georgia’s electric vehicle (EV) charging network.
Russell R. McMurry, commissioner of Georgia DOT says: “Convenient access to electric vehicle charging stations is critical to innovating and expanding Georgia’s transportation network. These federal designations are important because they signify Georgia’s commitment to alternative fuel options in every part of the state, including rural areas, and provide motorists options to reduce transportation costs and address environmental concerns.”
These two routes were selected based on a variety of criteria including location near major economic clusters, access to tourism sites, high share of new electric vehicles sales in nearby counties, proximity near a Georgia Emergency Management evacuation route and service to southeast Georgia.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law established a National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program to provide funding to states to strategically deploy electric vehicle charging infrastructure and to establish an interconnected network to facilitate data collection, access and reliability. These new designations expand the opportunities for the use of NEVI funds, as Georgia continues to build out its Alternative Fuel Corridors.
The state of Georgia has approximately 30,000 electric vehicles on the road and more than 1,300 publicly available electric vehicle charging stations with an estimated 3,400 individual outlets. That number represents more electric charging stations or outlets per capita in the Southeast and Sunbelt, except for California.
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