- The Gold Scholars Program began in 2016,
with a focus on selecting some of the top 2%
of Georgia Tech's incoming first year class.
We focus a lot on scholarship, leadership,
progress and service
but we tell the students in the very beginning
that their award is more than financial.
It's not a reward for their high school achievements.
It's rather an investment in them
so that they can pay it forward to make society better.
- Ah, got in (laughter).
(crowd clapping and cheering)
- When I was looking other colleges,
I was really worried about finding
a group of people I connect with
but Tech was different
because everyone I talked to here was so much like me.
Touring Tech, I knew I belonged here
this campus just felt like home
and being selected as a Gold Scholar
just sealed the deal honestly,
because being selected from 35,000 people,
it was an amazing feeling
and I've really wanted to come here
and Tech really wanted me to come here too.
- Georgia Tech is a world-class school
and I've been doing a couple internships recently
and at those internships,
Georgia Tech is extremely respected.
Every time I tell somebody where I go, their mouths kind
of dropped a little, oh, you go to Georgia Tech.
And with that education at Georgia Tech,
it is way less expensive than it's everywhere else
and you get everything the same, if not better.
It's my home, it's an awesome place here.
- We focus the program really on community development
and on personal development.
In terms of community,
we start with an outdoor leadership expedition,
send the students out into the wilderness.
They learn to rely on each other.
They learn to support each other, really to begin to bond.
We extend that into the greater community
of Gold Scholars when they get to campus.
They'll be part of coffee socials,
they'll do lunches and dinners and things like that.
- There's always something going on
within the special scholarships community
whether that's coffee Friday, every Friday
or there's like a dinner with faculty or something.
I think there's always something going on
and something to look forward to.
Coffee Friday is always something we look forward
to every single week.
We just generally look forward to seeing each other
and we do like things outside of just the program.
We'll stay together or we'll just decide
to grab lunch together.
And so that's something I've really appreciated.
It's not just this really formal mentoring thing
where we have these really awkward of coffee dates
where we like, how do we get to know each other?
We're all just really friends
and we all genuinely look forward to seeing each other.
- So this year, we went on a Gold Scholar Tech track
for the members of my cohort.
We spent four days camping, rock climbing, ascending,
rappelling, caving and whitewater rafting.
It was just really a great experience bonding
with members of my cohort
and getting to know everybody better.
And it gave me a group of people that I can know
and be a part of before my semester even began.
- Inner personal development is another huge part
of the program.
We invite all of them to participate in the program
through mentoring with staff and with faculty and others
and then we spend time trying to help them
to grow in other areas.
So we might do lectures
or we might do professional development seminars
that they can be a part of.
And through that and the community development
that they engage in,
they end up being poised to give to society
and to make the world a better place in each their own way.
- There's a sense of resiliency
that I didn't know existed within me before.
And with practicing medicine,
there's always going to be things that don't work out.
There are going to be failures
and I think Georgia Tech has given me the tools to cope
with failure and see the value in failure,
and see it as more of a didactic tool
instead of being this really negative consequence
with no positive outcomes.
I think that's something that lifelong will be
a really positive tool to use.
There's this one really amazing trip called the Asker
that scholars and a list staff members go on every year.
It's two weeks spent abroad across the world
and it's based around a research question proposed
by the team of people going.
This year I applied and was accepted
and I'm so excited to say we're going to Pacific.
The first week is spent backpacking in New Zealand
and the second week in Sydney, Australia.
And being part of the program gave me
this incredible opportunity.
There are a lot of amazing study abroads in Georgia Tech
as university but this trip is entirely unique
to the program and exclusive to scholars.
When I was in California for my recent internship,
using ghostcrawler connections,
I was able to connect with a few alumni out there
and that was an awesome opportunity.
One of them runs an equity fund,
another one works for Facebook and we were able to connect
and have lunch and breakfast a couple times,
and their advice and mentorship was really awesome to hear
and help me succeed in my internship
And some of their words that really stuck with me,
and I know I'll carry them forward
into my future opportunities after graduation.
Going into the Gold Scholar program,
I knew some of those things would be there
and now that I'm actually living them.
It's really cool and awesome
and I know I made the best choice.
(upbeat music)