Students and Scientists Celebration: The Inaugural Year of FSTS and The Emmy Noether Award

From Student to Scientist, in partnership with the Joe W. and Dorothy Dorsett Brown Foundation, hosted an event on Saturday, May 13th, 2017 called Students and Scientists: A Celebration of the Inaugural Year of From Student to Scientist and The Emmy Noether Award. This inaugural event, held at the Louisiana Cancer Research Center, brought together students, educators, and scientists to strengthen the bridge between these communities in New Orleans.

The event featured lab tours and various science activities, similar to those found at our after-school workshops held at Arise Academy. Guests had the opportunity to play piano with banana keys, play video games with a marshmallow controller (at our Makey Makey stations), in addition to participating in math puzzles, coding fun, and assembly of a lemon battery-powered clock. Guests even had a role in creating a "periodic table of cupcakes" at the end of the event. Through science activities for all and an awards ceremony to honor the first recipient of the Emmy Noether Award as well as the first class of Emmy Noether Scholars, this event introduced a new way to bring science and science education to the forefront of leadership and development in New Orleans and beyond.

During the awards ceremony, Hailey Rowbatham, a junior at St. Scholastica Academy, was honored as the first recipient of the Emmy Noether Award, a $75,000 fellowship for a research-based graduate degree. Carlie Celentano, a junior at Belle Chasse High School, and Samantha Breaux, a senior at Hammond High Magnet School, were honored as silver medalists. Other semi-finalists honored include Michaela Brown (Patrick F. Taylor High School), Suzannah Mahoney (Belle Chasse High School), Vanessa Chambers (Benjamin Franklin High School), and Erin Yilmaz (Benjamin Franklin High School). The semi-finalists will join the silver and gold medalists in joining the Emmy Noether Scholars, a network of young female scientists that will continue to grow over the years and provide networking and collaboration opportunities for the group. Additionally, we recognized four regional leaders (Emily Smither, Keyana Zahiri, Erin Yilmaz, and Allison Lee) who will lead the FSTS: New Orleans branch in the upcoming school year.

2017 Emmy Noether Scholars

Emily Smither and Elizabeth Smither with Dr. Patrick Widhalm and Jeanne Sinagra

Ilaria Simeone (left), Co-Founder and Co-President of From Student to Scientist, with Dr. Victoria Belancio, Madison Smither (Co-Founder and Co-President of From Student to Scientist), and Dr. Mary Gubala

Dr. Prescott Deininger, Director of the Tulane Cancer Center and Co-Director of the Louisiana Cancer Research Center, speaks about his science journey.

Edwin Ford Hunter, III with Betsy Nalty and Dr. Jim Guenther

Our guests wait for the awards ceremony to begin.

Madison Smither and Ilaria Simeone, Co-Founders and Co-Presidents of From Student to Scientist

Madison Smither (left), Tina Bouzon of the Brown Foundation, and Ilaria Simeone

Volunteers working on element signs for periodic table of cupcakes: Victoria Crouch (left), Evangeline Crouch, Allison Lee, Emily Smither, and Ilaria Simeone