Kennesaw State University

Growing up, Luke Gamage was often captivated by video games and found himself pondering his own future as a game designer. Now a student in Kennesaw State University's College of Computing and Software Engineering, he has turned a class project into a design studio with its first game set to launch on Steam.

First-year architecture student Tuere Thomas is reimagining the way students consume design education through the use of artificial intelligence. Her research at Kennesaw State focuses on how AI tools can spark creativity and help beginners visualize architectural concepts in innovative ways.

When Colin Jacobs chose to study hospitality management at Kennesaw State University, he mostly associated the major with hotels and restaurants. However, the Fall 2024 graduate's involvement on and off campus, as well as the industry connections he made, opened his eyes to the vast opportunities in the hospitality industry.

Iwalani Reiser has always thrived amid chaos, starting as a teenager on a voluntary ambulance crew in Bangkok and continuing as a paramedic in Atlanta. From the fast pace of nearly two decades in emergency medicine, she slowed down just enough to earn her Master of Science in Nursing degree, with a focus on becoming a family nurse practitioner.

An animal lover from a young age, Kerrigan Larkin found her calling long before enrolling at Kennesaw State. During walks with her grandmother, Larkin learned about the plants and animals she saw. She applied that knowledge first as an Honors biology major at KSU, and now as a second-year student in the Master of Science in Integrative Biology program.

As a 12-year-old, David Madrigal-Giraldo arrived in the U.S. speaking no English. Fast forward a decade, and he's an information technology student at Kennesaw State University actively shaping his future. Madrigal-Giraldo has become involved in clubs and held numerous internships that have enriched his learning experience.

Elementary education major Betsy Barron's research project aims to engage students based on their cultural background in subjects such as literacy and mathematics. Barron is conducting her project, "Culturally Relevant Math Lessons and Motivation in Elementary Education," through Kennesaw State's Summer Undergraduate Research Program.

Sarah Chang achieved the goal of her self-designed academic journey - bachelor's degrees in biology and music performance from Kennesaw State University. "Even though it might not be traditional and it took me an extra year, my professors and advisors were really supportive and helped me out a lot," said Chang, who also was a KSU Journey Honors College student.

Lucile Duncan was introduced to engineering at a young age, which ultimately led her to pursue mechanical engineering at Kennesaw State. At KSU, she has gained valuable classroom experience and has leveraged that into high-impact internships at Gulfstream Aerospace, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Delta Airlines.

Kim Amaya, who came to the U.S. from El Salvador when she was only 3, has worked hard to afford herself the types of opportunities her parents didn't have. Amaya has worked as many as three jobs at a time while attending college, as she prepares for a career as a teacher and becomes the first person in her family to graduate college.

Theatre and performance studies student Lance Avery Brown has appeared in multiple Kennesaw State productions, formed a freestyle improv troupe, and written and workshopped two original hip-hop musicals. Brown also has served as a peer leader for the Juvenile Justice School System, collaborating with students to tell their stories using poetry and songwriting.

To satisfy an elective course requirement for the KSU Journey Honors College, nursing major Trinity Johnson stumbled upon a class in data science. During that course, Johnson uncovered a raw talent for analytics and wound up being the youngest student to place in Kennesaw State's Analytics Day data science competition.

In combining her love of the environment and her love for chemistry, KSU senior Ariane Charland-Martin helps create conjugated polymers from which organic electronics can be made and that can be degraded when their usefulness has passed. That excites Charland-Martin, who feels she is doing something to reduce pollution and help the environment.

Being a teacher is one of those unique fields in which many describe their choice of profession as a calling. The next generation of educators in Kennesaw State's Bagwell College of Education are hopeful and ready to make a positive impact.

Each year, companies in Georgia process 118 billion digital financial transactions worth more than $2 trillion, and a new Kennesaw State University master's program is helping students find or advance careers in the growing financial technology field. Housed in the Coles College of Business, the Master of Science in Digital Financial Technologies is training students for careers as blockchain developers, compliance experts, cybersecurity analysts and more.

The first semester of college is a time of transition and growth as students spread their wings and begin to navigate their academic careers, discover new interests and make lasting memories. Camden Edwards, from Cumming, Ga., already is making a difference on campus as she pursues a degree in entrepreneurship.

The first semester of college is a time of transition and growth as students spread their wings and begin to navigate their academic careers, discover new interests and make lasting memories. Micaela Bazalar Quispe, who is from Lima, Peru and plans to pursue a degree in sociology, shares what made her first semester as an Owl meaningful.

The first semester of college is a time of transition and growth as students spread their wings and begin to navigate their academic careers, discover new interests and make lasting memories. Grace Soto, from Snellville, Ga., is already making a difference on campus as she pursues a degree in psychology.