Hailing from a small town in southwest Georgia, Lora McCray (AB ’85) arrived at UGA in 1981. Education was important to her family, and Lora was a stand-out student, winning a National Merit Scholarship and being recognized with numerous other awards throughout her academic career. Most of her UGA classmates didn’t look like her, and they weren’t from her community, but Lora settled in at Creswell Hall, determined to focus on her studies and to continue to excel. Keenly interested in social justice and equity issues, Lora followed this passion, majoring in political science, with law school as her post-graduate goal.

To some, the UGA college experience means long afternoons in the Main Library, or Saturdays at Sanford Stadium, but to Master of Public Administration student Nipuna Ambanpola (’21), UGA is the next step in a lifetime of public service and innovative problem-solving. Last year, his tech nonprofit IVolunteer International won $5,000 from the Georgia Kickstart Fund, the student-led startup housed in the UGA Entrepreneurship Program in the Terry College of Business.

For some kids, summer break is filled with fun in the sun, sleepaway camp, and plenty of time to leisurely peruse a well-stocked bookshelf for stories of adventure and intrigue. But for others, especially those from low-income families, summer can be quite the opposite. From an educational perspective, lack of access to books and scholastic materials over the summer has the potential to create an achievement gap for the next school year. One nonprofit organization in Athens which is led by a SPIA alumna, Books for Keeps, is working to ensure students enter summer vacation with the books they need to close this gap and keep students on track.