GREATER ATLANTA CHRISTIAN SCHOOL ALUMNA named 2022 Goldwater Scholar, earning highest award of its type for the fields of mathematics, engineering and the natural sciences.
Greater Atlanta Christian School (GAC) alumna and Gwinnett native Elise Karinshak ’19, was recently named a 2022 Goldwater Scholar, earning the highest and most prestigious award of its type for the fields of mathematics, engineering and the natural sciences. She was among only 417 undergraduates selected from 5,000 applicants across the nation.
The Goldwater Scholarship Program seeks to identify and support undergraduates who show exceptional promise of becoming America’s next generation of research leaders in those fields.
Karinshak is currently a third-year Faculty Fellow at the University of Georgia studying Computer and Information Science and Engineering.
When asked about her preparation for this achievement, she remarked, “My Greater Atlanta Christian School experience was and continues to be a tremendous blessing. GAC’s community, education, resources, and support were essential to my development, preparing me for college and beyond. I am especially grateful for the robust mathematical foundation I gained at GAC. These classes equipped me to engage with and apply the statistical and computational coursework I’ve taken in college.”
Karinshak plans to pursue a research career at the intersection of data science and AI-mediated communication, analyzing systems that can generate, augment or modify content to achieve communication goals. She aims to develop data and modeling techniques to improve socially impactful communications efforts, such as public health messaging, and reduce misinformation in the digital environment.
“Inspired by growing concerns of disinformation, I developed and empirically evaluated a model of information dissemination and alteration on social media,” said Karinshak. “I synthesized interdisciplinary findings (including computer science, communication, and psychology) to develop the messaging fragmentation model (MFM), which conceptualizes how information evolves as it is transmitted and how users perceive this information. I then conducted a quantitative analysis to empirically evaluate the proposed phenomena.”
Elise is the daughter of Bruce and Zahra Karinshak of Lawrenceville. Following graduation from the University of Georgia as a dual data science and marketing major and studio art minor, she plans to pursue a Ph.D. in data science.
About Greater Atlanta Christian School:
GAC is one of the largest Christian schools in the Southeast serving over 1,600 students (Pre-K-12). We are a faith-infused, academically rich community, ranked at the top of the state for teaching quality, arts, and athletics. GAC offers a dynamic experience, consistently adopting new learning strategies to better prepare students for collegiate careers at top universities. Conveniently located in Northeast Atlanta, GAC’s 88-acre campus provides resources from state-of-the-art facilities to new programs with a focus on STEAM-learning and personalized and project-based learning. Whether your child excels in academics, arts, or athletics, they have access to endless opportunities on one campus.
