Cathy Cox, President of Young Harris College, is pleased to announce that Ryan Nicholas Bender has been named to the Young Harris College Dean's List for the Fall 2010 semester. Students who achieve a 3.5 grade point average or better are eligible to be named to the Dean's List.

Bender, a senior at Young Harris College, is a graduate of Johnson High School. He is the son of Raymond and Deborah Bender of Braselton.

Five Hall County teens are set to graduate from the National Guard-sponsored Youth Challenge Academy at Fort Stewart. Jessie Escobar, Armando Guillen, Daniel Ruiz, Warren Kelly, all of Gainesville, and Angel Lozano of Oakwood successfully completed the 22-week in residence youth development program located at Fort Stewart. The National Guard Youth Challenge Program helps to reclaim the lives of "at-risk" youth to produce graduates with the values, skills, education and self-discipline necessary to succeed as adults.

Joseph S. Pardue, a resident of Cleveland, has earned an associate in applied science in nursing from Excelsior College.

University of Georgia undergraduate Chatela Young of Gainesville is one of 15 first-year students at the University of Georgia who have been selected to participate in the Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities Apprentice program.

Young, a graduate of Johnson High School, is pursuing a bachelor's degree in nutrition science. She is studying cellular mechanisms in muscular dystrophy using a mouse model. Her research mentor is biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences professor Aaron Beedle.

The current students spend 10-12 hours a week actively engaged in their research projects with their faculty mentors.