One sentence says it all: Graduate students make an impact.

Each year, The Graduate School hosts an event that “celebrates” graduate students for their outstanding academic achievements—including, but not limited to, their ability to successfully compete for national fellowships and their research advances that benefit North Carolina and beyond.

The Graduate School's Impact Award recognizes graduate student research that is improving the lives of people in North Carolina and beyond. This year, 22 graduate students received the Impact Award, an honor generously funded by The Graduate School's Graduate Education Advancement Board.

On April 4, 2012, hundreds of students, faculty, student services staff members and University friends attended a celebration of graduate education excellence: More than 300 students were recognized for external fellowships and other honors received during the 2011-12 academic year.

Marc Levoy—whose career achievements include developing the cartoon animation system used in “The Flintstones” TV show and launching Google's Street View project—will be the keynote speaker for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's 2012 Doctoral Hooding Ceremony.

The UNC-Chapel Hill Graduate School and First Nations Graduate Circle, a graduate student organization, recently sponsored an American Indian Graduate Student Recruitment Event, focused on introducing Native students to the University's graduate programs and community.

Thanks to many private donors this year, 21 graduate students will have the opportunity to focus exclusively on their dissertation research this summer. The students were selected for the quality of their work, their readiness to productively use the time this summer, their mentors' willingness to work with them and provide guidance, and the fact that they have had little previous nonservice funding.

More than 1,400 Carolina graduate alumni have added their “footprints” to The Graduate School's interactive Tar Heel Footprints project. Some of these alumni have been selected for feature stories in Graduate School communications.

Add your own footprint and read about alumni who are leaving an impact wherever they go.

Nathaniel Adam Sowa, a 2011 UNC-Chapel Hill doctoral graduate in neurobiology, has received one of the nation's most prestigious awards focused on doctoral dissertations for his research addressing pain management. Sowa received the 2011 Council of Graduate Schools/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award for his dissertation. This is the first time a UNC-Chapel Hill student has received the honor.