For more than 15 years, Dr. Cory Momany of the University of Georgia College of Pharmacy has been quietly shaping scientific futures—starting in high school. Since joining the Young Dawgs Program in 2009, Dr. Momany has mentored 20 high school students, giving them hands-on research experience, professional insight, and the confidence to pursue careers in science and medicine.
“Students that have worked in my lab enter college running,” Dr. Momany says. “They don’t always go into biochemistry or molecular biology, but nearly all of them join research labs as undergraduates. They’re ready on day one.”
The Young Dawgs Program, coordinated by UGA’s Office of Experiential Learning, places local high school students into university departments for immersive mentorship experiences. In Dr. Momany’s lab, students do more than shadow—they conduct real experiments alongside undergraduate and graduate researchers.
“They come in after morning classes and spend several hours in the lab, usually four days a week,” he explains. “They end up spending more time in the lab than some of our undergraduates. Most of them can do everything our undergrads and even first-year grad students do.”
Dr. Momany’s approach to mentoring is rooted in humility and accessibility. “I make no assumptions about what someone knows. I start everyone—from high school students to visiting scholars—from the ground up. We start with how to pipet,” he says. “I show them the method the first time, observe them the second, and by the third time, they’re doing it themselves.”
The results speak for themselves. One of his former mentees, Hannah Toutkoushian, was a Young Dawg for multiple terms under Dr. Momany while attending high school in Athens. She has since become a co-author on a research paper from the lab now cited over 30 times. As an undergraduate at Virginia Tech, she published again—and eventually earned a prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. Most recently, she worked with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Beyond technical skills, Dr. Momany hopes his students walk away with something deeper: resilience, confidence, and a clearer sense of their own path.“Not everyone is meant to be an experimental scientist—and that’s okay,” he said. “But all students deserve the chance to find out what they’re great at. The Young Dawgs program provides that opportunity to them.”
Fifteen years and 20 students later, Dr. Momany continues to be a champion for early access to educational opportunities, mentorship, and student discovery.
“These students leave changed—but so do we,” he said. “Every time I work with a Young Dawg, I’m reminded that science is a shared journey—and it starts earlier than most people think.”
Young Dawg Participants Dr. Momany has mentored over the years:
Cherranda Smith (Young Dawgs, high school student), Fall 2009
Josh Duncan (Young Dawgs, high school student), Spring 2009
Sana Pasha (Young Dawgs, high school student), Fall 2010
Shibu Xu (Young Dawgs program), Fall 2011
Hannah Toutchoushian (Young Dawgs, high school student), Fall, 2011- 2012 and later
Alexandria Hamilton (Young Dawgs, high school student), Fall 2012-2013
Nikita Vantsev (Young Dawgs, high school student), Summer 2013, Summer 2014
Nick Whitlock (Young Dawgs, high school student), Summer 2013
Michael West (Young Dawgs, high school student), Summer 2013
Tori Butler (Young Dawgs, high school student), Fall 2013
Ansley Brock (Young Dawgs), Fall 2014-Spring 2015
Baker Edrees (Young Dawgs), Fall 2015-Spring 2016
Emily Gibson (Young Dawgs), Summer 2017
Medha Guduru (Young Dawgs), Summer 2018
Shelby (Lee) Cook (Young Dawgs), Fall 2018/Spring 2019
Philip Schroeder (Young Dawgs), Fall 2018/Spring 2019
Kevin Chen (Young Dawgs), Spring 2020
Harnoor Khera (Young Dawgs), Fall 2022
Maya Clements (Young Dawgs), Spring 2024
Emily Lee (Young Dawgs), Summer 2025
