Celia Wilson-Patino

Celia is a first-year graduate student in the College of Public Health at the University of Georgia. She is pursing a Master of Public Health in the Department of Health Promotion & Behavior where she also serves as a Graduate Teaching Assistant. Prior to attending UGA, Celia graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology with her Bachelors of Science degree on December 16, 2023. She graduated less than one week after her nineteenth birthday, making her around the 15th youngest graduate in the Institute's 139-year history. She earned a 4.0 G.P.A. in her Applied Languages & Intercultural Studies major and a 3.85 G.P.A. in her minor in Biology. Celia was also one of only 34 students out of a class of 1,865 to graduate from the selective GT Honors Program. She earned Distinction in the Global Engagement Pathway from the program as well.  Celia plans to pursue a career in public health and primary care medicine and has accrued thousands of hours in clinical settings either shadowing physicians, volunteering, or working as a medical scribe and a patient transporter in community hospitals. At Tech, she was a member of the Honors Program, the captain of the Equestrian Team, and a member of the Stamps Health Services Ambassadors and the Alpha Xi Delta sorority. She is also the founder of Buzzin' for Babies, a volunteer student organization supporting the neonatal intensive care and mother/baby units of the Southern Regional Medical Center. Prior to Tech, Celia earned two associate's degree (AA and AS) from the University of North Georgia, graduating "with distinction" for both. At UNG, she was a member of several honor societies, including Phi Theta Kappa. Celia was an honor graduate from Lakeview Academy high school in Gainesville, Georgia, in May, 2022. At Lakeview, she was an AP Scholar with Distinction, a National Hispanic Scholar, a four-year three sport varsity athlete, and was active in student government and several honor societies. In 2021, Celia was selected as one of only 684 students statewide to be a finalist in the Georgia Governor's Honors Program and spent the summer at Berry College studying German. Languages and cultures have always fascinated Celia. She loves to travel (especially to Europe and Washington, D.C.), has very close family ties to Spain, and commands native fluency in Spanish and English while also being intermediately fluent in German and Portuguese. Her other passions are equestrian sports (she placed several times at horse shows on Tech's IHSA competition team), healthcare & life sciences, and baking.