It’s probably natural that the news media, when reporting about the University of Georgia, always look for the shadows rather than the light. It’s frustrating, but that’s how the world works, and we deal with it and go on.

What people across the state of Georgia and beyond might not know is that once again, students at UGA in general and the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences specifically, are among the best in America. The record for outstanding achievement is, frankly, astonishing, until you get to know our students.

In the span of one year, UGA undergraduate students have earned four of the nation’s most prestigious scholarships: Rhodes, Marshall, Goldwater, and Truman. This is like a baseball player batting.400 and winning 20 games in the same season—phenomenal by any standards.

This spring, Laura Ellen Downs, a chemistry major from West Point and Amanda Morgan Casto, majoring in genetics and cell biology, received the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship for students pursuing careers in the natural sciences, mathematics, and engineering. The award is up to $7,500.

Downs plans to work toward a doctoral degree in chemistry and embark on a career of research in the field of medicinal therapeutics. As a news release from UGA noted in March, she “has spent two years conducting research under the direction of UGA chemistry professor Gregory Robinson and is co-author of three peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals.” She has also been on UGA’s Collegiate Council and was president of the UGA March of Dimes chapter.

Casto hopes one day to lead a genetics research laboratory, after receiving her Ph.D. Already, she has pursued research projects at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama and the Max Planck Institute in German. She has been member of the women’s lacrosse team and a volunteer in the Center for Undergraduate Research.

Another Franklin College student, Virginia Leigh Barton from Chapin, S. C., received the Harry S. Truman Scholarship—an astounding $30,000 grant for graduate study that will prepare students for career in public service or government. Ginny, as she is known, is majoring in cell biology and psychology and intends to get a joint law degree/master’s degree in public health, according to UGA’s press release, and work in the field of public policy. She is co-founder of UGA’s chapter of the Association for Women in Science, is an orientation team leader, and is vice president of the Student Government Association for the coming year.

All three students are Foundation Fellows and in the Honors Program, and those program deserve a lion’s share of the credit for the students’ success, too.

Since student Adam Cureton, a won a Rhodes Scholarship and Josh Woodruff won a Marshall, this is the first time UGA students have won all four major scholarships in the same year. Cureton and Woodruff just graduated, Cureton with a bachelor’s degree in evolutionary theory and political theory and a master’s degree in philosophy at the same time. Woodruff had a double major in biochemistry and molecular biology and cellular biology.

In addition, Dr. Stephen Hubbell, Distinguished Research Professor of Plant Biology in the Franklin College, was named a Fellow in the American Academy of Art and Sciences in May of this year—becoming only the fifth current UGA faculty member to have such an honor.

This Academy, founded in 1780 by scholar-patriots including John Adams and John Hancock, has a current membership that includes more than 150 Nobel laureates and 50 Pulitzer Prize winners.

Are there shadows around UGA during these times of economic uncertainty? Of course. But focusing on problems rather than successes gives an entirely inaccurate picture of what’s happening at the state’s largest research university. In many ways, times have never been better.