July 26, 2021, Abe Danaher
Brooke Daniels realized her passion while designing a new cover illustration for Tara Westover’s Educated. Now, as thousands of incoming UofSC freshmen read the book through the university’s 2021 First Year Reading Experience, she hopes it provides them guidance in navigating their next four years.
July 26, 2021, Craig Brandhorst
Greenville developer and business administration graduate Brody Glenn oversees major construction projects for corporate clients nationwide. With Camperdown, a mixed-use, live-work-play development in the heart of downtown Greenville, he is reshaping his hometown.
July 22, 2021, Craig Brandhorst
Geography alumna Tracy Swartout, ’95, has been with the National Park Service 21 years. In May, she became the first female superintendent of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
July 21, 2021, Page Ivey
Brian and Nicole Cendrowski have traveled a circuitous route to owning their own brewery in downtown Greenville, but what started from a “not awful” batch of beer in January 2007 has turned into a brewery, taproom and kitchen.
July 19, 2021, CJ Tamasco
When the Olympic games begin Friday (July 23), keep an eye out for Gamecocks, who are representing seven countries in 10 events.
July 14, 2021, Megan Sexton
Lauren Johnson-Cummings, the executive director of the Greenville ONE conference center, has used her psychology degree to understand behavior and relationships in her 20-year event planning career.
June 24, 2021, Megan Sexton
Black Girls in Social Work, an organization created by alumna Bodequia Simon, helps more than 20,000 members around the country network and learn about the profession.
June 16, 2021, Craig Brandhorst
Literacy is as much a reflection of a student’s cultural experience as it is a measure of what they have learned in school. As education professor Eliza Braden explains, “Students come into our classrooms as literate individuals in different ways. We want to honor those literacies.”
June 14, 2021, Page Ivey
Allie Trice was an outstanding undergraduate student at the University of South Carolina, excelling in class and conducting publishable research. But a dedication to the pursuit of truth is even more important for the university’s first recipient of the Barry Scholarship, which opened the door to graduate school at the University of Oxford.
May 27, 2021, Megan Sexton
James Hull works in the Office of Veterans and Military Services at the University of South Carolina, certifying veteran education benefits for students. He also has taken on a project that combines both his love of history and his military service: Documenting every UofSC student or alumni who died while serving in uniform over the past 120 years.
May 18, 2021, Carol J.G. Ward
Amy Carter and Christina Melton both had teachers who inspired them to choose education as a profession. Both are graduates of the University of South Carolina. Both have spent their careers in Palmetto State public schools. And now both have been recognized as the state’s best in their profession.
May 11, 2021, Megan Sexton
Growing up in Orangeburg, South Carolina, Jay Pinckney spent a lot of time in the outdoors, hunting and fishing with his father. By the time he was in the eighth grade he knew he wanted to be a marine biologist, part of the generation fascinated by Jacques Cousteau’s undersea adventures.
April 23, 2021, Craig Brandhorst
Former South Carolina Gov. David Beasley, a two-time UofSC graduate, was at a loss for words when he learned the international organization he helms won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2020. Beasley has served as the executive director of the World Food Programme since 2017.
April 22, 2021, Bryan Gentry
University of South Carolina graduate Johnny Chiang became chairman of Taiwan's oldest political party, the Kuomintang, in 2020, not long after the party suffered a crushing electoral defeat. His term has been marked by rising tensions with China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory.
April 21, 2021, Megan Sexton
Jory Fleming is the most decorated national fellowship winner in the university’s history, winning the prestigious Rhodes, Truman, Goldwater and Hollings scholarships. He now has another title to add to his accomplishments: published author.
April 09, 2021, Chris Woodley
Kimberly Tissot was met with a challenge in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the executive director of Able South Carolina, a Columbia-based organization that provides services to people with disabilities, Tissot had to find a way to continue offering services to those in need.
April 01, 2021, Megan Sexton
Jotaka Eaddy, a 2001 political science graduate and the first Black woman elected as the university’s student body president, is the founder and CEO of a Washington-based social impact consulting firm specializing in strategy development, management consulting, public affairs and community engagement.
March 23, 2021, Carol J.G. Ward
Celebrating Local Heroes with The Concert Truck, a series of 10 events performed aboard a mobile music venue will honor 10 frontline heroes with video vignettes that highlight personal stories of sacrifice and courage and live music composed and performed by music students and alumni.
February 25, 2021, Megan Sexton
Alumnus Regan Freeman is working to help turn a former Ku Klux Klan store in Laurens, South Carolina, into a center for diversity and reconciliation.
February 19, 2021, CJ Lake
In recent years, the University of South Carolina has taken steps to better acknowledge its whole history, knowing that being honest about the past will build a better, more inclusive future. Here is a look back at ways the university has celebrated Carolinians who have contributed to our progress and who will shape our university's future for generations to come.
February 19, 2021, Abe Danaher
Adjusting on the fly to perform impactful work has become a skill for University of South Carolina alumna Kate Mingle, and has put her on a path to supporting a vaccine process with worldwide implications.
February 09, 2021, Rob Schaller
Long before 2020, four South Carolina Law professors began writing books on topics that would come to dominate national conversations.
February 09, 2021, Craig Brandhorst
In 2014, Mohammed Dajani, longtime professor at Jerusalem’s al-Quds University, took 27 Palestinian college students to Auschwitz, the Nazi concentration near Krakow, Poland. He wanted them to confront the Holocaust, which he believes is downplayed in Palestinian schools, and to consider the complicated history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from multiple perspectives. The backlash would cost him his job and endanger his life. It would also embolden his commitment to reconciliation.
January 26, 2021, CJ Lake
Chaz Bear (born Chazwick Bundick), a graduate of the College of Arts and Sciences, has received his first Grammy nomination for a 2020 single by his musical project Toro y Moi.
January 14, 2021, Chris Horn
It’s estimated that the Palmetto State needs more than 800 additional primary care providers in the next 10 years just to keep pace with the needs of its growing and aging population. The College of Nursing is helping to fill the gap by training a new wave of family nurse practitioners for underserved communities.
January 11, 2021, Megan Sexton
An endowed chair in the School of Information Science, an associate professor of higher education who directs the university’s Museum of Education, and a Gamecock football player who proclaimed “’Matter’ is the Minimum” during last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests are the university’s 2021 Social Justice Awards winners.
January 03, 2021, Page Ivey
Scarlett Wilson’s passion for justice is so strong that she is willing to open the process in her office to in-depth scrutiny to ferret out racial disparities in criminal prosecution.
December 14, 2020, Craig Brandhorst
If you think Five Points is only a college bar district, think again. The village down the hill has drawn South Carolina students for more than a century, and not simply to celebrate. And for many who settle in the Capital City after graduation, Five Points remains an integral part of their lives, including Tim Smith, who turned his passion for music into a 40-year career buying and selling it.
December 10, 2020, Craig Brandhorst
If you think Five Points is only a college bar district, think again. The village down the hill has drawn South Carolina students for more than a century, and not simply to celebrate. And for many who settle in the Capital City after graduation, Five Points remains an integral part of their lives, including Don McCallister, whose business Loose Lucy's supports his creative outlets.
December 08, 2020, Craig Brandhorst
If you think Five Points is only a college bar district, think again. The village down the hill has drawn South Carolina students for more than a century, and not simply to celebrate. And for many who settle in the Capital City after college, Five Points remains an integral part of their lives, including Opie Patterson, who reopened one of the district's most iconic nightspots five years ago.
December 04, 2020, Page Ivey
About a dozen UofSC women's basketball players have gone on to success in the WNBA, but even more former Gamecocks have gone on to become successful teachers, doctors, social workers and corporate vice presidents following their playing days. Those who have “gone pro” off the court credit the lessons they learned while student-athletes at UofSC with much of their success.
December 03, 2020, Craig Brandhorst
If you think Five Points is only a college bar district, think again. The village down the hill has drawn South Carolina students for more than a century, and not simply to celebrate. And for many who settle in the Capital City after graduation, Five Points remains an integral part of their lives, including Amy Beth Franks, who worked for the Five Points Association and now owns one of the district's oldest businesses.
December 02, 2020, Craig Brandhorst
If you think Five Points is only a college bar district, think again. The village down the hill has drawn South Carolina students for more than a century, and not simply to celebrate. And for many who settle in the Capital City after graduation, Five Points remains an integral part of their lives, including Richard Burts, who has helped re-imagine many of the district's spaces.
November 25, 2020, Megan Sexton
Catherine Howland will earn her Bachelor of Music degree with an emphasis in music education summa cum laude in December. The School of Music and Honors College grad will start her career as a choir teacher at a middle school in South Carolina starting in January.
November 19, 2020, Allen Wallace
The University of South Carolina’s sport science programs are ranked No. 1 in the United States for the fourth consecutive year in the Global Ranking of Sport Science Schools and Departments.
November 12, 2020, Megan Sexton
Sister Carol Keehan has been a major player in the national health care debate for decades. And while her faith and her training as a nurse predate her time at the University of South Carolina, her education in insurance and finance began 40 years ago on the Columbia campus.
November 12, 2020, Laura Kammerer
Yaw Addei-Boadu sees chances to innovate, well, everywhere — from event rentals to biogas stoves to fashionable emergency alert devices. Now he's one of a growing number of University of South Carolina students and alumni entrepreneurs who are shaking up the startup scene.
November 04, 2020, Craig Brandhorst
Sharon Lee White finished her bachelor’s degree 21 years after she started, then thanks to a UofSC program that she now leads, she continued through to earn her doctorate.
November 03, 2020, Megan Sexton
Trey Capps, a first-generation college student from the small town of Aynor, South Carolina, has returned to his alma mater to pursue his doctorate in history.
October 28, 2020, Megan Sexton
Military-affiliated students play an important role at the University of South Carolina. Veterans and active duty Gamecocks excel in the classroom and beyond, including alumni like Candace Terry who earned her Master of Social Work degree in May and now is the director of governmental affairs for the S.C. Department of Veterans’ Affairs.
October 27, 2020, Page Ivey
The University of South Carolina has the best Navy ROTC program in the country. That recognition comes as no surprise to the midshipmen and alumni of the program that began at Carolina in 1940. And it comes as the result of hard work by a team of staffers and the university’s support for it and other military-affiliated programs on campus.
October 09, 2020
An international food program run by University of South Carolina alumnus David Beasley won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for its efforts to combat hunger in regions facing conflict and hardship and at a time when the coronavirus pandemic has driven millions more people to the brink of starvation.
October 08, 2020, Page Ivey
Kjahna O knew from the time she was a young girl, growing up in Southern California, that she wanted to be involved in football. After earning her master’s degree in the sport and entertainment management program at the University of South Carolina, O earned a spot with the Atlanta Falcons, helping that team find the best college players to round out its roster each year.
September 28, 2020, Craig Brandhorst
Instead of contemplating retirement, longtime Columbia attorney, Board and Trustees member and past president of the American Bar Association William Hubbard is focused on his new tenure as dean of his alma mater’s School of Law.
September 24, 2020, Carol J.G. Ward
University of South Carolina law students Jasmine Caruthers and Anna Catherine Parham say their research on no-knock warrants to assist the lawyers representing Breonna Taylor’s family in a wrongful death lawsuit was enlightening and emotional.
September 23, 2020, Megan Sexton
Julia Fowler, who earned her degree from UofSC as a theater and dance major, has made the move from South Carolina to Broadway to Los Angeles, where she created the Southern Women Channel on YouTube and is a writer on a Netflix television show.
September 15, 2020, Chris Horn
The Mighty Sound of the Southeast — the University of South Carolina's Marching Band — marks its 100th anniversary this fall, and a special tribute is planned on Facebook Sept. 25.
September 13, 2020, Bryan Gentry
Jarad Greene is one of many former UofSC media arts students who have launched successful creative careers thanks in part to the efforts of Hollywood screenwriter-turned-professor Northrop Davis.
September 10, 2020, Page Ivey
As women reach new heights in the political arena, a third-wave of feminism begins to take on persistent inequities beyond gender.
September 08, 2020, Jeff Stensland
The University of South Carolina welcomed almost 7,800 new students to the Columbia campus this fall and the incoming freshman class is more diverse and has more in-state students than any previous class.
August 28, 2020, Page Ivey
As the era of the civil rights movement gave way to the 1970s, the women’s movement took up a new banner that went beyond voting rights — the Equal Rights Amendment.
August 26, 2020, Rebekah Friedman
COVID-19 has meant putting a hold on in-person programming, but Cocky’s Reading Express hasn’t stopped – it’s gone online. Since April, its Virtual Storytime YouTube playlist has featured a line-up of guest readers, including former mascots, Miss Gamecock 2020, and even famed talk show host and University of South Carolina alumna Leeza Gibbons.
August 20, 2020, Page Ivey
South Carolina’s few but dedicated suffragists were no doubt disappointed that the state was not among the first 36 to ratify the 19th amendment, but they almost immediately set about the business of turning their suffrage organizations into education and advocacy groups. In the process, these bold women kicked off the era of “firsts.”
August 20, 2020, Megan Sexton
A podcast-a-thon Aug. 28 will highlight Black excellence at UofSC through conversations with students, alumni and faculty. The live-streamed event will raise money for the One Creed, One Carolina campaign.
August 17, 2020, Carol J.G. Ward
A summer camp for fifth- and sixth grade-students in South Carolina’s Gullah/Geechee community will introduce Gullah/Geechee students to STEM content from their own community and provide opportunities to interact with professionals who look like them, working in the fields of science, technology, engineering or mathematics.
August 11, 2020, Craig Brandhorst
This spring, as COVID-19 spiked in New York City, the nation’s largest metropolitan area became the face of the U.S. pandemic. Nurses from across the U.S. — including UofSC alumni — descended on the region, enduring personal hardship and risking their own health to help stem the tide.
August 08, 2020, Craig Brandhorst
Amelia Wilks describes her high school self as a “follower,” but the University of South Carolina provided the 2020 graduate with a stage, a microphone and the confidence to finish college as a leader.
August 06, 2020, Page Ivey
The month of August marks 100 years since the ratification of the 19th amendment giving women the right to vote in the United States. South Carolina women were a part of the fight for suffrage that started here in the years after the Civil War. Historians and librarians at the University of South Carolina have played a major role in documenting and preserving their stories.
July 29, 2020, Megan Sexton
The first novel by UofSC almuna Rachel Beanland has been called the perfect summer read and is one of Good Morning America's "25 Novels You'll Want to Read This Summer."
July 17, 2020, Megan Sexton
Sarah Schumacher Gams, who earned her undergraduate and master's degrees from the University of South Carolina, is the 2021 South Carolina teacher of the year.
July 14, 2020, Megan Sexton
Robin Waites, who earned her master's in art history from the University of South Carolina, has made her mark at Historic Columbia by rethinking the way the city looks at its history.
June 16, 2020, Megan Sexton
ZVerse, a Columbia company founded by UofSC alumnus John Carrington, has become an important player in the fight to stop the spread of COVID-19, producing millions of face shields for health care workers around the country.
May 28, 2020, Craig Brandhorst
Since graduating from the School of Journalism and Mass Communications in 2012, former Daily Gamecock reporter and editor-in-chief Josh Dawsey has worked some tough beats. None has been tougher than covering the White House since Donald Trump took office — first for Politico, then for The Washington Post.
May 27, 2020, Tenell Felder
UofSC Today reached out to University of South Carolina School of Medicine Columbia alumni Dr. David Ford and Dr. Cedric Rivers for insight into how COVID-19 has impacted health care in South Carolina, as well as how the state might move forward in upcoming months. Both Ford and Rivers work at hospitals in Columbia, treating patients with COVID-19.
May 26, 2020, Carol J.G. Ward
Having an impact on their students and communities, being more inclusive for underserved populations and encouraging a lifelong love of reading and learning are passions shared by three alumnae of the University of South Carolina’s School of Information Science who have been recognized as 2020 Movers & Shakers by Library Journal.
May 21, 2020, Craig Brandhorst
Advertising graduate Sarah Waldrop says it was a day on Greene Street at the annual Give4Garnet fundraiser that will stand out as one of her favorite memories as a Gamecock.
May 18, 2020, Page Ivey
Kassandra Gove, ’09 higher education administration, was elected the fifth mayor of her hometown of Amesbury — population 17,000 — about 40 miles north of Boston on the coast of Massachusetts. Her tenure during the COVID-19 pandemic has been anything but typical.
May 15, 2020, Amanda Hernandez
At Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, former UofSC Capstone Scholar and NOAA Hollings Scholar Erin McParland studies dissolved organic matter in the ocean using sophisticated equipment originally developed for use in the medical field.
May 07, 2020, Carol J.G. Ward
When 89-year-old Richard Mims was just a boy in the 1930s, he remembers playing a game he called “Executive” in the abandoned offices of the Santee River Cypress Lumber Co. in Ferguson near his hometown of Eutawville, South Carolina. The once-thriving mill town now lies underwater, part of the region flooded to create Lake Marion. Mims shared his memories in an oral history recorded by South Carolina Honors College graduate Caldwell Loftis.
May 05, 2020, Tenell Felder
It’s a challenging time to be a nurse. Serving on the front lines of a pandemic, nurses are not only tasked with helping COVID-19 patients — they’re also tasked with doing it in full protective gear and while simultaneously managing non-COVID patients.
April 30, 2020, Craig Brandhorst
Since completing his political science degree in 2015, James Anderson has been working on his resume. He was also instrumental in starting the Alumni Association’s Veterans Alumni Council, which became the association’s newest affinity group in 2016.
April 27, 2020, Craig Brandhorst
A half century ago, against the backdrop of the Vietnam War and seismic shifts in American culture, the campus of the University of South Carolina became a battleground — between students and the administration, between a young generation and the establishment, between radically different worldviews. But the dramatic events of that spring, which came to be known as The Months of May, weren’t strictly destructive. The lessons of that era also changed lives and changed the university itself.
April 24, 2020
Larry Thomas, Head of Texas External Affairs for BP, was selected as the new vice president for communications at the University of South Carolina on Friday, April 24, 2020.
March 17, 2020, Chris Horn
How difficult was it to get admitted to the University of South Carolina in 1897? At that time, regrettably, only white students were admitted. Students also had to know grammar, geography, algebra, history — and Latin and Greek! Admission standards at the university have varied in the past two centuries. The bar for admission is a lot different than it was in 1897, but it guarantees that those who get in are ready to succeed.
March 10, 2020, Marjorie Duffie
Moore School IMBA alumna Sali Christeson has combined her entrepreneurial talent with skills she learned at the University of South Carolina to shake up the women’s workwear world. Argent — her comfortable and bold apparel line — aims to “dropkick the glass ceiling.”
March 03, 2020, Tenell Felder
The College of Social Work is celebrating 50 years of improving the lives of people in South Carolina and beyond. Two alumni and a faculty member are among the many who are continuing that work.
March 01, 2020, Allen Wallace
University of South Carolina Dance Marathon completed its 2019-2020 fundraising year with a total of $1,016,822 raised for Prisma Health Children's Hospital.
February 25, 2020, Craig Brandhorst
Indiana native Kurt Vonnegut, who died in 2007, was one of the country’s most celebrated writers, authoring such classics as Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions. But there was no place devoted to celebrating his work — until UofSC alumna Julia Whitehead got involved. Whitehead founded the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library in 2011. Last year, the museum moved to a new space in downtown Indianapolis.
February 14, 2020, Margaret Gregory
Alumni of the genetic counseling program at University of South Carolina School of Medicine Columbia are making a major impact on their field. More than 25 percent of the nation's genetic counseling training programs have had School of Medicine alumni in leadership roles and five programs were founded by South Carolina graduates.
February 03, 2020, Allen Wallace
A year after Coach Harold White passed away, his memory lives on, thanks in part to a scholarship created in his name.
January 30, 2020, Caleigh McDaniel
Students are putting together a new Carolina yearbook for the first time since 1994. The annual will serve as a coffee table book that captures memories, achievements, traditions and events at UofSC.
January 28, 2020, Aida Rogers
University of South Carolina biology graduate and Honors College alumnus Ed Buchanan used his medical knowledge as a pediatric surgeon to write a children’s book that helps young patients understand what it’s like to go through surgery.
January 27, 2020, Aida Rogers
Meet Blakeley Hoffman Payne. Her mission is to educate everyone to be ‘conscientious consumers’ of artificial intelligence; or if you’re an AI designer, to make it ethical.
January 09, 2020, Page Ivey
A community organizer and equity scholar, a three-degree alumna, an education student leader and a professor with a strong record of mentoring younger colleagues are the recipients of the University of South Carolina’s 2020 Social Justice Awards and will be honored at the annual MLK Commemorative Breakfast Jan. 17 in the Russell House Ballroom.
December 17, 2019, Page Ivey
The DC Gamecocks are serious about celebrating their alma mater. They watch football games and participate in special events related to their days at the University of South Carolina. But, more recently, the alumni club, one of the larger ones outside of South Carolina, took on the goal of endowing a scholarship for students from the D.C. area, including Maryland and Northern Virginia.
December 12, 2019, Megan Sexton
Dara Khaalid earned her degree from the University of South Carolina this month, ready to pursue a career in broadcast journalism. It’s a path she set out on years earlier – when she was just a fifth grader.
December 11, 2019, Margaret Gregory
In 2002, 8-year-old Wanda Gibbs died after being hit by a car at her bus stop. After her tragic passing, the community came together and launched a fundraising initiative to ensure Wanda’s memory would live on. Their efforts established the Wanda Gibbs Scholarship at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Columbia, which was awarded for the first time earlier this year.
December 09, 2019, Page Ivey
Julie Sease has rejoined the College of Pharmacy as senior associate dean and clinical professor. A graduate of the college in 2003, Sease also previously was a faculty member for five years.
December 02, 2019, Chris Horn
Not many professors inspire lofty tribute. Some we forget and others are scarcely remembered. James Cutsinger, a religious studies professor who taught at the university for 37 years, earned the respect and admiration of students for decades while helping them to achieve the most noble of goals: the ability to think.
December 02, 2019, Communications and Public Affairs staff
There was plenty to be proud of at the University of South Carolina in 2019, with accomplishments from the classroom to the research lab to the athletic field.
November 22, 2019, Craig Brandhorst
The University of South Carolina has plenty of good teachers. But some, like senior instructor of retailing Karen Edwards, take their efforts in the classroom to the next level.
November 20, 2019, Margaret Gregory
In South Carolina, a majority of the 46 counties are considered to be medically underserved. The South Carolina Center for Rural and Primary Healthcare is working to improve access to quality care through training programs that are helping grow the health care workforce.
November 12, 2019, Caleigh McDaniel
On Nov. 25, students will gather around a carefully engineered and constructed 20-foot wood-and-paper tiger — and set it aflame. The tradition known as Tiger Burn happens every year during Rivalry Week in advance of the football game between the South Carolina Gamecocks and the Clemson Tigers.
November 11, 2019, Megan Sexton
School librarian Kathy Carroll likes to be in the middle of the action and that’s where she finds herself every day, whether it’s helping students at Westwood High School in Blythewood or advocating for her profession as president-elect of the American Association of School Librarians.
November 07, 2019, Kathryn McPhail
In the 21 years that she’s been a school counselor, Elizabeth Balthazor has worked with children whose emotional – and sometimes physical – wounds run deep. Two-thirds of children report at least one traumatic event by 16 years old, and one in seven children are abused. Before she can help, Balthazor must figure out what’s wrong and that can be hard with children who don’t fully know how to verbalize their trauma.
November 05, 2019
Attending college is a transformative experience, offering students the opportunity to gain the knowledge, skills and experiences that lead them to a fuller life. We spoke to first-generation college students, faculty and alumni to learn about their experiences on campus and beyond.
October 24, 2019, Megan Sexton
Chelsea Stinnett is an assistant research professor in the department of educational studies and is the new director of CarolinaLIFE, an inclusive certificate college program for students with diverse learning needs, such as intellectual disability.
October 24, 2019, Ellen Woodoff
Carlisle Floyd’s "Susannah" is one of the most beloved American operas. Under the direction of Ellen Douglas Schlaefer, the School of Music presents the opera at Drayton Hall Theatre Nov. 1-3.
October 03, 2019, Megan Sexton
University 101 started as a trial course in 1972, following a student riot on campus in 1970. Forty-seven years later, the course is being taught to 80 percent of incoming freshmen, helping them adjust to college life and learn about all the university has to offer.
September 17, 2019, Chris Horn
Gary Gardiner and Sudeep Menachery never met each other during their time at South Carolina. But nearly 30 years later their paths crossed in an emergency room in Fredericksburg, Virginia.