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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA / SOUTH CAROLINA HONORS COLLEGE / SPRING 2019
78 - 2018 Swimmer Realizes His Dream The Chemistry of Mentoring
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POSITIVE PRESCRIPTION
THE UNIVERSE IS STILL ACCELERATING “What’s going on with the Honors College?” I appreciate the question. It’s akin to the polite, “How are you doing?” with the subtext of, “I mean this as a gesture of interest and friendship, but I don’t really want to know about your dog’s health, your sore knee and your distress about the baseball team’s uneven play.” Therefore, I imagine you’re genuinely interested in the Honors College, but you don’t really want to know everything. And it’s hard to know what I ought to tell you. So much is going on. We are growing (2,000-plus students, 37 staff). Our students continue to present higher ACT and SAT scores and grades (which hardly seems possible). We have once again earned the top ranking among public university honors colleges. Our students are studying abroad in record numbers (over 70 percent); getting admitted to excellent law, med and grad schools; accepting really good jobs; and backpacking and rock climbing (well, at least one student did that). The honors universe is accelerating, and we must continue to press ahead as hard as we can to maintain and improve. We are investing heavily in scholarships, facilities and staff. The new wing for the Honors Residence Hall is in the planning stages. We are increasing spending on courses, keeping up with the growth in our student population. And our generous supporters are enhancing our ability to offer competitive scholarships and educational experiences. So I will close this inadequate answer to “What’s going on?” by inviting you to reach out to us for more information, and by mentioning three courses that give you some notion of what’s going on (of the almost 600 we offer a year, this is a very tiny sample).
DEAN STEVEN LYNN
Professor Robert Cox, director of the Walker Institute and an internationally renowned scholar, invited me to his honors class, “Brexit and the Trade Wars.” A couple of Boeing executives were there. (Wow.) Professor Michael Dickson, former chair of the philosophy department who specializes in quantum theory, is teaching “Philosophy of Music,” asking “How and why does music convey meaning?” (How indeed?) Professor Jack Goldsmith, who teaches cell biology and anatomy in the School of Medicine, is again teaching his famous “Chemistry of Food” course, which introduces the “chemistry-averse” to atomic and microscopic levels of food and cooking. (Brilliant.) The top ranking is wonderful, and maintaining it is certainly our goal. But the reason we’re here? That would be the whole experience of being in the Honors College, especially being in those classrooms together, with each other. And that’s a whole lot going on.
Steven Lynn Dean, Louise Fry Scudder Professor South Carolina Honors College
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CONTENTS SPRING 2019
IN THIS ISSUE
Steven Lynn / Dean AÏda Rogers / Managing Editor / Writer Ryan Dawkins / Communications Coordinator
4 / BEAUTIFUL AND LASTING
Honors College Partnership Board Marshall Winn Chairman
Catherine Heigel Vice Chairwoman
Roger Barnette Jay Cain Dan D’Alberto Bill Duncan Lori Clos Fisher Kevin Hall Steve Hibbard
Anita Hood, M.D. Eddie Jones Ben Rex Thomas Scott Jacob Shuford Sherri Timmons Jeff Vinzani
New scholarship honors a founding dean and helps UofSC swimmer realize his dream.
6 / YOU CAN TAKE THE PROFESSOR OUT OF THE CLASSROOM, BUT . . . Those fascinating honors professors are still fascinating, even—maybe especially—in retirement.
8 / POSITIVE PRESCRIPTION A pediatric plastic surgeon finds a new way to restore children inside and out.
Stay Connected University Home Page: sc.edu SCHC Home Page: sc.edu/HonorsCollege
11 / NOTHING LIKE THE REAL THING
Facebook: facebook.com/SCHonorsCollege Twitter: twitter.com/SCHonorsCollege LinkedIn: South Carolina Honors College Alumni Instagram: schonorscollege
BARSC MD students get their eyes opened shadowing physicians in Houston.
12 / HOMECOMING 2018: HONORING 40 YEARS OF FRIENDSHIP
About the cover: Dr. Edward Buchanan is
transforming children's lives in Texas. Photo courtesy of Texas Children's Hospital.
13 / ALUMNI NEWS
Communications and Public Affairs
15 / THANKS TO A PROFESSOR
The University of South Carolina is an equal opportunity institution. 19-11036 5/19
Scott Goode made chemistry great.
IN MEMORIAM ROBERT C. McNAIR
PENNY STAMPS
In 2018, we lost two great champions of education and benefactors to the university: Robert C. McNair and Penny Stamps. May their legacies of service continue in the years to follow. McNair photo courtesy of Houston Texans
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HONORS NEWS
beautiful and
LASTING New scholarship honors a founding dean and helps UofSC swimmer realize his dream
When word got out in 2013 that Peter Sederberg had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, a wave of dismay rippled across the South Carolina Honors College community. Sederberg did a lot for the university during his 36 years at South Carolina — taught political science, wrote numerous books and articles — but it was his work with the Honors College that was the “centerpiece” of his career, says Jan Love, his wife. To honor her husband, she created the Peter C. Sederberg Endowed Scholarship Fund. “He found extraordinary joy and energy in engaging the wonderfully creative faculty and students in the college,” says Love, dean of Emory University’s Candler School of Theology.
"When I was looking at colleges and swim teams, I didn't want to be one of the fastest guys. I wanted to walk on and move up and claim my spot and earn points for the team — eventually." – Caleb Tosh
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Caleb Tosh is the scholarship’s first recipient and a member of South Carolina’s swim team. A chemical engineering senior from Jacksonville, Florida, Tosh was recovering from four surgeries last year when he learned his Lieber and Cooper scholarships were expiring. That realization was almost as upsetting as the idea he might not achieve the goal he’d set when he was 10 years old — to compete in the 2020 Olympic Trials in Omaha, Nebraska. Thanks to the Sederberg scholarship, Tosh is completing his difficult major without having to worry about financial instability. After graduation in May, Tosh plans to work in Columbia, which will allow him to continue training with the South Carolina swim team. “Going into the workforce next year, I was glad to find something to help me get through school,” he says of the Sederberg scholarship. Sederberg, along with the late Bill Mould, was a founding dean of the Honors College and served as dean for 11 years. “Peter jokes that he and Bill Mould spent their careers dreaming a great dream of the SCHC and then making it come true,” Love says. “My gift is intended to honor Peter’s career-long passion and creative spirit in a way that helps students. I hope it will be a permanent reminder of Peter’s remarkable work." Although Tosh has modest expectations for the Olympic Trials, he says that the competition is something he always wanted to participate in. In February, he broke the university record for the 100-yard backstroke and has already swam faster than the qualifying times to make the Olympic Trials. And, as Sederberg and Mould demonstrated, dreams sometimes do come true.
HONORS NEWS
FORMER SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM DIRECTOR JOINS HONORS COLLEGE AS ASSOCIATE DEAN Andrea Tanner has been in her new role as associate dean of the South Carolina Honors College since January — filling the vacancy left by Ed Munn Sanchez — but the seasoned educator is no stranger to working with honors students. “I’ve led four study abroad courses, the most recent one was a service-learning experience in Malawi, Africa,” Tanner says. “I’m looking forward to helping maintain and grow our Beyond the Classroom experiences and, hopefully, developing and leading a course myself." During her time at the university, which spans nearly two decades, Tanner has taught several courses in the Honors College and served as a senior thesis mentor. Her research expertise in media communication of health information and her passion for experiential learning have impacted dozens of honors students. “The Honors College is special because of our students’ drive to succeed and make a difference in their community,” she says. “It’s also the commitment of our staff and faculty to develop unique and impactful experiences in and out of the classroom.”
forward to working with students and is excited for the opportunity. “My faculty home is the School of Journalism and Mass Communications,” she says. “I served as the director of the School of Journalism and Mass Communications and associate dean in the College of Information and Communications from 2015-2018. I am also a founding member and student advisor for South Carolina's interdisciplinary certificate of graduate study in health communication.” As the university grows, the Honors College continues to flourish and achieve at an exceptional rate. Tanner hopes to continue that growth and provide the same level of service that students and alumni have come to expect. “Each semester, we teach nearly 600 courses that are taught by some of the best faculty from across our campus,” she says. “However, I think there are many more faculty and staff who can contribute to the mission of our college. I plan to use my communication background to promote what we do and develop new campus partnerships in research, teaching and service.”
SCHOLARSHIP FUND MEMORIALIZES FORMER DEAN So many SCHC alumni can credit their success to the late Bill Mould. To pay his generosity forward, alumni are invited to contribute to the William A. Mould Endowed Scholarship Fund. The scholarship fund was established by his family. Not only did he help establish the Honors College, but he helped shape the student experience by creating a senior thesis as a requirement for graduation and encouraging students to study abroad. His unwavering support continued when he retired to Washington, D.C., where he served as the Washington Semester director for 10 years. To donate to the William A. Mould Endowed Scholarship Fund, visit www.sc.edu/honors or call 803-777-0620.
Tanner has deep ties to the university community and says as associate dean she most looks
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FACULTY HIGHLIGHT
Purnima Mishra, Nawin Mishra and Milind Kuchur in deep discussion — nothing new for professors.
YOU CAN TAKE THE PROFESSOR OUT OF THE CLASSROOM, BUT . . .
The professors you loved not only shape the lives of the students they teach, they continue to impact our community long after they leave They may have retired from the Honors College, but that doesn’t mean they’re retiring from life. Anything but. At a faculty reunion last fall to celebrate the college’s 40th anniversary, we learned what some of them are doing now. Not surprisingly, their pursuits are as interesting as they are. Here’s a glance:
“I’m trying to write a memoir about growing up in the World War II environment of Mobile, Alabama,” says Robert Weir, a history professor who focused on Colonial and Revolutionary America. Its working title: My Time. Physics professor Ron Edge and his colleague, Charles Poole, published their book in 2015. God, Yes or No: Physics, Faith and Skepticism reflects just one of Edge’s interests. He plays folk music on his accordion at Columbia’s Soda City street market on Saturdays. During the summer, he works with children on science topics at his church. Sociology professor Paul Higgins also works with children, but throughout the year. “It is an utter delight,” he says of his Monday-Friday volunteer work teaching kindergartners at a
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Columbia elementary school. “Part of the challenge is helping them become the wonderful learners they can become,” he says, describing activities he develops to help with language and math skills. “I get hugs from these kids, which is not what I got from college kids.” As they preached to their students, honors professors know the value of being well-rounded and having fun. Marine science professors Bob Fuller and Steve Stancyk are visiting baseball parks across the country. Physics professor Dan Overcash built two telescopes and is repairing another. He also sings bass in his church choir and became a Clemson master gardener. Religion professor Kevin Lewis is traveling with his wife, Becky Wingard Lewis, who organizes group tours of Europe. English and computer science professor Bob Oakman and his wife Betsy also are traveling, sometimes making friends in one country and traveling with them in another. Thirty-one years ago, when the Oakmans were in Germany and the Lewises in Poland, the couples traveled to Czechoslovakia together, behind the Iron Curtain before it fell. “Save your money and go,” Oakman says.
FACULTY HIGHLIGHT
So it seems that once you’re a professor, you’re always a professor in some sense. At King’s College in London, geography professor Julian Minghi lectures on international boundaries in the master’s program. More locally — at Richland Library — countless patrons have benefited from the free discussion groups led by retired SCHC faculty. Philosophy professor Jerald Wallulis already has conducted three series. His students may smile at their titles: “Socrates: Educator, Critic, Gadfly, Philosopher” and “Kierkegaard, Critic of Modern Life and First Existentialist.” English professors George Geckle and Keen Butterworth also share their literary knowledge at the library — Geckle in the fall, Butterworth in the spring. “It’s a way to keep busy and intellectually active,” says Geckle, ticking off the plays by Shakespeare and Miller he’s discussed and the novels by Woolf, Atwood and Sparks, among others. He’s been leading those discussions since 2011. “And it’s fun.” Anyone who took Jim Stiver’s "The American Curmudgeon" course will be glad to know he’s still teaching it, although it’s just one course every spring. He’s added Kurt Vonnegut and Mark Twain to the roster of “dead Americans” he covers in the cross-disciplinary course he created as philosophy professor and SCHC assistant dean. Off campus, Stiver is president of the Columbia Civitan Club and board member of the Bridgepointe Condominium Association. “Travel destinations (with his wife Marta) are to see grandchildren in their various haunts,” he says, then lobs his punchline. “As a bonus, we get to see our children.”
Bob Oakman and Chris Carlton
Indeed, grandchildren are a main theme when it comes to SCHC retired faculty. That’s true as well for Patsy Tanner, for many the face of the Honors College. Having served a few months short of 40 years, starting as secretary and retiring in 2012 as business manager, Tanner now plays tennis three times a week and mahjong on Wednesdays. But her favorite times are with her four grandchildren. “They are my heart,” she says.
Part of the challenge is helping them become the wonderful learners they can become. Still, when budget manager Rhonda Gibson unexpectedly passed away in 2016, Tanner was back to help until a full-time replacement could be found. She had no problem returning to work at the SCHC and the reason was simple, “I loved my time there.”
What two words did most faculty use to describe what they do in retirement? "I read."
Jim Burns, Steven Lynn, George Geckle, Lucille Mould, Jim Stiver, Patsy Tanner
Allen Bushong and Gordon Smith
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POSITIVE PRESCRIPTION
EDWARD BUCHANAN PLASTIC SURGEON, CHILDREN'S AUTHOR
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POSITIVE PRESCRIPTION
positive
PRESCRIPTION
A pediatric plastic surgeon finds a new way to restore children inside and out Consider Hector the black cat. Ultra-cool, with a red bandana tied around his head, Hector is always there with a bit of helpful wisdom and a friendly arm to throw around the shoulders of a disheartened, lonely buddy. Now consider Edward Buchanan, M.D. He, too, is always there — at the bedside, in the office, in surgery — to repair and help heal children with long-term facial deformities. He may not be wearing a red bandana, but as a pediatric and craniofacial surgeon, he knows his young patients need helpful wisdom and a friendly touch. It’s not easy, at any age, to have a cleft lip and palate or any kind of congenital, traumatic or oncologic malformation, especially on the face, especially when you’re a child. What Buchanan’s patients needed — and their families too — was something he couldn’t give them through medicine and surgery. They needed personal resilience and a positive perspective. Those attributes can vanquish depression, social isolation and bullying. But oh, how to tell children that in a way they could understand? When he realized he couldn’t, he invented characters who could. And thus was born Hector the black cat, Prickly Pear, Happy Hoglet, Pit Bully and Fenny Fox — all stars of Buchanan’s Mental Ninja series of storybooks.
“I felt producing something that could be read and shared with family members in repetition would
be a better way to facilitate these conversations,” says Buchanan, '00 biology. “Engaging children with lessons in a narrative fashion with interesting and well-constructed characters would be another way to grab their attention and provide for a better way to introduce these concepts.” Take The Tale of Fenny Fox. Yellow, with very prominent ears, Fenny doesn’t look like the happier, small-eared red foxes at his school. He runs away from Hector, who tries to befriend him, and cries alone in the cafeteria. Then Hector introduces him to Harry, a rabbit with huge ears. Harry loves his ears “because they help me hear things better than anyone.” Harry’s surprising attitude helps Fenny realize that he, too, can hear really well.
POSITIVE PRESCRIPTION
The website opens with a colorful image of Hector — Buchanan’s brother Matthew created all the illustrations — and includes invitations for readers to submit their own stories and photos of becoming mental ninjas. It also includes stories from around the world of people who have overcome physical difficulties through their positive thinking. Readers are responding to the concept. “As a parent who has prepared three children to undergo surgeries in early childhood, I would have loved to have had this book to read to them to help them overcome their worries and concerns,” wrote one in an online review. “The message about turning upsetting or difficult things that happen into a positive, and learning to focus on the good in situations is one that all children can benefit from, no matter the circumstances.”
After talking to Ollie the Octopus, who confides how ashamed he was to have eight arms until he realized how convenient it was to have more than two, Fenny concludes he needs to change his mind about his ears. “He decided then and there that he would not let these feelings make him sad anymore,” Buchanan writes.
The message about turning upsetting or difficult things that happen into a positive, and learning to focus on the good in situations is one that all children can benefit from, no matter the circumstances. By the end of the book, a very satisfied-looking Fenny Fox is lounging on a beach chair, umbrella drink in hand, ears spread wide. He’s attained what his creator wanted — control over his emotions, resilience and a positive outlook. In short, he’s become a mental ninja. At mentalninja.org, Buchanan explains mental ninjas practice benevolence, righteousness, loyalty and fidelity — and because they ignore external negativity, they live their best lives. Illustrations courtesy of Matthew Buchanan
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Writing children’s books wasn’t on Buchanan’s list of things to do. He’d been fascinated with biology, human physiology and surgery since his earliest science classes. Now chief of plastic surgery at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, Buchanan says helping babies and children is the best part of his job. “Seeing them grow up and live normal lives is a true gift that fills me with a tremendous sense of meaning and purpose.” Though he was born and grew up in Maryland, Buchanan considers South Carolina home. He misses the food and the landscape, but most of all the people. “It’s the interaction,” he says. “The people of South Carolina have a particular type of kindness that is hard to explain. It is welcoming and calming. Strangers smile at you on the street and ask you how your day is. I took this for granted living in Columbia and Charleston, but learned how important it was during my later adventures. I have taken it with me always and try to incorporate it in my daily dealings.” Hmmm. Maybe there’s just a little bit of Hector the black cat in Dr. Edward Buchanan.
POSITIVE PRESCRIPTION
Alexandra Tamura, Ashley Fellers and Noah Hyduke will enter the University of South Carolina School of Medicine in Columbia this fall.
NOTHING LIKE THE REAL THING BARSC MD students get their eyes opened shadowing physicians in Houston
They watched a surgeon spend six hours straightening the spine of a little girl with severe scoliosis and cerebral palsy. They noticed how quickly children get up and walk around after eye surgery. And they saw first-hand how Dr. Ed Buchanan works with other specialists to make sure his patients with facial deformities get the most comprehensive care they can. “His clinic is very innovative,” says Noah Hyduke, one of three BARSC MD seniors who spent five days in December shadowing Buchanan at Texas Children’s Hospital, where he’s been chief of plastic surgery since 2018. Hyduke clicks the specialties off his fingers, “Behavioral psychologist, speech therapist, orthodontist, genetic counselor.” “And feeding specialist for infants,” finishes Ashley Fellers, describing how parents who know their unborn child will have cleft lip and palate also see Buchanan and his colleagues. Fellers, Hyduke and Alexandra Tamura observed how the specialists come to the patient to examine them individually before conferring together at the end. After a campus talk Buchanan made to honors pre-med students last fall, he said he'd be glad to host them at the hospital. For the students, watching physicians work in real time was unforgettable. “I’ve always wanted to work with kids, so looking at pediatrics in a surgical context was amazing,” says Tamura, of Simpsonville, South Carolina. “It really showed me how many specialties there are and what day-to-day life is like as a surgical resident.”
While the students are unsure exactly which paths in medicine they’ll follow, their time in Houston reminded them why they wanted to be physicians in the first place. Fellers, for example, envisions advocating for better rural health care as a physician. “Experiences like this translate into letting you see the impact you’re going to have later on in your career," says Fellers, who became interested in medicine when she contracted Dengue fever as a middle schooler living in Costa Rica. Hyduke, from Pennsylvania, wants to influence public policy, particularly in the South. Professor Mindi Spencer’s "Southern Discomfort" course woke him up to the region’s health care disparities. “This trip reignited my passion,” he says. As for Buchanan, he’s learned after almost 20 years that he can’t solve every medical problem that comes his way. “That’s the hardest part to deal with,” he says. “Luckily, I am heavily invested in innovation in medicine and believe these types of patients change the rest of the world because they drive us to find a better way.” Spoken like a true Honors College graduate. “The learning environment at UofSC, and specifically in the Honors College, empowered students to understand they were responsible for pushing the frontiers of human understanding forward,” Buchanan says. “It was a powerful lesson because it taught us to prepare ourselves for a life of action — the type of action that improves the world and contributes to the success of our society.”
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HOMECOMING
Homecoming 2018: Honoring 40 years of friendship
Last October, about 160 people sipped mimosas and Starbucks and feasted on eggs, bacon and friendship during homecoming weekend to celebrate 40 years of the South Carolina Honors College. Glasses were raised to Mary Lohman-Vargas, recipient of the Distinguished Honors Alumni Award, and Jeet Guram, recipient of the Distinguished Honors Young Alumni Award. Lohman-Vargas, a McNair Scholar who graduated in 2007 with a double major in exercise science and Spanish, also earned master’s degrees from South Carolina in social work and public health. For seven years she served as executive director of Girls on the Run Columbia. Currently she works as the Recovery Grants and Finance Manager at the South Carolina Emergency Management Division in Columbia. “I’m so grateful for the amazing relationships I’ve made here, and to be part of a community of smart, talented people who hold each other up when we’re struggling,” Lohman-Vargas said.
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Guram, ’10 BARSC, was a Carolina Scholar and recipient of the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award. He earned an M.D. and MBA from Harvard. Guram worked as an associate at McKinsey and Co., a global management company, and now is senior advisor to the administrator at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid in Washington, D.C. In 2018 he was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 for law and policy. “I’m excited to be home with my family with me,” he said, noting that his family members are all South Carolina alumni. “Special and supportive” is how he described the college. “One name that comes up is Jan Smoak. She really represents the best of what the Honors College is.”
Homecoming 2019 is Nov. 1-2. To nominate a classmate for an Honors College alumni award, visit sc.edu/honors. Deadline is July 1.
ALUMNI NEWS
ALUMNINEWS 1980 Sherry Nist Corey, ‘86, married Scott Corey on May 6, 2018. Scott is a graduate of the University of Florida. They live in Vero Beach, Florida. Gene Godbold, ‘89, began working with Signature Science in April 2018 on the FunGCAT program of the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity to reduce the threat posed by biologically engineered microbes and improve the performance of human DNA forensic databases. He is married to Kristen H. Godbold, ’89.
1990
Catherine Binuya, ’93, completed her Ed.D. in student affairs leadership from the University of Georgia in 2016. She is associate vice president for student affairs at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta.
Heather Riley Gleaton, ’93, owns and manages Roper Mountain Animal Hospital in Greenville. She competed on American Ninja Warrior in 2017 and was a finalist in the National Ninja League last year. Mary Lohman-Vargas, ’07, ’12 MPH, won the 2018 Distinguished Honors Alumni Award. She is the recovery grants and finance manager at the South Carolina Emergency Management Division in Columbia. Stephen Michael Brown, APR, ‘95, was named president of Atlanta-based Cookerly Public Relations. Brown joined Cookerly in 2015 and served as executive vice president and chief innovation officer. In 2017 he earned Public Relations Society of America’s highest honor with induction into the Order of the Phoenix. He was named to the Georgia PRSA Hall of Fame.
2010 Marin Mueller Duby, ’10, will graduate with an MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business in June. After graduation, she’ll work for The Boston Consulting Group in Dallas, Texas.
2000 William Vigen, ’06, and his wife Leslie welcomed twin daughters, Avery and Olivia, May 20, 2018. They live in Washington, D.C.
Jeet Guram, ’10, won the 2018 Distinguished Honors Young Alumni Award. He is senior advisor to the administrator at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in Washington, D.C.
Daniel Peach, ’10, graduated from the MBA program at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, in 2018. As a retail digitization lead at Google, he is responsible
Jennifer Leaphart, ’14, was admitted to the South Carolina Bar in December. She practices law in New York and is employed as an associate in the Tax Group
for developing tools and training small and mediumsized retailers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He lives in London.
at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP in New York City. She and her husband, Hunter Lee (‘13, Darla Moore School of Business) were married in November.
Morgan Hagerty, ’11, earned a master’s degree in public health focusing on policy management from Columbia University in 2014. She lives and works in Denver, Colorado, at an electric co-operative as a research dispatch and trading specialist. William Cole Franks, ’13, received the 2019 Distinguished Scholarly Achievement Award of the Rutgers School of Graduate Studies, which recognizes a student who demonstrates the highest level of academic excellence and achievement. Franks completed a doctorate in mathematics in May and will begin a three-year postdoctoral instructorship at MIT this fall. Kelley Freeman, ’13, was promoted to statewide field manager for NARAL ProChoice Ohio in December 2018. She and her husband welcomed a baby in August 2017.
Pierce Owen, ’14, ’16 MBA, was married on August 19, 2018 in Yorkshire, England. He and his wife live in Boston, where she works in the Department of Physics at Harvard University studying string theory. He works as a principal analyst at ABI Research.
Amanda Bennett, ’15, is a project assistant at Earth Charter International Secretariat and the Center for Sustainable Development at UPEACE in Costa Rica.
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HONORS NEWS
ALUMNINEWS (continued) Shannon Vogan Lipham, ’15, is an associate attorney at Nexsen Pruet in Columbia. Lorenzo Montali, ’15, worked for Google’s Media Lab. In April 2018 he accepted a position in London on the YouTube Ads marketing team. Andrew Smith, ’15, graduated from the University of Alabama School of Law in May 2018 and was admitted to the South Carolina Bar in November. He is a prosecutor with the South Carolina 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office. He and Abbey Kerner, ’15, married in April.
HONORS COLLEGE JUNIOR ELECTED
STUDENT BODY PRESIDENT For the third consecutive year, an SCHC student has been elected student body president. Luke Rankin, a political science junior from Horry County, will lead student government for the 2019-20 school year. Rankin plans to attend law school and is interested in civil litiga-
Abbey O’Brien, ’16, began a new job as the morning traffic anchor at WCSC in Charleston. She also reports on road and infrastructure stories. Maggie Barrett, ’17, started at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine in the fall of 2018.
tion, corporate and intellectual property law.
Patrick Green, ’17, started working as an investigative analyst at T&M Protection Resources, an organization that deals with security, business intelligence and litigation. He works with health care fraud cases, forensic accounting and social media surveillance. Meredith Rawlings, ’17, is head coach at Body & Soul Bootcamp, an online fitness company she founded to empower college and young professional women to love their bodies, stop chronic dieting and get in the best shape of their lives. Brook Troxell, ’17, is an education program supervisor at the Oklahoma City Zoo. Rebecca Kamer, ’18, is working as a project and support specialist at Brown-Forman Co. in Louisville, Kentucky. Grace Whitbeck Ray, ’18, married Joshua Ray on Jan. 7.
As a candidate, Rankin advocated for a 9/11 memorial event at Williams-Brice Stadium to benefit student veterans. He also wants to expand Stigma Free USC, student government’s mental health awareness program, throughout the state by partnering with other colleges.
Rankin follows Taylor Wright, president in 2018-19, and Ross Lordo, president in 2017-18.
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AVERY WILKS '15 Journalism
Journalist of the Year
South Carolina Press Association The State Newspaper
FACULTY HIGHLIGHT
THANKS TO A PROFESSOR
SCOTT GOODE
Goode made chemistry great
Almost 50 years on, Scott Goode still remembers how stressful it was to be a college student. Waiting for test scores was the worst. “I was a basket case,” the retired chemistry professor says. “I needed to know what I got so I could go on.” That memory is why his students got their scores on the same day of the test, always on Friday so they wouldn’t fret over the weekend. And why study sessions were held Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. And why classes started with interesting, sometimes random, “news of the day” announcements ranging from an unexpected Gamecock victory to “it’s time to study for the test.” Class with Goode was never boring. “He was always available and willing to help with a smile, regardless of the topic,” says Michael Blew, ‘08 nursing, who spent his entire undergraduate career in Goode’s lab. “Despite not being a chemistry major, I was always included, and he worked with me to make sure I was part of the team.” A nurse practitioner manager at Houston Methodist Baytown, Blew says the four years with Goode are paying off. “He was very influential on the way I practice my career, and through my research and evidence-based practice, he has influenced my patients and their positive outcomes as well.”
In the Honors College, Goode taught 912 students in 28 semesters, wrote 539 letters of recommendation, directed 21 theses and served 19 years on the Goldwater committee. Impressive numbers, yes, but they don’t get at the heart of the man. Jana Liese, a biochemistry and molecular biology junior, has Goode to thank for advising her successful Goldwater application and calls him “a phenomenal” professor. “His feedback on my personal research proposal allowed me to see my weaknesses as a scientific writer and work to fix them,” Liese says. “I believe he is responsible for a great deal of my success.” For his part, Goode learned to wait until the end of the semester to tell students about the greatest gift his course offered. “I didn’t tell them at the beginning because they would never believe it, but the best thing they take from class is not the ability to balance equations, but the lifelong relationships,” he says. “I remember telling them this, and two girls, quiz partners throughout the semester, reached out and grasped each other’s hands under the desk.”
Scott Goode says he misses teaching but not the sleepless nights before exams when he would worry if the test was too hard, too easy, or if students had learned the material.
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Nonprofit Organization U.S. Postage PAID Permit #766 Columbia, SC
South Carolina Honors College Columbia, SC 29208
I AM SOUTH CAROLINA. ADRIANA BOWMAN Economics Senior South Carolina Honors College
I am made of steadfast determination. At South Carolina, we believe every individual has infinite potential to shape the future of our changing world. Thanks to a hard-earned Boren Scholarship, economics senior Adriana Bowman is studying Hindi this year in Jaipur and Bangalore, India. Bowman, an Opportunity Scholar from Lexington, South Carolina, plans to put her innate tenacity to good use in graduate school, where her Pickering Fellowship will support her as she prepares for a career in the U.S. Foreign Service. We are proud that those who leave our gates become the beacons of our future.