2016 Archive

Year end review

Twenty-Sixteen: By the Letters

December 15, 2016, USC Times

A is for alphabet, at least according to USC Times. To help close out 2016, the University of South Carolina’s monthly magazine for faculty and staff devoted its entire December issue to the ABCs of 2016 — with each letter representing a different accomplishment, announcement or notable arrival from the past year.

katie schwichtenberg

DC at 25: Katie Schwichtenberg, senior

December 12, 2016, Craig Brandhorst

The Washington Semester Program celebrates its 25th anniversary of providing full-time, semester-long internships at congressional offices, federal agencies, nonprofits and other D.C.-based organizations. In our series of stories talking to alumni and current participants in the program, we talk to Katie Schwichtenberg, a senior political science and history major.

WWII platoon

The day everything changed

December 06, 2016, Chris Horn

Franklin D. Roosevelt called it “a date which will live in infamy” — Dec. 7, 1941, the day Japan attacked the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor, dragging America into a cataclysmic world war and dramatically altering the course of history. For USC students like Jim Pearce, the event had personal ramifications, as the immediate effect of the Sunday morning attack changed the mood on campus from pre-holiday gaiety to frenetic patriotism.

Meghan Hickman

DC at 25: Meghan Hickman, alumna

December 05, 2016, Craig Brandhorst

The Washington Semester Program celebrates its 25th anniversary of providing full-time, semester-long internships at congressional offices, federal agencies, nonprofits and other D.C.-based organizations. In the third of our series of stories talking to alumni and current participants in the program, we talk to program alumna Meghan Hickman, executive director of Engenuity SC.

Greg Ferrante

DC at 25: Greg Ferrante, alumnus

November 29, 2016, Craig Brandhorst

The Washington Semester Program celebrates its 25th anniversary of providing full-time, semester-long internships at congressional offices, federal agencies, nonprofits and other D.C.-based organizations. In the second of our series of stories talking to alumni and current participants in the program, we talk to program alumnus Greg Ferrante, Chief financial officer, Global Policy and Advocacy Division, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; chair of the audit and finance committee of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Brittany VanderBeek

A revolutionary rivalry

November 18, 2016, Jo Jo Winkelmann

Graduate business student Brittany VanderBeek was put on a project of epic proportions during her internship at Michelin: Bring Carolina and Clemson students together to help reduce waste at a tire manufacturer. Next semester, the first joint class of students will begin working on solutions thanks to VanderBeek's hard work.

DC semester

DC at 25: Seth Ismail, junior

November 08, 2016, Craig Brandhorst

The Washington Semester Program celebrates its 25th anniversary of providing full-time, semester-long internships at congressional offices, federal agencies, nonprofits and other D.C.-based organizations. In the first of our series of stories talking to alumni and current participants in the program, we talk to Seth Ismail, a junior in economics and global supply chain management.

Elise Partin

City of Cayce's first female mayor teaches course on civic engagement

November 08, 2016, Dan Cook

Elise Partin is not only an an adjunct professor in the Arnold School of Public Health — she’s also the first female mayor of Cayce. This fall, she’s teaching an Honors College course called “Demystifying Elected Office.” The goal is to teach students exactly what’s involved in the process of running for and holding an elected position.

Sara Schwebel has edited and published a critical edition of

English professor, students shed new light on 1960 children's classic

October 19, 2016, Lynn Schutte

Scott O’Dell’s 1960 book “Island of the Blue Dolphins” has been a classroom favorite, despite some potentially controversial elements. The University of South Carolina’s Sara Schwebel, associate professor of English, is working to help explain that controversy. With the help of students, Schwebel has edited and published a critical edition of the book, complete with an introduction and essays to help place the narrative in its correct historical and cultural context.

smithwick

PASOs: Step by step

September 20, 2016, Craig Brandhorst

Julie Smithwick began laying the groundwork for PASOs as part of a field placement project for her master’s in social work in 2005. Now based at the Arnold School of Public Health, the statewide organization provides health care education and resource navigation to 8,500 Latinos a year and boasts a budget of $1.3 million.

Greg Stuart

Students perform world premiere in New York City

September 12, 2016, Dan Cook

Imagine the stakes when you enroll in an experimental music class and it turns out that you’ll not only be listening to challenging sounds, but actually performing such pieces yourself. Not only that, but performing them in New York City just one month into the semester as part of a world premiere.

Be the match

Donating a part of yourself

September 09, 2016, Adena Rice

The University of South Carolina’s chapter of Be The Match recruited the most people for the bone marrow registry of any campus in the U.S. The UofSC organization registered 1,412 people in the 2015-16 school year, almost twice as many as second-place University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, which had 753 registrants. Clemson University was fifth with 535 registrants.

Andrew Pingitore and Julia Pribyl

Losing green up the stack

September 01, 2016, Steven Powell

With as much as $175,000 in potential annual savings for just one building on campus, a group of graduate students kicked off an energy conservation initiative in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry last week. It draws attention to how much energy is literally blown out of ventilation stacks every year by a common laboratory fixture: the fume hood.

kids

Preparing for the Peace Corps

August 30, 2016, Erin Mikes

Starting this fall, University of South Carolina students interested in Peace Corps service will be able to participate in a program that will help prepare them for international fieldwork. Housed in the Study Abroad Office, the Peace Corps Prep program will coincide with students’ studies, while enhancing their foreign language skills, giving them hands-on experience and providing them with an idea of possibilities for post-graduation.

student organization fair

Get involved with something new

August 18, 2016, Adena Rice

A new school year brings opportunities for students to meet people with shared passions and interests. The Student Organization Fair will be held Aug. 24 on Greene Street, giving students the chance to find a group that fits them best. And even with over 400 organizations at this university, new organizations are formed every year. Here are 15 of the university’s newest organizations.

ultrasound

An insider view

August 17, 2016, Chris Horn

From the start of their medical studies, students in the School of Medicine in Columbia begin learning to use ultrasound, which can image all major organs, as well as joints and blood vessels, at the bedside. It’s one of the school’s distinctions, being the first institution in the nation to integrate ultrasound instruction into all four years of its curriculum.

Michael Parks

Sitting down with the student body president

July 28, 2016, Adena Rice

Student body president and Lexington, S.C., native, Michael Parks, has been busy this summer working to make this school year better than the last. We sat down with Parks and he discussed his perspective on issues affecting the school as well as his and student government’s progress and plans so far.

eboni nelson

Engineering equality

July 18, 2016

The legal profession has been called one of the least diverse in the country. And while countless attempts have been made within the legal industry to ameliorate the problem, University of South Carolina School of Law professor Eboni Nelson believes the key to real change starts with law schools.

4k for cancer

Pair of Gamecocks run across country to raise money for cancer victims

July 12, 2016, John Brunelli

Running while helping others proved to be the perfect combination for how two Gamecocks are spending their summer. Bailey Wilhelm and Jack Bowling are part of the Ulman Cancer Fund's 4K for Cancer. The pair are running the 4,000 miles from San Francisco to Baltimore to raise money to help young cancer victims pay for treatment.

pillars

Pillars put students on the path to leadership

July 07, 2016, Augusta Bauknight

For Ross Lordo, the decision to attend the Pillars for Carolina orientation program before his freshman year set him on the path to success. Pillars for Carolina offers first-year students an opportunity to learn about the Carolina community, create friendships with future classmates, and participate in the university’s traditions while also learning about leadership skills and service.

Allison Manuel

Targeting diabetes

June 17, 2016, Steven Powell

Working in Norma Frizzell’s laboratory in the School of Medicine, doctoral student Allison Manuel is getting down to brass tacks with a chronic disease that afflicts some 30 million Americans. Her research is resolving details of a detrimental cellular consequence of diabetes that was discovered here at the University of South Carolina: an indiscriminate modification of proteins that can overwhelm a cell’s ability to function properly.

costa rica

Carolina Core abroad

June 15, 2016, Adena Rice

Carolina Core classes traditionally stay within four walls at University of South Carolina. However a Maymester study abroad trip to Costa Rica not only taught the students about environmental science 101, but also expanded their knowledge beyond the textbook and into a personal understanding of the culture around them.

Sophie Keyes

Student puts disability access center stage

June 10, 2016, Erin Mikes

Broadcast journalism major Sophie Keyes will place the public need for greater disability access center stage when she competes in the Miss South Carolina pageant in late June. Inspired by her father’s work and her friend’s need for greater wheelchair access, the senior from Clinton, South Carolina, has made disability access the focus of her platform as she competes in pageants.

students with the program director of MAPP

There's a M.A.P.P. for that

May 16, 2016, Craig Brandhorst

Like many new college students, Tamaragail Tarrant, Trevor Prioleau and Kennette Smalls came to the University of South Carolina with few connections and plenty of nervous energy. Navigating a campus the size of UofSC can be intimidating, and all three students describe themselves as shy, whether or not they seem that way when you meet them. Luckily, the three got involved with the university’s Multicultural Assistance Peer Program, a peer-to-peer student mentoring program for students with multicultural backgrounds, and found everything they need to fit in, have fun and get the most from their college experience.

stamps scholars

Stamps Family Charitable Foundation invests in UofSC students

May 13, 2016, Page Ivey

For today’s college students, a big part of their education happens outside the classroom, in the “real world.” But finding the time — and sometimes, more importantly, the money — for such real-world experiences can be difficult. Now USC’s best and brightest students have that opportunity thanks to the Stamps Carolina Scholars program

Sharon DeWitte (right) and Samantha Yaussy

A skeletal marker of physiological stress might indicate good, rather than poor, health

May 02, 2016, Steven Powell

Biological anthropologist Sharon DeWitte (right) studies ancient skeletons that can open a window onto the human history she hopes to illuminate. But as she and graduate student Samantha Yaussy show in a recently published study, some of the markers on the skeletons that scientists use to decipher the past might need to be looked at in a new light.

odonnell

Sail away

April 28, 2016, Dan Cook

Five years ago, there was no Gamecock Sailing Club. Today, there’s an active club with up to 80-plus members during any given semester. Meanwhile, the club’s president, a senior finance major who graduates this week, hopes to turn her passion into a career in the sailing industry.

Florence med school campus

Side by side

April 12, 2016, Chris Horn

It’s probably not a record, but third-year medical student Dustin Rawlinson still marvels at how much experience he got in his recent obstetrics rotation — delivering 20 babies in two weeks. Rawlinson is among the inaugural cohort of M-III students at the School of Medicine’s Florence regional campus, and they and the other M-IIIs are getting a full dose of hands-on learning.

Tux on Trux

How fitting: Students create new business to modernize formalwear rentals

April 07, 2016, Olivia Currey

Back when Parker Moore was in high school, he and his friends spent upwards of three hours driving to and from the closest big city to get fitted for, pick up and return their rented tuxes for prom. Now a senior marketing and management major in the Darla Moore School of Business, Moore launched a business to reduce prom tux frustration. He is testing his Tux on Trux this prom season in South Carolina.

Riley Brady

Senior marine science major earns four-year graduate fellowship from DOE

April 05, 2016, Steven Powell

Senior marine science major Riley Brady earned a DOE fellowship in computational studies that will cover all tuition and fees plus provide a $36,000 stipend for four years in graduate school. He says UofSC provided conditions for a perfect storm that is giving him a head start as an independent researcher in his field of climate science.

Valencia Callens

The making of an opera diva

March 31, 2016, Glenn Hare

Influenced by the likes of opera stars Leontyne Price and Kathleen Battle, USC music student Valencia Callens has high standards. But the master of music in theatre performance is undaunted by the challenge. Callens will showcase what’s she’s learned at Carolina this weekend when performs in “Speed Dating Tonight!” presented by Opera at USC in the School of Music recital hall.

Caroline Westberg

Helping women teach each other to lead

March 30, 2016, Page Ivey

Helping her peers, especially other young women, find their leadership voice is Caroline Westberg’s passion. She has spent the past year – her senior year at the University of South Carolina – creating Women LEAD. On Wednesday, Westberg was named the 2016 Outstanding Woman of the Year.

Alexandria Caputo

Student gains global perspective from study abroad

March 07, 2016, Ore Oluwole

Alexandria Caputo was the first student from the University of South Carolina to travel to Oman. The senior political science major with a minor in Islamic studies and a concentration in Arabic also has traveled to lso to Morocco and Israel. “All of the places that I’ve traveled have provided the best learning experiences for me,” she says.

interns

Interns get real-world experience on national stage

February 28, 2016

Jill Goodtree, Olivia Currey and Richard Lipkin are interns for the university’s Office of Communications and Public Affairs. The three public relations majors in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications had the opportunity to work for CNN during the television network’s two “town hall” events at the UofSC law school, leading up to the Republican and Democratic presidential primaries held in South Carolina in February.

lettuce root

Students nurture growing business

February 23, 2016, Luci Clemens

After competing in the Proving Ground competition last semester, three University of South Carolina students are turning their business pitch into a reality — and they’re starting with your salad. John Stewart, Erin Ryan and Bri Matthews are introducing fresh, local lettuce to the Columbia campus dining with an agricultural method called hydroponics.

Eric Bringley

Honors College student awarded Gates Cambridge Scholarship

February 14, 2016, Megan Sexton

Eric Bringley believes the best way he can change the world is through science. The senior in the South Carolina Honors College will take another step toward that goal next fall in the U.K. after being awarded a Gates Cambridge Scholarship –one of the world’s most prestigious international scholarships. Bringley will pursue a doctorate in chemical engineering focused in theoretical chemistry and stochastic modeling at the University of Cambridge.

helping paw

Man's best friend helps those in need

February 10, 2016, Glenn Hare

Fred is the ideal companion. He’s always eager to help out. He’s entertaining and he’s great with people. Fred and his human partner Becky Sullivan are featured in “A Helping Paw, ” a short film directed and edited by University of South Carolina media arts student Faith Cox. The documentary is the inaugural winner of the Walt Hanclosky Social Issue Production Award for Media Arts in the School of Visual Art and Design.

Vernon Pryor

Gateway to opportunity

January 31, 2016, Steven Powell

Vernon Pryor came to Carolina through the Gamecock Gateway program, and the sophomore electrical engineering major has since earned a scholarship that covers all of his educational costs until graduation. The Science, Mathematics and Research for Transformation (SMART) scholarship also guarantees him a job as a civilian employee in the Department of Defense for three years after graduation.

Alysha baratta

A passion for social justice

January 19, 2016, Peggy Binette

Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education.” Four individuals, emboldened by King to ensure social, political and economic equality for all people, were honored by the University of South Carolina for their community service and social justice work at the annual MLK commemoration breakfast.

Permeable concrete

Reducing the runoff

January 13, 2016, Chris Horn

When heavy rain hits hard surfaces like highways or parking lots, the resulting runoff can cause trouble — as it did three months ago during South Carolina’s historic flooding. But what if those hard surfaces allowed some of the water to soak through to the ground underneath? That’s the concept behind civil engineering senior Fedora Nwachukwu’s independent project through the Sustainable Carolina initiative.

SOCO shared work environment

Start me up

January 12, 2016, Chris Horn

Columbia’s start-up culture is getting hotter, and Carolina is helping fan the entrepreneurial flames. Incubating companies is only part of the start-up equation. There’s a thriving entrepreneurial vibe now among students — enrollment in entrepreneurship classes has doubled and membership in the Entrepreneurship Club is at an all-time high — and the university has built an ecosystem on campus to foster that interest.

college of nursing

Q&A with Nursing Dean Andrews

January 11, 2016, April Blake

The University of South Carolina’s online graduate program in nursing started 15 years ago. The curriculum was one of the first online programs the university offered, targeting working nurses who wanted to join the ranks of nurse leaders, conduct research and teach. We sat down with College of Nursing Dean Jeannette Andrews to discuss the program's success and plans for the future.