2021 Archive

Family nurse practitioner Tamieka Alston-Gibson

USC graduates help fill the gaps in rural health care

November 16, 2021, Megan Sexton

As the country marks Rural Health Day this week, the University of South Carolina works — through its School of Medicine, College of Nursing, Arnold School of Public Health and other areas — to understand and improve the delivery of health care in rural and underserved communities.

Ben Green

UofSC's McNair Institute inspiring student entrepreneurs

November 04, 2021, Laura Kammerer

Columbia native Ben Green will speak live at the McNair Entrepreneurship Showcase on Friday (Nov. 12) at the Russell House Underground. The event, sponsored by the university’s McNair Institute for Entrepreneurism and Free Enterprise, will also feature speakers such as MapQuest founder Chris Heivly, ’84 master’s geography, and Mixtroz co-founder Ashlee Ammons.

Ebony Toussaint

New faculty spotlight: Ebony Toussaint

November 02, 2021, Page Ivey

University of South Carolina alumna Ebony Toussaint joined the university as a faculty member this fall, working with the Rural and Minority Health Research Center in the Arnold School of Public Health. One of her first research projects will be a study of how evictions impact mental health, on which she will work with her husband, Etienne Toussaint, who is a new law professor.

Visual communications instructor Jason Porter wears headphones and sits in front of a microphone and laptop

Podcast bridges the gap between students and real-world opportunities

October 12, 2021, Matt Edwards

Visual communications instructor Jason Porter knows his students are deserving of the dream jobs they’ve worked hard to prepare for. That’s why he makes careers more accessible to them by welcoming guest speakers into his classroom. When the COVID-19 pandemic put a halt to in-person classes in spring 2020, Porter launched his Let’s Get a Job podcast as a way to continue sharing guest speakers with students.

photo illustration of a woman wearing a ski hat surrounded by floating numbers

Journalism through numbers: Alumna tells stories with statistics

October 05, 2021, Lauren Arabis

If you turned to the internet for insights leading up to the 2020 presidential election, there’s a good chance you’re already familiar with Anna Wiederkehr’s work. Wiederkehr, a 2012 visual communications alumna, is the senior visual journalist for FiveThirtyEight, a website that uses statistical data to explore everything from sports to politics.

Nathalie Baulain

Driving innovation at Michelin

September 21, 2021, Office of Communications and Public Affairs

With an MBA from UofSC, Nathalie Baulain leads the customer innovation lab at Michelin, one of the world’s leading tire companies. The professional MBA program at the Darla Moore School of Business helped Baulain achieve the entrepreneurial and creative problem-solving skills she needed to take on a new role and to be successful in her position.

Marva Smalls in her office at ViacomCBS

Alumna plays crucial role in media company's inclusion efforts

September 21, 2021, Craig Brandhorst

As an executive vice president and global head of inclusion at ViacomCBS, Marva Smalls plays a crucial role in the company’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. And while her commitment to advocacy predates her time at the University of South Carolina, Smalls’ undergraduate and graduate experiences shaped her philosophy in profound ways.

Nate Johnson at Rose Hill Plantation

Putting history to work in the world

September 16, 2021, Page Ivey

UofSC's public history graduates apply their knowledge and love of history to encourage civic engagement by making the past more understandable and accessible to the general public. They also are helping to refine our understanding of our past through new scholarship to tell a more inclusive history.

Lizzie Gandy, 1992 mechanical engineering alumna

From Hilton Head to Thunder Horse

August 31, 2021, Chris Horn

Lizzie Gandy one day will regale her grandchildren with stories about the years she strapped on a hard hat and rode a helicopter to her job on the biggest moored oil platform in the world, anchored deep in the Gulf of Mexico. In her latest position, Gandy doesn’t have to endure the same grind as before when she was supervising hundreds of oil platform workers in the open water. But she continues to find satisfaction in the work that a mechanical engineering degree from South Carolina in 1992 made possible.

archival image of marjorie weber sitting at a desk in education classroom circa 1969

Gamecock family affair

August 23, 2021, Savannah Bennett

Marjorie Weber was a widow in her 40s when she decided to return to college to earn her teaching degree from the University of South Carolina where her late husband had been an education professor. She also served as a starting point for a string of family members attending South Carolina, including a granddaughter and two great-granddaughters, who are current education students. They are among the hundreds of students who follow family members to become Gamecocks each year. 

Rohit Talwani at his desk

Gamecock alumnus, physician reflects on how COVID-19 changed how he practices medicine

August 03, 2021, Chris Horn

COVID has offered the health care sector some valuable lessons, says University of South Carolina School of Medicine alumnus Rohit Talwani. A Baltimore-based physician and University of Maryland School of Medicine associate professor of infectious diseases, Dr. Talwani is one of 10 Gamecocks Carolinian magazine spoke to about how the pandemic has changed the way we work.

Allie Trice will attend graduate school at Oxford thanks to the Barry Scholarship

English, history graduate is first UofSC recipient of Barry Scholarship to study at Oxford

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.

Ten soldiers pose beside a plane in a World War II archive photo.

Documenting UofSC alumni who made the ultimate sacrifice

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.

Jotaka Eady

UofSC alumna uses politics, technology to elevate the 'underestimated'

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.

photo of a bridge over a river with blue sky in the background

Concerts honor frontline workers, aim to strengthen community through music

March 22, 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.

Richard T. Greener statue at thomas cooper library

Monuments, markers tell stories of pain and progress

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.

artist rendering of mohammed dajani standing beside a railroad switching station

Dajani's cave

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.

Social Justice Award winners

Three chosen as UofSC's 2021 Social Justice Award winners

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.