Wofford College

Chaplain Fellows Mariam Ali '28, Jose Ruiz Torres '26 and Darcy Phillips '27 and Geneva Kowbeidu '26, Wofford's Campus Union president, are still processing their experience from August in Chicago at the Interfaith Leadership Summit 2025. Part of Wofford's Interfaith Young Adults student group, these students are hoping to incorporate what they learned at the largest American interfaith gathering of college students and educators to inspire interreligious education on campus.

Studio Smoothie, a smoothie shop founded by Caris Mitchell '27, is now open Mondays and Wednesdays from 7:30-10:30 a.m. in the Galleria in the Michael S. Brown Village Center. Studio Smoothie is an official limited liability company.

Joslyn Taylor '27 used to scroll TikTok for hours watching "day in the life" videos of students studying abroad. Now she's sharing her own as an IES Abroad correspondent in Barcelona, Spain. Taylor, a sociology and anthropology major and government minor from Summerville, South Carolina, was chosen from a pool of 162 applicants to blog about her semester overseas for a national audience.

Guided by Abigail Dillard, assistant professor of theatre, five students spent the summer as dramaturgs - analyzing texts, poring over journals and mapping Edwardian England - to inform their all-student production of "The Drowning Girls."

Using zebrafish as a model organism, two Wofford students spent the summer studying a little-understood gene called Tango6 and the role it plays in embryonic development.

Devin Ruppe '26 spent the summer at Emory University in Atlanta, where he's conducting research on a protein that could be used to treat triple negative breast cancer, the same aggressive disease that took his grandmother's life at the age of 45.

Wofford College awarded 452 Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts degrees to graduates during the college's 171st Commencement exercises.

Wofford College provost Dr. Timothy Schmitz has announced Dean's List students for the spring 2025 semester.

Nate Cole '27 placed second nationally at the National Association of Teachers of Singing auditions held at Temple University in June. He was one of only 15 students to reach the semifinals in his category (classical; lower division; tenor, baritone and bass).

Wofford College awarded 452 baccalaureate degrees during the 171st Commencement Exercises on Sunday, May 18. Honor Graduates, Sullivan Award winners and graduates who were commissioned into the U.S. Army were also recgonized during the ceremony.

Wofford College celebrated student achievement at its annual Honors Convocation on May 16, presenting awards to dozens of students as well as several faculty and staff.

Jenna Hollis '26 and Tianna Kidd '25 are helping the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning further its mission of promoting effective and innovative teaching practices that engage and cultivate student learning as student fellows.

Wofford's chapter of Phi Beta Kappa welcomed 39 members into the nation's oldest academic honor society during an induction ceremony at Leonard Auditorium on May 1.

The winners and second-place finishers for the Helmus Award in Poetry and the Journal Award in Fiction were announced by the Department of English.

Three Wofford students joined Dr. Dawn McQuiston, professor of psychology and director of the South Carolina Innocence Initiative, to attend the Innocence Network Conference held April 3-5 in Seattle. The attendees were Sydney Holland '25, Teagan McIntosh '27 and Nick Ross '26.

Cole Anderson '27, a computer science and Chinese major, has been awarded a 2025 Critical Learning Scholarship to study Chinese in Tainan, Taiwan. The CSL program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and provides immersive study abroad opportunities for students to learn languages deemed essential to American foreign relations. Anderson, who is from Charleston, South Carolina, was one of 500 students accepted out of a pool of about 5,000 applicants, according to an announcement about this year's recipients.

Graham Segars '25 became a sepsis survivor at the age of 21. He has now pledged to increase sepsis awareness across the United States. Segars spoke at the fifth-annual World Sepsis Congress, held virtually April 8-9, as the North American representative for the Global Sepsis Alliance. During his session, he gave his testimony of his experience with sepsis and provide insights on how to encourage advocacy through sepsis education.

West DeWaard '27 took home first place at the ninth-annual Terrier Startup Challenge. The student-led business event is organized by the Career Center's Launch Program, which aims to support and guide students in growing their entrepreneurial skills and ventures. DeWaard's fledgling business Raised Outdoors aims to divert wood waste by upcycling wooden pallets into raised flower beds.

As Wofford's 2025-26 Presidential International Scholar, Margeaux Stapleton '26 will immerse herself in three locations across the world to understand birthing practices and outcomes, especially preterm and special needs births. Each year Wofford's Presidential International Scholar is chosen by the college's president as the student with "exceptional potential to benefit humankind as evidenced by a demonstrated passion for service learning combined with a globally minded intellectual curiosity." The scholarship rewards these students with the funding to carry out independent research in non-traditional locations around the world.

Joe Cahill '26, an environmental studies major with minors in Chinese and economics, has developed a passion for sustainability, and he's acting on it every chance he gets. Cahill is now a marketing and research intern with GIC Group, an international agribusiness company specializing in financial advisory services based in Bethesda, Maryland. Through his work with the GIC Group, Cahill was given the opportunity to research, write and publish an article for the Global Food Safety Forum on sustainable food packing and its effect on safety as well as the economy.

Emily Schwendemann '25 spent their Interim looking toward the stars as part of an independent study in the field of astrophysics. Schwendemann, a math, physics and computer science triple major from Fountain Inn, S.C., brought together all their interests to dive into the chemical composition of celestial bodies.

Gabriel Tawiah '25 spent part of his winter break doing community service in Asheville, N.C, which is still recovering from Hurricane Helene. He worked behind the scenes preparing and cooking food, providing manual labor on the farm and filling boxes with supplies in partnership with three local organizations.

On Jan. 15 Schwarzman Scholars announced its 10th cohort, and Chandler Compton '20 was selected to the Schwarzman Class of 2025-26. He will attend a one-year, fully funded master's degree program in global affairs at Schwarzman College, Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.

Wofford College provost Dr. Timothy Schmitz has announced Dean's List students for the fall 2024 semester.

Two Wofford College students - Grant Blackwell '27 and Hank Thomas '27 - saw the devastation of Hurricane Helene as an opportunity to give back. Blackwell, an environmental studies major from Charleston, South Carolina, and Thomas, a business economics major from Powdersville, South Carolina, both sprang into action, finding communities in need of assistance and communities supporting them.

Grace Loughlin '27 brought home a victory at the National Horse Show at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky, earning first place in her Amateur Hunters division. "It's such an honor to get to compete at this venue, let alone win," says Loughlin of the National Horse Show, which has hosted some of the highest-achieving riders and horses in the world. This year, Loughlin was one of only 15 women in her section invited to compete.

Sydney Heslop '28, Maura Jackson '28, Carlee Mason '28 and Grant Owen '28 received a "Just Because" ambush philanthrophy grant from the Spartanburg County Foundation. The students decided to give the grant to Housing360, Spartanburg Housing's nonprofit affiliate. The funds will purchase healthy snacks and other supplies for the Determind Minds afterschool program.

A professor in Australia challenged Wofford students Lilly Bridges '26, Archer Meares '26 and Strom Thurmond '26 to write and publish an article on the conservation of a specific bird species. Getting the article published turned out to be the easy part. The real challenge was the rain-drenched search for the declining species and the sense of responsibility the trio of biology majors now carry to help tell the story of the threatened but resilient tooth-billed bowerbird.

Tianna Kidd '25, a biology and French double major from Greenwood, South Carolina, is using French to study fashion and identity in Africa this fall as Wofford's 2024-25 Presidential International Scholar. Kidd is currently based in Cameroon, with plans to travel to Morocco in January. She also has conducted a second independent study on breast cancer awareness in Cameroon. Each year Wofford's Presidential International Scholar is selected by the college's president as "the student most likely to make a difference in the future." The scholarship rewards students who have shown a passion for service learning and global intellectual curiosity with the funding to conduct independent research in non-traditional locations around the world.

Chanson Bullard '26 and Dr. Matt Cathey have been invited to Oxford University to present their research on King George III's mysterious illness at the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies' annual conference in January. They will also participate in a roundtable discussion featuring scholarship from the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. Bullard and Cathey spent the summer reviewing royal physician diaries and recording values for information logged, such as sleep, pulse, medicines administered, mood, bowel movements, exercise and much more. The database they developed has more than 100 categories.