USCTIMES
OCTOBER 2015 / VOL. 26, NO.7
MENTORING
Who Made Who?
Walk This Way
May It Please the Court
Faculty mentors give credit where due, page 2
Campus programs help us help each other, page 8
Law students help middle schoolers argue a case, page 14
USC TIMES / STAFF
FROM THE EDITOR USC Times is published 10 times a year for the faculty and staff of the University of South Carolina by the Office of Communications & Marketing. Managing editor Craig Brandhorst Art Director Bob Wertz Designer Brandi Lariscy Avant Contributors Chris Horn Page Ivey Liz McCarthy Steven Powell Glenn Hare Thom Harman Photographers Kim Truett Ambyr Goff Printer USC Printing Services Campus correspondents Patti McGrath, Aiken Cortney Easterling, Greenville Shana Dry, Lancaster Jane Brewer, Salkehatchie Misty Hatfield, Sumter Annie Smith, Union Tammy Whaley, Upstate Jay Darby, Palmetto College Submissions Did you know you can submit ideas for future issues of USC Times? Share your story by emailing or calling Craig Brandhorst at craigb1@mailbox.sc.edu, 803-777-3681.
The University of South Carolina does not discriminate in educational or employment opportunities or decisions for qualified persons on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetics, sexual orientation or veteran status.
FOLLOW YOU, FOLLOW ME There’s no such thing as a self-made man — or, for that matter, a self-made woman. Yes, history is filled with examples of independent, ambitious, hardworking, up-by-the bootstrap types, but if we’re being honest, very few of us make it entirely on our own. Even Benjamin Franklin, the seeming epitome of the self-made man, had his mentors, among them Colonial statesman James Logan. You don’t hear as much about the onetime mayor of Philadelphia as you do about the guy who invented the lightning rod and helped draft the Declaration of Independence, but that’s beside the point. Or maybe that is the point. The goal of mentoring isn’t to mold another person in your own image. It’s to help that person realize his or her own potential — and maybe, even hopefully, surpass your successes and accomplishments with his or her own. That’s certainly the way it works at Carolina, as we discovered when we set out to assemble this special issue on mentoring. USC faculty, staff and students take great pride in helping others reach their potential, whether through the informal relationships that develop organically on campus or through targeted mentoring programs like those highlighted on page 8. We also believe in giving credit where credit is due, which is why USC Times asked several past winners of the Distinguished Undergraduate Research Mentor Award to tell us who played that role in their own lives. For good measure, we then took that same question to a couple of USC administrators — one who has been here more than three decades, another who arrived this fall. Their stories, which you can delve into on page 2, are both humble and inspiring. Finally, Carolina Road Trip took us to USC Sumter, where we met more mentors and mentees than we could fit on the page. In fact, we took up two pages trying to capture the spirit that makes the Sumter faculty so effective and still didn’t do them justice. See what we mean on page 16. As this month’s cover suggests, mentorship is about meeting people where they stand and then showing them a path forward. While not all of us can credit a specific individual who helped us reach our potential, every one of us has the potential to do so for someone else. You may not go down in history for the effort, but you never know — the person following you might change the world. Lead the way,
CRAIG BRANDHORST MANAGING EDITOR
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TIMES FIVE
A PLAN WITH TEETH October marks the return of open enrollment for all university employees. If you want to make changes in your dental coverage, now is the time. Dental coverage can be changed only in oddnumbered years. Human resources will be sending out information in campus mail this month. Changes can be made at mybenefits.sc.gov starting Oct. 1 for coverage that begins Jan. 1, 2016.
GOOD IDEA? PROVE IT
101 IN 2016 University 101 Programs is accepting applications for University 101 instructors for fall 2016. The groundbreaking course, which helps foster student success, development and transition to college, is a national model for first-year seminars. Courses are team-taught by instructors from departments across the USC system with assistance from graduate students and undergraduate peer leaders. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis, though priority is given to those received before Oct. 31. Visit sc.edu/univ101/instructors for more details.
UNDERGRAD RESEARCH SETTING SAIL The deadline for Magellan Scholar research grants is fast approaching. Grants of up to $3,000 are available for proposals developed by students in collaboration with faculty mentors. Applicants must attend an application workshop. The final two workshops will be held at 5 p.m., Oct. 6, and noon, Oct. 9, in Room 305 of the Russell House. Grant applications are due Oct. 20.
THE PROVING GROUND — the University of South Carolina’s popular startup competition — is back for its fifth season. Faculty and staff are encouraged to identify students for the program, which recognizes innovative and scalable ideas that have com mercial viability. Since its launch in 2010, the total prize package has grown from $3,000 to $89,000. The 2015 competition is open to students and recent graduates from the university’s eight campuses. Participants have until Oct. 23 to submit their business concepts. Complete details are available at uscprovingground.com.
RISE TO THE OCCASION The Office of the Vice President for Research is seeking proposals for the 2016 Regional Initiative for Summer Engagement, or RISE program. Initiated in 2012, RISE supports summer research for faculty at the university system’s senior and regional campuses and extended university by providing funds for summer salary, research supplies, research-related travel and student support through a competitive application process. Proposals for 2016 RISE projects are due Dec. 3. Visit sc.edu/research.
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Who Made Who? Faculty at USC do a great job mentoring students, but when they themselves were coming up, who mentored them? To find out, USC Times asked several past winners of the Distinguished Undergraduate Mentor Award to recount their experiences on the other end of the mentor equation. We also tracked down Vice President for Student Affairs Dennis Pruitt and new Provost Joan Gabel and asked each of them to reflect on how their personal mentors helped them get where they are today.
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But it wasn’t all work. He’d have us over for dinner once a month and invite another faculty member from another discipline to present something about their research. He wanted to expose us to other disciplines outside of the narrow thing, Epstein-Barr virus, that we were studying. We took camping trips and played volleyball together as a lab group. We had a journal club once a week, getting together with three or four other labs to discuss current journal articles. I was very intimidated and rarely spoke up during those sessions. Bill kept encouraging me to talk, and every time I’d say that I would, but I never did. Then one morning he came to me and said, “You are routinely insulting me. You have ideas and things on your mind, and you refuse to share them with me.” I was blown away because I realized he hadn’t wanted me to speak up as a way of testing my knowledge but because he honestly wanted to hear my ideas. It changed my whole perspective. After that, I was much less intimidated and started sharing my ideas all the time. At times I’ve used the same message with my graduate students.
1/ DAVID REISMAN PROFESSOR, BIOLOGY AS TOLD TO CHRIS HORN My mentor, Bill Sugden, at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, led a research lab that was quite intense. We got started by 9 every morning and worked until 9 or 10 at night, weekends included. He was teaching us that this is your life — there’s no time off, it’s just what we do.
His mentoring extended beyond the classroom. One time he brought in a book and wanted me to read it. It was Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” I was 25 at the time and didn’t quite know what to make of it. So, this is kind of funny, but I ordered that book just three weeks ago and read it again after all these years. And now I’m wondering, “What was he hoping I’d learn from reading that poem? Was it about perseverance? Or maybe struggles that we all encounter at points in our lives?” I still don’t know for sure, but obviously I still think about it.
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2/ JOHN GRADY ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, UNDERGRADUATE DIRECTOR DEPARTMENT OF SPORT AND ENTERTAINMENT MANAGEMENT AS TOLD TO CHRIS HORN
It always amazes me how one person can change your career path. While I was in law school at Florida State, Annie Clement was teaching sports law, and one day in class she asked if anyone was interested in earning a Ph.D. in sport management. My plan was not to get a Ph.D. — the goal was to finish law school and go get a job and work, not to do four more years of study. She showed me the benefits of being able to both teach and research sports law. A mentor shows you what is possible and helps create a path for you to get there. With my students now, I show them opportunities and map out a plan for them to get there. In 2012, for the London Olympics, I helped students get Magellan Scholar funding to go and conduct research alongside me. We have had students doing research at the World Cup and will have students in Brazil next summer for the Olympics. I do a lot of undergraduate research mentoring, guiding students on how to design a research project or present at a conference or Discovery Day. It’s not a casual relationship but a constant sharing back-andforth of ideas. A mentor is someone who shares your interest but also can expand your vision as to what is possible. I feel my job is to prepare them to be ready to ask the next question, to give them the tools of the trade to be successful.
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The culmination of my mentorship relationship with Dr. Clement was that we co-authored a sport law textbook, “Law in Sport: Concepts and Cases,” which is now in its fourth edition. It’s pretty incredible to have evolved from professor/student to co-authors and now colleagues.
3/ JOAN GABEL EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT OF ACADEMIC AFFAIRS AND PROVOST AS TOLD TO WES HICKMAN
I attribute many of my opportunities, and many of the skills that have helped me on my journey so far, to my mentor, Jere Morehead, now the president at our SEC archrival, the University of Georgia. I met Jere when I was a law student. He was a lawyer on a tenure track in the business school (as I eventually became), but he actively taught in the law school and coached the moot court team, which I joined. As a teacher, he taught us skills in the classroom, but he modeled excellence in content and presentation. He had very high standards and made you want to meet them even when it seemed far beyond your capacity. But those expectations also came with tremendous support, not only while we were on his team or in his classroom but in our lives up to this day. From him I learned how to be a strong moot court competitor, which helped me with public speaking and persuasive writing, but that would be a very superficial way of looking at what I learned.
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I learned to be willing to follow a nontraditional career path. I learned to demand the best from myself in support of a team and to expect everyone on my team to do the same. I learned that teaching teaches the teacher as much or more than teaching teaches the student. I learned that passionate support for higher education makes the world your classroom. And I learned that investing in your students brings rewards that cannot be quantified.
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I hope to be half the mentor to all of the wonderful colleagues and students I have the good fortune to meet as he has been to all who have been lucky enough to know him.
4/ CHUANBING TANG PROFESSOR, CHEMISTRY AS TOLD TO STEVEN POWELL
I had two mentors at Carnegie Mellon, two advisers for my Ph.D., Krzysztof Matyjaszewski and Tomasz Kowalewski. They have completely different personalities. Professor Matyjaszewski is one of the greatest polymer scientists in the world. Some people say that he is going to win the Nobel Prize one day — We will see! He is very passionate for science. He gives a lot of help with research, with the science part, but he could be very direct: “Do this, do that.” He wanted you to succeed, and he was always thinking about science. “You can dream for science,” he would say. Sometimes you would find a good idea from your dreams. My other mentor, professor Kowalewski, was more interested in enjoying science and life together. It was about balance. He was more relaxed. I learned from both of them. It’s kind of unique, because most graduate students have only one adviser, one mentor. I had two, and they were kind of complementary. It has probably helped me when I have to interact with different students because not everyone has the same personality. I treat students as friends. I need to be sure they are not intimidated, they are not shy. So you have to treat them as a friend, which is very important from the beginning. So then they start to open up, they start to tell you some of their real concerns. Of course, you also want them to feel that you are reliable, so you need to be more than friends, but maybe like an uncle, or father, or older brother, someone they know they can trust. When I was an undergraduate, I did not really have a mentor. That is the reason I’m so enthusiastic about mentoring undergraduates. If I have a student I want to mentor, I want to give them as much as
possible, take every opportunity to mentor them. It can help them to prepare, to get way ahead. I think that will help in the long term.
5/ JOE QUATTRO PROFESSOR, BIOLOGY AND MARINE SCIENCE AS TOLD TO STEVEN POWELL
Both of my Ph.D. mentors were kind of hands off. To a very large extent they encouraged independence, good or bad. That’s the way I learned it, the way I came up through science, having mentors that didn’t micromanage you. I had a student who was new in the lab, and he came in and kept asking me all these questions. He wanted me to dogmatically state, “You should go do this, and then you should go do that.” And I wouldn’t do it. I would tell him, “Well, you know, you ought to go read this paper, or maybe you should read this book.” And about a year later he came to me and said, “I finally figured out what you were doing. You weren’t telling me what to do, you told me where to go find what I needed, and then I figured it out on my own.” And I said, “Exactly. That’s exactly what you should do, and that’s what you should do with your students as well. Otherwise, you’re not producing independent scientists, per se; you’re producing scientists dependent on you, and that’s not healthy for anybody.”
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New graduate students you spend some time with, so they can get comfortable with the lab. Then you bring in undergraduates, and the graduate students can mentor them. I was taught that early on — that the PI can’t be there for everything.
was supposed to show the impact of Armstrong State on the community, beyond just athletics. We’d done a pilot version the year before and it went well, but that was very controlled, very targeted. As president, I wanted to do something bigger.
You have students at various levels in their degree program, and the overlap allows you to bring someone in at one level and let someone else take that person under their wing. Then when the next person comes into the program, that person before them becomes the mentor. I like that element of continuity.
I envisioned this huge event with 300-400 students who would canvas the community and hand out literature, but really, my idea was pretty stale: it was the wrong time of year, I hadn’t thought it through, I didn’t have the skills. Joe let me go through the process, and he let me fail. And boy did it fail. Nobody showed up but a few close friends. When it was over, the student paper panned the event and leveled just about every criticism you could imagine at me.
6/ DENNIS PRUITT VICE PRESIDENT FOR STUDENT AFFAIRS, VICE PROVOST AND DEAN OF STUDENTS AS TOLD TO CRAIG BRANDHORST
I went to Armstrong State College to play college basketball and baseball in 1968. They didn’t really have dorms then, just apartments for the athletes, so it was kind of a lonely existence, but my sophomore year I ran for student senate, and then junior year I ran for student body president and, somehow, I won. Joe Buck was director of student activities, so he became my adviser. From the beginning, he gave me the support I needed, but he also helped me understand my shortcomings. At one point, I remember, I organized a publicity campaign called the Pirate Preview, which
So I had a conversation with Joe, and he was very direct, telling me, “You’ve got to accept the blame for this. All the things that went wrong were because you didn’t plan. Good leaders get things done because they get people to follow them, so this must have been a failure of leadership.” He had given me formative evaluation all the way through, but at the end I got a little more than just constructive criticism. It wasn’t cruel. It was reality therapy. There were so many times like that when he either gave me validation when I did something right or constructive criticism when I did something wrong. He coached me through all kinds of situations, gave good advice and sent me to leadership training. He also got me started in my career.
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After I graduated I thought I would play professional baseball, but that didn’t work out. I’d just had this wonderful college experience playing sports, I’d been student body president, and now I was nobody. Fortunately for me, Joe was taking a leave of absence to get his doctoral degree, and he put it in the mind of the president that they should consider hiring me as the interim director of student activities. It was some ridiculous salary — something like $6,000 for nine months — but it was a job, and even though Joe was away at school, he was in constant contact, asking, “What can I do to help?” “Do you understand everything?” “Are you thinking through everything?” He was also saying, “Look, this is your chance to make a reputation for yourself.” When he finished his doctoral studies, he was promoted to dean of students and I became permanent director of student activities and orientation, but he kept giving me good advice. When he’d hear things from his peers about how I might be going astray, he’d give me subtle hints — “Maybe you have a plan for this that I don’t understand,” he’d say. “If you’ve really thought about it, and you know what you’re doing, go for it. But if you’re headed this other way, you might want to think twice because you’re headed over a cliff.” Joe just had a magical way of giving feedback. In some ways it was almost a father-son relationship. I developed the philosophy, in part from working with him, that you can let people fail but not if they’re
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going to suffer irreparable personal harm, if there’s a lot of money to lose or if the institution is going to suffer. I also learned that people enjoy working with you, for you and around you if you have their best interests at heart. I know he’s proud that I’ve made it this long. I’m in my 43rd year in higher education and my 37th as vice president. Joe spent 40 years as dean of students at Armstrong State, so that’s now my goal, too — to be a 40-year vice president. There aren’t many people who can say that, but Joe can, so I want to be able to say that, too.
7/ KATE FLORY ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY AS TOLD TO CHRIS HORN
I had two mentors when I was earning a Ph.D. in clinical psychology at the University of Kentucky. The first, Don Lynam, is one of the main reasons I went into a research career. He really pushed critical thinking and becoming an academic, and his passion for research was contagious. The other is someone I still collaborate with — Rich Milich. The thing about Rich is that it was never about him. He was always concerned with the best interests of the student. If he asked you to write a paper, it was because he thought it would help you, not further
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his career. Years later, I had a graduate mentee who decided to go with a different adviser for her dissertation. A lot of faculty members would be offended in a situation like that, but — like Rich — I thought about what was best for that student. I ended up being a member of her dissertation committee, and we continue to publish together. One thing Rich still does is if he ever sees a research article relevant to my research or information about an opportunity in my field, he sends it along to me, and now I do the same thing for my current and former grad students. I love mentoring undergraduates, too, and have a lot of them in my lab. My number one priority is making time for students, and I make it a point of meeting regularly with them, whether it’s about their honors thesis or master’s thesis or another professional or personal development issue.
8/ PAM BOWERS INSTRUCTOR, STUDIO ART AS TOLD TO GLENN HARE
While there were many important mentors in my early development, the mentoring process had more of a cumulative effect on me. I worked with mentors from a variety of backgrounds in academia, as well as in my early professional career. These individuals helped me find my artistic identity and navigate the artistic milieu of my time.
My mentors included painters (my own concentration) as well as professionals in fields that were widely divergent from my own, such as anthropology, literature and biology. This resulted in a wonderful richness of perspective, both in terms of my approach to my work as a painter and to life itself. The task then became one of synthesizing these diverse influences to develop my own internal voice. It was this process — one of finding one’s own way — that helped me more than anything else. A good guide prepares one to move forward on one’s own. This is especially important at this particular point in history. The current art world, both within and outside of academia, can be a very challenging place. Ours is a highly pluralistic, global society where no one aesthetic approach dominates the cultural scene. This can be both terribly confusing and wildly exciting for young and emerging artists. My job as a mentor is to help students identify and research specific interests relative to their own vision. I try to encourage students to not only acquire knowledge but to develop integrity, ingenuity and imagination. This applies to art majors as well as other students I mentor. I hope to encourage all students toward a greater aesthetic and interpretive understanding of their chosen path through the language of visual art, through travel, through interdisciplinary research and, above all, through their own curiosity.
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WALK THIS If you’re looking for a path to success, find someone who has
done what you want to do and follow in his or her footsteps. If you’ve already been down that path, show someone else the way. It’s called mentoring, and at USC it leads to great things — we’ve got the programs to prove it.
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What’s in a name? Mentors-in-residence BY STEVEN POWELL
RAs working in campus residence halls got an updated moniker not too long ago, but it wasn’t a piece of spin dreamt up by an eager PR flack. “It was the students themselves who decided that they were more mentors than advisers or assistants,” says executive director of university housing Kirsten Kennedy. “Seven years ago, they actually asked to change the name.” The change from “resident adviser” to “resident mentor,” or RM, reflected how much importance and reach the position had come to have for students, particularly freshmen. The 275 RMs on campus help educate residents about the numerous opportunities on campus, whether academic, service or social. Through structured conversations and day-to-day interactions, they also help identify students who might be having a hard time adjusting. Abby Reilly’s freshman year involved that kind of adjustment. Arriving as a marine science major, she soon switched to photography but still felt out of place. Becoming an RM as a sophomore and serving as one for three years turned out to be a defining part of her Carolina experience. “I really liked working in housing, especially the counseling and mentoring aspects of the position,” she says. “I was able to focus on students who were having a really tough transition because I had a tough transition myself. I loved that aspect because I had been in the same shoes.” Graduating in 2014 with a degree in psychology, Reilly worked for AmeriCorps VISTA for a year before beginning the master’s program in human development at the University of Rhode Island this fall. As someone planning a career in student affairs, she says the name change is an unqualified positive. “There are very few universities that actually use that name in housing — ‘resident mentors.’ People ask me about it,” Reilly says. “So what I tell them is that it makes us more peer leaders and makes us really take the mentoring aspect more seriously. Saying you’re a resident assistant makes it sound more structured, more of an authority figure. Bringing on that mentor title really humanized the position.”
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Expanding the Rolodex
just about academic mentoring, it was about making a professional contact who is interested in them as a person.”
Mentor network helps women help women
The program has also helped Luchok make contacts across campus.
BY PAGE IVEY
As a theater and speech major at the University of South Carolina in the early 1990s, Kim McMahon signed up for a mentor through USC’s Women’s Mentor Network. Now McMahon is on the opposite side of the equation. Now director of Campus Life and the Russell House University Union, McMahon oversees the university’s leadership and service programs, which include the Women’s Mentor Network. Over the years, she has also been a mentor to several students herself. “I wouldn’t be here today if I didn’t have a mentor,” she says. “If I can help somebody else have that ‘Aha!’ moment, I want to do it.” According to McMahon, most of the students who sign up for the Women’s Mentor Network are looking for a faculty member who can help them in their fields, but they also need gentle guidance from all types of professionals, especially from other women who have achieved successful careers. That’s where the network comes in, playing matchmaker for hundreds of students and faculty and staff mentors every semester. As McMahon explains, “It’s hard for students to walk up to someone and say, ‘Hey, would you be my mentor?’” And students aren’t the only beneficiaries. Faculty and staff also get something from the program. Kathryn Luchok, a research professor in the anthropology department with a joint appointment in the Women’s and Gender Studies Program, says she joined the Women’s Mentor Network because she missed interacting one-on-one with undergraduates. “I like nothing better than working with students,” she says. “Mentoring is my specialty. In the beginning, I was prompted to join the network by my need to once again be a mentor.” Luchok, who has also developed mentoring relationships with students she advises on research projects, says the relationships are different from one student to the next. “With one I would talk with her about career opportunities and general life things like her boyfriend, her family,” Luchok says. “It wasn’t
“You get to have these personal interactions with people you maybe wouldn’t know otherwise, but you have this shared interest in helping develop the student body,” she says. “It also helps me make connections that I can share with my students. I kind of collect people and keep them in this mental Rolodex. The Women’s Mentor Network has helped me expand my Rolodex.”
“I wouldn’t be here today if I didn’t have a mentor. If I can help somebody else have that ‘Aha!’ moment, I want to do it.” Kim McMahon
Get on the MAPP Peer mentoring builds community BY CHRIS HORN
Before starting his freshman year at Carolina, Jon McClary heard about the university’s Multicultural Assistance Peer Program and the opportunity to be mentored by an older student. “Both of my parents went to college, so I kind of knew what to expect, but I thought it would be beneficial,” says McClary, a senior public health major. “I learned a lot from my mentor and still stay in contact with him today. He allowed me to grow without being overbearing.” MAPP was established for the Columbia campus’ 17 percent minority undergraduate enrollment, but it’s open to everyone. Students are matched with trained mentors, many of whom are in the same academic major as their mentees. In addition to twicemonthly meetings for participants, MAPP sponsors etiquette dinners, finals week get-togethers and other events aimed at building community. McClary not only liked having a MAPP mentor, he became one himself the next year — and the next year and the next. “I call them my kids,” he says. “It’s rewarding to see them grow. I feel like an older brother.”
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That sense of belonging and community is at the heart of MAPP’s mission, says program director Nakia Strickland. “Students learn about the program during orientation and from family and friends. We’ve got about 120 freshmen and 40 mentors this fall,” she says. “Last year was a my first class of students, so I’m interested in comparing retention and persistence rates of the students we mentor and the general student population.”
“I had one student who needed to work and had a job at a fast food restaurant. He was a great kid, first-generation, and he knew he wanted to go to grad school and didn’t know how to navigate those waters,” says Susan Alexander, director of service learning and undergraduate research at the SCHC. “So I said, ‘Well, you need to quit that job, and we need to find a mentor and a project for you.’”
If McClary’s experience is any indication, Strickland will probably find that MAPP’s mission is being accomplished.
As Alexander explains, the student connected with a mentor in the School of Business. As a result, he became more engaged and involved in the campus community.
“I’ve never felt like I wasn’t at home here,” McClary says. “That’s the greatest asset of this program.”
SURF and Explore! Research pays off for Honors College students BY STEVEN POWELL
Working your way through college is admirable. In many cases it’s also necessary. Unfortunately, apart from the paycheck, many jobs commonly held by college students do little to advance their edu cation, never mind their careers. Thanks to a pair of research grant programs offered through the South Carolina Honors College, however, students can bank on their education — and find a mentor in the process. The Science Undergraduate Research Fellowship is available to students working in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Exploration Scholars grants, on the other hand, are reserved for humanities, the arts, journalism, law and other disciplines. Students in either program can earn up to $4,500 over the course of their undergraduate career working on academic research projects with faculty mentors. For students working their way through college, the grants can be life-changing — and not just because of the money.
“He developed a great mentor relationship, started meeting other faculty, they all helped him figure out the whole grad school thing,” says Alexander. “It was just wonderful.” Erinn Whiteside, a 2013 SCHC graduate, had a similar experience. Freshman year, she had a job delivering pizzas, but an Exploration Scholar grant allowed her to continue earning the money she needed for school while also opening the door to an undergraduate research project working with associate professor of psychology Kate Flory and School of Music Dean Tayloe Harding. Her project, which used surveys to gauge student interest in establishing a music therapy program at USC, paid off in ways her former pizza delivery job never could. At the end of the three-year project she was asked to replicate her survey at USC Aiken and to interview experts across the country. Her results have led to a serious effort to establish a new program. “My three mentors, Dr. Flory, Dr. Alexander and Dean Harding, really taught me how to follow my ideas and how to find the avenues to turn those ideas into reality,” Whiteside says. “You shouldn’t be intimidated by the boldness of an idea, because you never know where it can go.”
“You shouldn’t be intimidated by the boldness of an idea, because you never know where it can go.” Erinn Whiteside
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From a new horizon Magellan scholars report back BY CHRIS HORN
Melissa Moss took an unusual call one afternoon from a former student who wanted to thank her — for making him do so many oral presentations while he was working as an undergrad in her lab. “The company he works for was stressing the need for better oral skills, and they had held him up earlier that day as an example for everyone else to follow,” says Moss, an associate professor who heads the biomedical engineering program in the College of Engineering and Computing. “That kind of validated for him all the time he had spent developing those abilities.” Moss has now mentored 18 Magellan Scholars, a competitive award for undergraduates who conduct faculty-guided research projects. That’s more Magellan Scholars than any other faculty member on campus. In fact, more undergrads apply to do research in Moss’ lab than she can accommodate, which is a testament to how much students appreciate the rigorous experience she provides. “The mentoring I received was instrumental to my education in biomedical engineering,” says John Clegg, who is now pursuing
a graduate degree at the University of Texas. “I have always appreciated Dr. Moss’ commitment to helping me achieve my goals above and beyond the scope of my Magellan project.” Moss’ commitment to mentoring her Magellan Scholars is evident in the weekly lab team meetings and other one-on-one time with students. “We’re not always talking about science or their Magellan Scholar report,” she says. “It might be about grad school or their career plans.” Those conversations, multiplied over weeks and months, have a tangible effect on the trajectory of students’ development, she says. Students who start out quiet grow in confidence and assertiveness as the semesters pass and are ready to take on graduate school or start a professional career by the time they graduate. “Dr. Moss’ guidance throughout my project has helped me to seek additional opportunities beyond my work at USC,” says Elizabeth Crummy, a biomedical engineering major. “With her support and mentorship, I successfully applied for a summer research position at Vanderbilt. “What impresses me the most is her willingness to always meet up, review my work and answer whatever questions I have. I feel I’m better prepared for my post-undergraduate career and feel like I’ve made the most of my time at USC.”
“What impresses me the most is Moss’ willingness to always review my work and to answer questions I have. I feel I’m better prepared for my career and I’ve made the most of my time at USC.” Elizabeth Crummy
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Match Game J-school students meet their mentors BY MEGAN SEXTON
Kelly Davis, chair of the College of Information and Communications’ alumni society steering committee, knows the importance of mentors — and mentoring. Davis, public relations director at Riggs Partners, earned her master’s in mass communications from USC in 1998 and has been involved in the college’s mentor-match program for years. She has stayed in touch with several of the students she’s mentored — watching them progress in their own careers and seeing some become mentors to younger students. It’s the reason she participates. “Personally, I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to connect with students to offer guidance and career advice. It’s a chance to help students navigate the waters of their major and think about where they might want to go after graduation,” Davis says. “It gives me an opportunity to stay connected to the university and have a small hand in guiding the career path in the same industry where I’ve spent my career.” The mentor-match program allows students in the college to connect with alumni working in the fields of journalism, public relations, library science or other areas served by the college. In early September, more than 50 students in the college gathered with professionals for an evening that resembled speed dating. Students spent about four minutes with a mentor in their area of study, explaining their interests and career aspirations, and later were matched with a mentor for the school year. “I’ve been fortunate to have different mentors throughout my career and have learned so many things from each one,” says mentor Chrysti Shain, a longtime newspaper journalist and now Web editor for DiscoverSouthCarolina.com. “I’ve learned about the craft of journalism, management, life in general. I could never have been successful without that kind of advice. We want to help students understand early that this kind of relationship is beneficial and see what kind of benefits they can get from a mentor relationship.”
“I’m hoping to make a connection with someone who will help me learn how to be innovative and how to get my foot in the door.” Kelly Davis
So what do they learn? “Sometimes it’s life advice, sometimes it’s career advice, sometimes it’s both. It really depends on what the student needs,” Shain says. “Just like anything else, you get out of it what you put into it. Some pairs have clicked right away and are still working together several years later.” Students like Lisa Grabowski, a multimedia journalism major from Michigan, hoped the mentor-match would help her make a connection as she tries to break into the field of feature writing. An internship last summer with a magazine publishing company convinced her that’s the direction she’d like to pursue. “So now I’m hoping to make a connection with someone who will help me learn how to be innovative and how to get my foot in the door,” she says. “I’m looking for advice on how to get started networking.” Ryan Tracy, a freshman advertising major, was looking to learn more about what an advertising career entails, while Brittany Pyles, a visual communications major, is looking for encouragement, confidence and tips for success as she pursues her interest as a graphic and Web designer. While the program has traditionally left it up to the student and mentor to develop their relationship, some additional structure was added this year. Participants receive a monthly email with recommendations for activities, including networking and job shadowing opportunities, and advice for customizing a resume. “The greatest value comes when the mentor and the mentee make an investment in the relationship,” Davis says. “You need to determine what the student is looking to get, what can you give, and define it from there. I have mentors I’ve had relationships with for 20 years. It’s important to help students know the importance of staying in touch.”
14 USCTIMES / OCTOBER 2015
DIVERSITY PIPELINE
Planting the seeds African American Professors Program cultivates future faculty BY CHRIS HORN
When Brian Johnson applied to the African American Professors Program at USC, he didn’t realize he would become a pioneer. But that’s exactly what happened when the doctoral student in American literature became the first African-American male to earn a Ph.D. in literature from Carolina. “When you’re the first, it often means you’re not around a lot of other people who look like you,” says Johnson, who completed the degree in 2003. “It was helpful to receive the nurturing and the affirmation of intellectual capacity that the African American Professors Program offered.” In fact, that’s exactly what the AAPP was designed to do. The state legislature, USC and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation established the program in 1997 to address the underrepresentation of minorities in the professoriate by recruiting, supporting and preparing minority doctoral students who want to become college professors. Since then, more than 40 minority candidates recruited by the AAPP have completed their doctoral studies at Carolina.
“The program has been recognized for its effective results and vital impact, and I think that’s largely because of the mentoring and support we provide to our students,” says Johnnie McFadden, longtime director of the program. AAPP alumni are currently employed in higher education institutions and agencies across the country including Emory University, Tuskegee University, Oklahoma State University, Montclair State University, NASA and the National Wildlife Federation. While he was at Carolina, Johnson was mentored not only through the AAPP but also by former English professor Kwame Dawes and the late Matt Bruccoli. The latter helped him develop a methodology Johnson would later use in writing two books about W.E.B. DuBois. He went on to be an English faculty member at Gordon College in Massachusetts and at Claflin University in South Carolina before becoming provost and vice president for strategic planning at Austin Peay University. Since 2014, he’s been president of the historic Tuskegee University in Alabama. He returned to Carolina last December to deliver the commencement address at the doctoral hooding ceremony. “I had deep and wide experiences at USC,” he says, “and AAPP was quite instrumental in planting the seeds that connected me with many great people there.”
“I had deep and wide experiences at USC, and AAPP was quite instrumental in planting the seeds that connected me with many great people there.” Brian Johnson
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May It Please the Court Mentoring program brings law to life BY CRAIG BRANDHORST
To know what you want, you have to know what’s possible. That’s the basic philosophy behind the USC law school’s Constitutional Scholars Pipeline Program, which pairs seventh and eight graders from four majority-minority middle schools in Columbia’s Richland One school district with USC law student mentors who teach them about constitutional law. Started in 2013 as part of a Liberty Fellowship by former USC law professor and associate dean Danielle Holley-Walker, the service program is now run by assistant professor Claire Raj, who previously ran a similar program at Howard University School of Law. “This is a diversity pipeline, first and foremost,” says Raj, who has devoted much of her career to child advocacy. “We’re trying to focus on kids who don’t normally get as much exposure to the legal profession and higher education. We want them to see what law school is like, get some experience and hopefully, if it interests them, to realize this is something they can pursue.”
use this particular word?’ ‘Why do I have to say, ‘May it please the court?’ They really are eager to learn.”
Forty students selected by their school administrators arrive on campus by bus one Friday a month to meet with 40 mentors — including law students like Cameo Joseph, Amanda Harding and Justin Montgomery, who volunteer their time to teach kids basic principles of constitutional law and the legal profession and help them realize their potential.
“Last year, my mentee started out a little distant, but as the course went on, our bond got tighter,” says Montgomery, a second-year law student from Sumter who plans to work with juveniles for his career. “At the end he tells me, ‘Well, I know you started off as my mentor, but I kind of think of you as my brother now.’ That will get you.”
“I never had anyone ask me when I was in middle school what I wanted to do when I grew up,” says Joseph, a Greenville native now in her third year of law school at Carolina. “I kind of floated through life and, luckily, I landed here. I could have very easily landed somewhere less positive. There’s a tremendous difference that can be made by helping kids figure out what they want to do at an early age, even if it’s not the law.”
That enthusiasm is shared by other mentors and by Raj, who looks forward to the kids’ arrival each session and then watches with keen interest as her students work one-on-one with their own mentees.
In addition to legal terminology and courtroom procedure, students develop public speaking abilities and self-confidence. To pique their interest, the program focuses on legal cases relevant to students their age — cases involving cyber-bullying, school dress code policies and the limits of free speech in a school environment. “They’re really curious,” says Harding, a second-year law student from Cypress, Texas. “They ask good questions — ‘Why do we
The mentors, for their part, get paid in personal satisfaction.
“Right now, it’s one of the best parts of my job,” says Raj. “When I leave those Friday sessions, as corny as it sounds, my heart feels full. I walk out feeling like I did something good today. It will take your breath away.”
“When I leave those Friday sessions, my heart feels full. I walk out feeling like I did something good today. It will take your breath away.” Claire Raj
16 USCTIMES / OCTOBER 2015
CAROLINA ROAD TRIP
USC Sumter KEYWORD: COMMUNITY BY CRAIG BRANDHORST
I
t may not be an official slogan, but USC Sumter Dean Michael Sonntag frequently describes 2015 as “the year of partnerships.” “It’s a major focus of mine to reconnect this institution to the community,” says Sonntag. “We’ve done that in a number of ways over the past year, and we’ll continue to do that.” That’s meant reaching out to local business leaders, including national companies that manufacture tires and medical devices in Sumter, to see how the university can serve industry needs. “The businesses in our community are very interested in getting technically prepared employees, but they have also signaled a need for higher-level management,” says Sonntag. “With our business program with USC Beaufort, the growing number of Palmetto College online programs and our exceptional faculty, we’re poised to provide even more of that in the future.” USC Sumter has also partnered with the USC Beaufort campus on a joint hospitality management degree program and with Francis Marion University on a joint bachelor of science in nursing program. The latter, Sonntag says, will serve a growing demand for bachelor’s prepared nurses in the state. Meanwhile, an “early college” program launched in conjunction with the local school district will allow eligible high school students to take college courses their junior and senior years and receive an associate degree from USC Sumter — at zero personal tuition expense. “We should be serving our community, and we have the capacity,” Sonntag says. “The moment we’re maxed out of full-time students, we’ll have to reevaluate how we provide similar services to high school students.” Of course, as part of Palmetto College the school is likewise committed to online education. “One big question has always been, ‘How do we serve the needs of the people in this community?’” says Sonntag. “Palmetto College is the answer.”
Sorrells, who worked off campus as a freshman, felt disconnected from the USC Sumter community until she applied for a work-study position at the Student Union Building, known colloquially as “the SUB.” “I don’t regret my freshman year, but could I relive it, I would spend more time on campus,” says the junior. “As a sophomore, if you had asked me about my experience, I would have told you that I’d like to stay here all four years.” Sorrells plans to teach physical education after she graduates, and in the meantime hopes to play for the newly formed USC Sumter tennis team. Otherwise, she just enjoys being part of what she calls “one big family.” “I like that I can walk across campus and everyone knows my name. I can go to Dean Sonntag and have a personal conversation with him, or with our athletic director, Lynwood Watts. It’s just very easy to get connected.” Senior Darryl Witherspoon, who works full time as a pharmacy technician at Tuomey Hospital, has enjoyed a similar experience. Witherspoon enrolled in USC Sumter’s organizational leadership program to advance his career in the health care industry. And while
Small Campus, Big Family
With approximately a thousand students, USC Sumter is a small school with a small campus footprint, but for students like Julia Sorrells, that’s a plus rather than a minus.
Dean Michael Sonntag
VOL. 26, NO.7 17
his job prevents him from being on campus as much as he might like, when he is there he takes full advantage. “When I come to campus, I can sit down in the computer lab and have a talk with one of my teachers,” he says. “They could be doing a lot of other things, but they seem to enjoy talking to their students.” Something in Common
For many first-generation college students, USC Sumter provides an affordable entry into higher education — one where faculty members not only know their names but, in many cases, understand firsthand what it means to be the first in your family to pursue a degree. Take psychology professor Salvador Macias, who has been at USC Sumter for 32 years. Neither of Macias’ parents finished high school, but the California native completed a degree in biology and psychology before pursuing his Ph.D. in developmental psychology. “We have a lot in common,” he says of Sumter’s first-generation students. “There’s a culture shock that I can appreciate even after three decades. It can be as simple as a student saying, ‘You mean I don’t have to be on campus if I don’t have a class?’ That was new to me in college, too.” Macias also devotes considerable time to mentoring and frequently invites ambitious students to join him on research projects. “They get professional experience that can get them into graduate school,” he says. “I didn’t know until I got there that graduate students weren’t smarter than me, they were just more experienced. At some point I realized, ‘I can do that.’ I want my students to have the same opportunity.” Associate professor David Decker shares a similar narrative. A 20-year Sumter veteran specializing in African history and geography, Decker worked construction in Africa before attending college and pursuing his Ph.D. “I tell students, ‘Look, there’s no reason I should have become a professor. Nobody in my family had been to college, everybody was either a farmer or a truck driver, you handled disputes with your fists,’” says Decker. “But I figured out how to make it work. So I tell my kids, ‘If I can get here, you can go anywhere you want.’”
Salvador Macias “ I didn’t know until I got there that graduate students weren’t smarter to me, they were just more experienced. At some point I realized, ‘I can do that.’ I want my students to have the same opportunity.”
“ I like that I can walk across campus and everyone knows my name. I can go to Dean Sonntag and have a personal conversation with him, or with our athletic director, Lyn wood Watts. It’s just very easy to get connected.”
Julia Sorrells
FOOTNOTES
“I’m excited about being in the CSP Program because I love to argue cases. Also, I love to study law so I can become a lawyer.”1
“The USC law mentoring program is a fun experience. It will help me in achieving my career as a criminal profiler.”4
The USC School of Law’s Constitutional Scholars Pipeline Program (featured on page 15) pairs local middle school kids with current law student mentors, who teach them how to argue a case in court. We wanted to introduce a few of these mentors and mentees to our readers, but we didn’t think an ordinary selfie would do the program justice. So in the interest of following in their footsteps, we asked them to photograph their feet instead.
“This program gives you a good sense of what lawyers really do. Also it makes you want to become a lawyer and help the people around you for a living.”2
“ I want to be a lawyer. I want to improve on my social skills and attitude with others and I thought this would be a great opportunity.”3
“ C SP provides an incredible opportunity to give back, while shaping and influencing the future of the legal profession.”5
“ I chose to be a mentor because i truly feel like I can learn as much about life from these kids as they can learn from me.”6
1. Morgan Montgomery, mentee 2. Anastasia Dryden, mentee 3. Princess Anderson, mentee 4. Ahmauray Lide, mentee 5. Carmen Jackson, mentor 6. James Groves, mentor 7. Chelsea Evans, mentor 8. Steven Bailey Jr., mentor “ What drew me to the constitutional pipeline program was being able to inspire juveniles that may not otherwise have the opportunity to explore the law. 7
“ I ’m amazed at both the level of awareness that Morgan and Princess have about the world around them and their ability to make me look at things with a new perspective. 8