2019 Archive

Neema Patel and the Gibbs Family

Scholarship transforms heartbreak into hope

December 11, 2019, Margaret Gregory

In 2002, 8-year-old Wanda Gibbs died after being hit by a car at her bus stop. After her tragic passing, the community came together and launched a fundraising initiative to ensure Wanda’s memory would live on. Their efforts established the Wanda Gibbs Scholarship at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Columbia, which was awarded for the first time earlier this year.

Dr. Patterson and patient

UofSC center brings health care to those in need

November 20, 2019, Margaret Gregory

In South Carolina, a majority of the 46 counties are considered to be medically underserved. The South Carolina Center for Rural and Primary Healthcare is working to improve access to quality care through training programs that are helping grow the health care workforce.

Yellow lightbulb icon

Nephron, UofSC researchers improving medication safety through automation

August 23, 2019, Jeff Stensland

Nephron Pharmaceuticals Corporation has joined forces with the University of South Carolina College of Engineering and Computing to design and implement an automation process that significantly boosts production of pre-filled medication, reducing the physical burden on workers and increasing patient safety.

A group of students surround the larger-than-life bronze Cocky statue, all of them flashing the spurs up hand sign.

UofSC welcomes increasingly diverse and talented class of students

August 20, 2019, Jeff Stensland

The approximately 8,700 students arriving in Columbia this week are part of the largest pool of new students ever enrolled at the University of South Carolina’s flagship campus. Preliminary enrollment numbers show the university also is increasing in diversity and serving more students from South Carolina than ever before, surpassing last year’s record and setting a new bar for academic achievement.

Alexandra Vezzetti

First class of UofSC physician assistant graduates helping improve healthcare access

July 19, 2019, Alyssa Yancey

Alexandra Vezzetti was in the first class of physician assistant students at the School of Medicine and the first PA student to rotate through the neurology department at Prisma Health. Department Chair Souvik Sen, M.D., was so impressed with Vezzetti that he hired her, and next month, she’ll become the department’s first physician assistant.

Katy Pilarzyk in the lab

Brain Power

May 23, 2019, Alyssa Yancey

Second-year Ph.D. candidate Katy Pilarzyk was one of three University of South Carolina students awarded a prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowship this year. She will use her funding to continue her work in Michy Kelly’s lab at the School of Medicine Columbia. The lab studies the inner workings of the brain to better understand the molecular mechanisms underlying social and cognitive deficits.

Carl Wilkens, 2019 Solomon-Tenenbaum lecturer

'The power of presence'

March 21, 2019, Helen Dennis

As violence in Rwanda escalated in the spring of 1994, the United States government ordered all of its citizens to return home, but Carl Wilkens chose to stay. Wilkens will tell his story, among other stories of rebuilding and reconciling, at this year’s Solomon-Tenenbaum lecture. He will present his talk, “Legacies of Genocide: From the Holocaust to Rwanda and Beyond,” at 7 p.m. Sunday (March 24) in the UofSC Alumni Center.

Maxcy monument

UofSC sets new bar in U.S. News graduate school rankings

March 11, 2019, Jeff Stensland

The new U.S. News & World Report’s Best Graduate Schools publication released Tuesday (March 12) shows South Carolina now has 53 unique nationally ranked graduate programs—more than twice as many as any other school in the state.

MLK Weekend at UofSC

The beloved community

January 17, 2019, Dana Woodward

The University of South Carolina’s MLK Weekend event series culminates Sunday, Jan. 20, with Freedom Rings, an artistic celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and legacy. The university partnered with the Columbia nonprofit Auntie Karen Foundation to bring together Midlands musicians, artists and spoken word performers to honor the civil rights leader in an event designed to bring the audience to its feet.