McMillan named Alumni Master Teacher

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Kerri-McMillan-with-students
Students chose Kerri D. McMillan as the 2016 Alumni Master Teacher. McMillan is a senior lecturer in the finance department of the College of Business and teaches courses in investment analysis, risk management, insurance and personal finance to 150 upper-level undergraduates each semester. The award for outstanding undergraduate classroom instruction is presented each spring to a faculty member nominated by the student body and selected by the Student Alumni Council.
“I am so honored to be the recipient of this award. I was still so excited Monday night, I could hardly sleep,” said McMillan. “I especially enjoyed hearing what my students had to say about me. I truly love my field of finance and teaching our Clemson students. When I pull into Sirrine Hall parking lot, I count my blessings. I love every day I am in the classroom.”
Alumni Master Teacher Award co-chair Parkwood Griffith said McMillan’s penchant for instilling passion in her students where it might not have been before and showing them the real-world applications for what they learn in her class helped set her nomination apart. “Students felt like she encouraged and prepared them about finance in the real world,” said Griffith.
McMillan received a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Southeastern Louisiana University and an MBA from the University of South Carolina. Before coming to Clemson, she spent a decade as a portfolio manager and securities analyst for an investment management company in Greenville.

Gantt scholars and donors recognized

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Forever-Gantt Scholars1

The 2015-2016 class of Gantt Scholars

Members of this year’s class of Gantt Scholars were recognized this spring at a reception that featured remarks by Jim Bostic ’69, Ph.D. ’72, the first African-American to receive a Ph.D. from Clemson, and Lee Gill, the University’s new chief diversity officer.

The Clemson Black Alumni Council established the Harvey B. Gantt Scholarship Endowment Fund in 1988 to honor Gantt and to recruit and retain African-American students, with special preference to South Carolina residents and entering freshmen.

In his remarks, President Clements said that Harvey Gantt’s admission to the University was a major milestone in Clemson’s transformation from an all-male, all-white military college to a civilian co-educational desegregated public university. “I applaud him for his persistence and his incredible resolve many years ago to fight the battle to attend Clemson,” said Clement. “As a result, Clemson is better and stronger today.”

Donors establish endowment for out-of-state engineering students

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Matt Doyle

Matt Doyle

Matt Doyle, a 2016 engineering graduate from Guilford, Connecticut, never dreamed of attending an out-of-state school. However, not long after he decided to apply to Clemson, Matt was notified that he had been awarded a significant amount of financial aid. Thanks to many generous donors like Chuck and Sue Fish, Matt no longer viewed Clemson as just a Southern university where people wear lots of orange. It was now his future.

Chuck Fish graduated from Clemson in 1982 with a bachelor of science in electrical engineering, and in 2012, he and his wife, Sue, made a commitment to establish an endowed fund, ultimately to leave their legacy and provide College of Engineering, Computing and Applied Science students from out of state with a wonderful college experience. This commitment originated with the Chuck ’82 and Sue Fish Annual Engineering Scholarship, which they have funded over a four-year period.

Prior to establishing the scholarship, Chuck reconnected with one of his classmates, Doug Gray ’82, who serves as a development officer for the College of Engineering, Computing and Applied Science. “Because he was in development and in engineering, we talked about doing a scholarship. He was the one who really helped us put it together,” said Chuck. “It’s been great having someone Chuck’s known since college be a part of this with us,” said Sue.

The couple has had the privilege of seeing the impact their commitment has made on students, including Matt Doyle. “He is a wonderful young man, and he was so grateful in having this because the scholarship we did was an engineering scholarship for a student who was out of state,” said Chuck. The couple and Matt have met many times and developed a friendship, ultimately making the scholarship even more meaningful.

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Chuck and Sue Fish

Chuck and Sue’s financial support has made it more affordable for Matt to attend school in South Carolina than in his home state of Connecticut. “Without support like they’ve given me, I don’t think I’d be here. I don’t know where I would be in terms of financials. College is a big undertaking,” said Matt.

“One of the coolest things was that Matt’s mother wrote us a letter. It was the most beautiful letter thanking us for our financial support of her son. It really meant a lot when she wrote us to let us know how much it meant to their family,” said Sue.

Matt admits he has grown a lot in his technical abilities as a civil engineering major and a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers. “I’ve also grown in my relationships with other people including friends, teachers and, through internships, with other professionals. Overall, I feel really well prepared with moving on into the real world,” he said. And moving on, he is. He has accepted a job in Raleigh, N.C., as a general contractor with one of the nation’s largest construction firms, Brasfield & Gorrie, where he interned during the summer of 2015.

NSF awards research fellowships to Clemson students

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April 12, 2016 - CES students, Allison Jansto, Emily Thompson, Jennifer Wilson, Michelle Greenough, and Catherine McGough. They have won National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships.

CES students, Allison Jansto, Emily Thompson, Jennifer Wilson, Michelle Greenough, and Catherine McGough. They have won National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships.


Seven Clemson students have received graduate research fellowships from the National Science Foundation, and five others received honorable mention awards in the national competition. The NSF offers three-year graduate research fellowships to students in science, engineering, mathematics, technology and some social sciences. Each year, college seniors and early graduate students are invited to apply. Out of 17,000 applicants nationwide, 2,000 students won the prestigious awards.
These Clemson students received graduate research fellowships:
• Ryan Borem of Easley is a U. S. Army combat veteran and Ph.D. student in bioengineering. His research focuses on the development of a tissue engineering scaffold to assist in the repair and regeneration of intervertebral discs in people suffering from back pain.
• Michelle Greenough of Davis, Calif., is a Ph.D. student in materials science and engineering. She plans to develop a multilayer ceramic membrane to separate and then capture carbon dioxide gas. The aim of her research is to help reduce carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.
• Nora Harris of Rock Hill is a senior industrial engineering student. Her research will investigate how to encourage increased sustainability in the design process of buildings and infrastructure. She will begin a master’s program in civil engineering at Virginia Tech in the fall.
• Allison Jansto of Harmony, Pa., is a graduate student in chemical engineering. Her research focuses on investigating the relationship between the nanostructure, mechanical properties and performance of functional materials with a goal of better understanding the transport and mechanical properties of materials used in fuel cells and batteries.
• Catherine McGough of Charleston, W.Va., is a graduate student in engineering and science education. Her research goal is to identify how undergraduate engineering students’ future goals and motivations relate to how they solve problems in class. These findings will allow instructors to improve and personalize problem-solving instruction.
• Emily Thompson of Rochester, N.Y., is a senior physics major. Her research deals with particle physics. She is pursuing graduate work at the University of Bonn in Germany.
• Jennifer Wilson of Charlotte, N.C., is a senior majoring in plant and environmental science. Her research proposal focused on understanding how plants detect and respond to attack by fungal pathogens. Next year, she will begin pursuing a Ph.D. in plant pathology at Cornell University. Her future research will focus on the transmission of plant viruses by aphids.
 
April 12, 2016 – CES students, Allison Jansto, Emily Thompson, Jennifer Wilson, Michelle Greenough, and Catherine McGough. They have won National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships.

Thanks a Billion!

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When I talk to students, I talk a lot about the lessons I learned from my mother. She was an incredible woman, and she taught me and my three older siblings so much. One big thing she taught us was the importance of expressing gratitude and how to write a good thank-you note.
This column is my personal thank-you note to all of you for your support and generosity over the past 10 years of the Will to Lead campaign. We would not have been successful in this campaign without each one of our donors, and Clemson will be forever grateful for that support.
We reached a record-breaking milestone of raising $1,062,528,346 — the largest fundraising effort in South Carolina history, and the largest ever for a public university with an alumni base our size. The amount of money we raised during the campaign is a very impressive number, but the campaign was never about just numbers. It was about making a difference in the lives of our students. It was about making a difference for the state, nation and world through ground-breaking research and incredible public service. It was about taking Clemson to the next level, enabling us to go further as a university than we ever have before.
Because of your donations, students are able to attend Clemson who might not have been able to otherwise. Because of your donations, we are able to hire and support world-class faculty and staff who are among the top experts in their fields. Because of your donations, we are able to build amazing new facilities for academics, research, student life and athletics. Because of your donations, we are able to give our students real-world experiences and opportunities for engagement that will make them better prepared for the workplace or graduate school.
Those are all things that you made happen, and the money raised during this campaign will continue to make a difference for generations to come.
So whether you donated $1 or $1,000 — thank you! You made this possible!
Go Tigers!
James P. Clements, Ph.D.
 
 
 

Will to Lead campaign surpasses its goal

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Sept. 7, 2013 - #4 Clemson (2-0) breezed to a 52-13 victory over FCS-level S.C. State. Cole Stoudt took his turn at being Clemson's record-setting quarterback in its win over South Carolina State Saturday afternoon. For his part, Taj Boyd was 14-of-23 passing for 169 yards and ran the ball six times for 10 yards and a touchdown, but he did not throw a touchdown in the game, which ended his school-record streak of consecutive games with a touchdown pass at 17.

The largest campaign goal ever achieved by a public university with an alumni base the size of Clemson’s and the largest fundraising effort in our state’s history. It’s an amount that’s hard to even comprehend, and an accomplishment of which we can all be proud. We thought it might be helpful to break it down just a bit.

What DOES a billion dollars do for Clemson?

 

See what $1 billion will do. 

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