It was cold, dark and rainy, but Meagan Dunham’s heart was as warm as it could be at the public launch of the College’s BOUNDLESS comprehensive campaign in November 2014. Speaking to the 400+ members of the College community gathered in the Cistern Yard that night, she felt a sense of hope and possibility – a sense of confidence she’d never had before.

“That was a groundbreaking moment for me. The impact I was making finally hit me,” says the junior, who spoke to the crowd that night about what scholarships have meant to her. “Looking out at all those people listening to what I had to say, I realized that what I said and did mattered. It was amazing. It really made me realize my potential – that I can go as far as I want to go and accomplish whatever I put my mind to.”

In high school back home in Marion, S.C., Dunham put her mind to going to college to study public health.

“I always liked school, and I always wanted to go to college – I just wanted to do something that was right for me,” she says. “I am the first person in my family to go to college, though, and I didn’t want to put the financial burden on my mom. I was so focused on the financial part of it – I just didn’t know if I could make it happen.”

But Dunham worked hard on her grades and her extracurricular activities (mostly community service), and – with the help of the Upward Bound Program – she applied for and was granted both a Pell Grant and a Legislative Incentive for Future Excellence (LIFE) Scholarship to go to the College of Charleston. As a first generation college student, she was also eligible to apply to the ROAR Scholars Program, which provides workshops and academic support to keep first-generation students on track for graduation.

Even with all the support, though, Dunham wasn’t sure she could hack it: She hadn’t factored in the cost of books and daily life, and she was going to have to take on multiple jobs in order to make it work.

“For the first two weeks on campus, I couldn’t focus on classes. I was so stressed out about finances, I couldn’t even focus enough to read my syllabi,” says the public health major. “When you’re stressed out about your financial means, you can’t focus on anything else. You can’t target your focus. All I could think about was how I could juggle two work-study jobs, a job somewhere on King Street and classes; how I was going to miss out on the whole college experience; how I wasn’t going to be able to go home for breaks because I’d have to be working. It was a lot to think about.”

She didn’t have to think long, though. Two weeks into her college career, Dunham was accepted into the Coca-Cola First Generation Scholars Program, granting her an additional $20,000 scholarship over four years, and received the James E. Clyburn/Rudolph Canzater Foundation Scholarship ($1,000, with the College granting a 2-to-1 matching scholarship).

“Those two scholarships changed everything,” says Dunham. “One minute I was worrying about paying for books and trying to figure out how to fit in jobs, and the next all I had to worry about was my education. It was amazing. It took so much stress off of me. I was able to focus on what is important – my education and my classes.”

And that’s exactly what she did – and continues to do.

“I don’t slack off,” she says. “I know how lucky I am to have these scholarships. And everyone in my family is so excited for me. They really want this for me. They’re all rooting for me, so that makes me push so much harder.”

“Meagan is a hard worker, shows a great deal of interest in the subject matter and is well regarded by her peers,” agrees Paul Gangarosa, Dunham’s mentor and an adjunct professor in the Department of Health and Human Performance. “She is a pleasure to have in class and consistently exceeds my expectations. I feel better knowing that she is the next generation of public health professionals.”

Indeed, Dunham’s future in public health is wide open, which, she says, is something that Gangarosa helped her realize.

“Dr. G. taught me basically that you can do whatever you want in this field – you just have to make it happen. And, with the resources and connections and tools he gives you to succeed, you can make it happen,” says Dunham, who hopes to go to Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health upon graduating from the College. “He showed me that public health is a boundless field – you just need the education toback it up.”

And, thanks to a few scholarships and the support of the College, Dunham is certainly getting the education to back up her goals.

“Since I’ve been here, making connections from class to class, I’ve realized that those connections really do make a whole education. That’s what is meant by a liberal arts education,” she says. “That’s what makes you a global student. And I think that’s important in life – you have to think roundly.”

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Growing up as a first-generation American in Columbia, S.C., and spending three years in her parents’ native Nigeria, Sophia Emetu knows how important it is to have the support of others. She has seen how hard life can be, how much we rely on others’ generosity and help and, ultimately, how far we can go when we put in the effort.

And, with the help of the RISE Scholarship, she knows there are no limits to what she can do.
“Getting the RISE Scholarship means that I have the chance to prove that I’m worth believing in,” says Emetu, the inaugural recipient of the four-year needs-based Honors College scholarship. “It means that someone else believes that a small girl like me has a lot of potential.”

Emetu’s potential is clear to alumni Ben ’02 and Sara DeWolf ’02, who established the RISE Endowed Scholarship Fund last year. That gift has since prompted four other substantial gifts for the scholarship, which is (R)ecognizing (I)ntelligence, (S)trength and (E)ngagement, as its name specifies.

“The idea is to give access to education for really outstanding, motivated students who otherwise wouldn’t have the means to go to the Honors College,” says Ben DeWolf, a portfolio manager at Tower Research Capital, who regularly hires CofC graduates at his hedge fund. “A more educated population is good for everyone.”

“Part of education is learning about people who are different from you,” says Sara DeWolf, an Honors College graduate who is now a member of the Honors Advisory Board. “We’re helping provide a more diverse experience for students by giving them a wider range of perspectives to interact with.”
Emetu can appreciate the value in expanding your perspective.

“I learned so much from Nigeria. My time there changed my life, it gave me a whole other perspective, and it was there that I finally began to fully appreciate life,” she says, adding that, while “being part of two very different cultures is not an easy task, I feel fortunate to take what’s best from both cultures. I am glad I have the mix because I really get to think about what I want to do. I am not constrained to one side, if that makes sense.”

Not that Emetu really needs to think about it: She knows she wants to help people.

“For a long time I’ve wished that I could make a positive impact on someone, but I was always too shy. Now that I have others believing in me, though, I know I can help others and give back as much as possible,” says Emetu, who plans to study biochemistry and then go to medical school to become a pediatrician. But first she wants to experience “the many opportunities here at the College. I don’t just want to learn: I want my knowledge to expand on a myriad of levels. I want to do things that will leave all the support people in my life with a legacy for others to follow.”

She hopes, too, to be a role model for her four younger siblings.

“I hope that I showed them that education is important and hard work is the only thing that pays off,” says Emetu, noting that one of her favorite quotes is a Paul Brandt lyric: Don’t tell me the sky’s the limit when there are footprints on the moon. “Coming to the College hopefully showed them that nothing is a limit. I want to set the bar as high as I can to encourage them that they can do even better. Most of all, I hope that I showed them that you have to go by hope, not by sight. After all, that’s what got me into Charleston in the first place!”

That, and the DeWolf’s generosity, of course.

“To be honest, I probably wouldn’t have been able to come to the College if it weren’t for this scholarship,” says Emetu. “The College was my first choice, but we needed to make sure it was the best, and the DeWolfs affirmed that for us, not only economically, but overall. So, thanks to them, I am now attending my top choice.”

But, Emetu stresses, “the scholarship is more than just money to me. The moral support I receive from the DeWolfs is overwhelming. The first night my family and I met them, there was an instant connection, and I feel like I have become a part of another family.”

“We really want to be supportive in whatever way we can – not just financially,” says Sara DeWolf, who also serves as a mentor with the School of Education, Health, and Human Performance. “It’s just as much an investment in our alma mater as it is in the individual recipient – although, of course, we’re so lucky and honored to be a part of Sophia’s individual education.”

“The empowerment that the DeWolfs give me is what will last in my heart,” says Emetu. “Because no matter what trials I face during the school year, I can still count on the enormous amount of support from my family, the College and the DeWolfs.”

With that kind of support, she knows she is going to go far and that she’ll continue to climb higher and higher. After all, now that she’s at the College, the sky is hardly the limit!

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A recipient of the Samuel Freeman Trust Scholarship, Samantha Brophy feels fortunate to have so many doors open to her.

“My scholarship has given me many opportunities,” says the Bluffton, S.C., native. “I chose College of Charleston because it is so beautiful and the weather is great. The atmosphere here is relaxed, yet not too relaxed. If makes you feel like … you are a part of something important.”

Brophy is certainly part of something important – in fact, she’s part of a few important things: She is a member of the Student Government Association and vice president of the Unitarian Universalist Club, and she volunteers with Project Playground at Memminger Elementary School.

“I enjoy working with kids who have special needs,” says Brophy, who majors in psychology and minors in Spanish. “I chose psychology as my major because I have always found it to be interesting,” she says. “I thought the psychology major would open a lot of doors for me.”

Brophy is leaving her doors open for the future, but she would like to join the Peace Corps or to attend graduate school for either occupational therapy or human rights when she finishes her undergraduate work at the College.

In the meantime, Brophy is grateful just to be at the College of Charleston.

“Thank you so much,” she says to her donor. “We need more people like you in this world that are so giving and encouraging of education!”

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Chenele Jackson ’87 was struggling to make ends meet. At 31, the newly single mother to three daughters was determined to set an example to her girls as the first college graduate in her family, but she couldn’t do it alone.

When the N.E. Miles Early Childhood Development Center (ECDC) waived her daughter’s tuition, it helped – a lot – but not enough to keep her afloat.

“I have to take care of my family first,” she told a professor who’d found her crying outside of a Maybank Hall classroom.

Her voice breaks when she recalls what happened next: “I got a note saying I’d been selected for a scholarship that paid for tuition and books. It was life changing.”

Jackson would be OK. She’d graduate, and – thanks to her commercial real estate professor, Perry Woodside, now a professor emeritus in the School of Business and a member of its Board of Governors – start working at the Charlotte-based N.C. National Bank Corporation.

“The College directly shaped my career, my development and my opportunities,” says Jackson, a consultant with Wells Fargo’s Corporate Finance, Shared Service Accounting organization.

That’s why she’s given to the School of Education, Health, and Human Performance, the College of Charleston Fund and ECDC annually for some 17 years. Jackson has been a BOUNDLESS supporter, most recently making a planned gift toward the ECDC tuition for the child of a single mother who is a first-generation college student.

As she says, “Much is given, much is expected. I’m just doing my part.”

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