Let’s recognize the city that raised me

Growing up in Sparkle City, I never really saw much sparkle. It was a nice town, growing consistently alongside me. However, coming to Wofford, I found a side of Spartanburg that I didn’t even know existed but seems to be all that Wofford knows. 

I thought that Spartanburg was cute and all, but I had no idea how much fun a day downtown with your friends could be. Music on Main in the summer, Skating on the Square in the winter, the endless restaurants and coffee shops every season in between. It’s like there was a whole universe right here in Spartanburg that I had never discovered. 

With this, I also realized the harm of the Wofford bubble, so affectionately named. The Wofford bubble is something that the Old Gold & Black tries to pop in every issue that we publish. The bubble is what makes Wofford seem so distant from the rest of Spartanburg. 

The city of Spartanburg has a range of different incomes, with areas of wealth and areas of concentrated poverty and homelessness. Growing up, I saw a lot of it. During the Christmas season, my mom and I would deliver fresh-baked cookies to some of the homeless population we saw biking in the freezing conditions. 

At Wofford, however, we don’t really hear about that. What we hear about is Spill the Beans study dates and Fr8 Yard parties. We enter downtown Spartanburg when it’s fun for us and leave at our own leisure, not paying attention to the homeless individuals who are stuck in a cycle of poverty and have nowhere else to go.

Bonner scholars, sociology and anthropology courses and other humanities-type departments/organizations dive right into the Spartanburg community, trying to educate Wofford students and help the community. This is much admired and should be spread. 

Wofford students should not be oblivious to the city that surrounds our beloved school. We need to dive right in and help the community who helps us. 

A large part of the Spartanburg community admires Wofford and the amazing people that it creates, and it’s high time that we start to recognize the people who support us. I have heard all my life that Wofford is “the Harvard of the South,” and we need to live up to that. 

More than just not knowing what issues lie in Spartanburg, a large part of the student body does not even know how to access resources to provide this information. 

So, as a community, let’s start supporting Spartanburg and tune into some of the local news stations. 

WYFF News 4 appears on channel four; Fox Carolina appears on channel 21; WSPA appears on channel seven. Each of these news stations also have apps that you can download on your phone.

The Herald Journal, Spartanburg’s local newspaper, has many news stands around the city and publishes every Sunday. 

Getting involved with the community that you are in starts with being informed about the situations. Be sure to read every issue of the Old Gold & Black and tune into local stations in order to get the whole story of what’s going on.