Who they were and who they are
Although eight women graduated from Wofford in the classes of 1901-1904, the college did not begin to admit women as day students until 1971. Five years later, the board of trustees voted to admit women as resident students and by the mid-1990s, women made up more than 45 percent of the student body and began to make their mark on campus. Today, Wofford continues to enroll a diverse and statistically high-achieving population of female students.
Raven Tucker is a sophomore Biology major, artist, President of the Black Student Alliance, member of the Gospel Choir and an RA. She volunteers for Birth Matters, an outreach program which seeks to reduce teen pregnancy through reproductive health education and to provide support to vulnerable expecting families. As an artist, Tucker focuses a lot of her work around race and gender. When asked about her future professional plans, Tucker responded, “I hope to pursue a career in public health in which I can pair my scientific and artistic interests to revamp health education in a creative and interactive way.”
Hayley Younginer is a senior English major and Finance minor, a member of the women’s soccer team and an intern with the Office of Marketing and Communications. In November, she was selected to join the 2018 Google Cloud Academic All-District Women’s Soccer team, which recognizes the nation’s top student-athletes. When asked what motivates her, Younginer replied “As a student-athlete I am competitive by nature; however, I also know that there is always room for improvement, whether it be in the classroom, on the field, in my friendships or as a person in general. If any of these experiences can help to improve who I am and what I’m doing, then it will have been worth it”.
Claire Scavone is a senior International Affairs and Spanish double major. This April, she will be inducted into Wofford’s chapter of the academic honor society Phi Beta Kappa. For the past two summers she has interned with Project Transformation, a summer literacy program which serves children in high-need neighborhoods throughout North Texas. This January, Scavone interned at a farming community in rural Peru where she worked with a group of 200 school-age children, introducing them to the English language and aiming to instill in them a desire to pursue future literacy. Scavone reflects on the impact of these experiences saying, “It was very challenging; however, the little moments of joy and the small victories that I experienced with the students made the hard days worth it.”
Jacey Sohm is a senior Computer Science and German double major with a minor in Math. She is also a writer and is currently working on publishing her novel titled “Making the Monster.” Jacey describes her experience as a female Computer Science major, saying, “I am the only woman in the Cyber Security course and although the Department is extremely welcoming and inclusive, I sometimes find myself coming face to face with old stigmas in which there is a feeling that I must prove myself. It is a challenge and I look forward to it.”
Written by Cameron Condra
