Men’s Soccer Clinches Top Seed Thanks to Victory of ETSU
Posted on November 04, 2024
UNCG clinched the top seed after its 3-2 victory on Saturday night in Greensboro. earned a first-round bye and the right to host at least part of the 2024 Southern Conference (SoCon) Tournament.
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UNCG Announces New University Registrar
Posted on November 04, 2024
The Division of Enrollment Management has announced Kara Bisceglie will be joining UNC Greensboro as the new University Registrar. Kara joins UNCG from the University of New Orleans and brings over 15 years of service in the Registrar and Deputy Registrar roles.
Kara’s career has included several critical positions in admissions, financial aid, academic advising, and international student services. The breadth of Kara’s experience across these key areas has given her a uniquely comprehensive perspective on university functions. Driven by a student-centric approach to enrollment and retention, her unique insights into policy and academics alike, with a particular focus on student persistence, make her a perfect fit for this dynamic central role.
Kara’s selection comes after a lengthy search for the right innovative, forward-looking strategic leader to take the University Registrar’s Office into the future and even better serve the needs of our students. Kara Bisceglie is an exceptional addition to our outstanding Enrollment Management team as we look toward a future of growth and opportunity.
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Fulbright Fellow Gains Inspiration from UNCG Educators
Posted on November 01, 2024
Irina Mutruc, a 47-year-old Fulbright Teaching Excellence and Achievement (FTEA) fellow from Moldova, recently signed up for her first Instagram account. Her six-week experience at UNC Greensboro yielded too many experiences, too many connections, too many epiphanies, to keep it all to herself. “I have so many things to share!”
One of Mutruc’s first posts is a photo depicting a makeshift sculpture she constructed during an icebreaker with the other fellows. She placed colorful trinkets inside a jar and glued cotton balls to the outside. Pipe cleaners rise from the jar like flowers in a vase.
“We were asked to make something simple that shows our experience here,” she explains. “Everything inside the jar represents the knowledge I’m gaining from my time in Greensboro, and the small balls represent my students I’ll share that with when I get home. The pipe cleaners are the friends I’ve made on the program from all the different countries. They’re twisted together in places because we’ll all learning from each other before we go our separate ways.”
Unique professional development for global teachers
Mutruc is one of 20 FTEA teachers who hail from 18 countries and five continents. During their time at UNCG, they studied under instructors in the School of Education, compared best practices with other fellows, and spent time in Guilford County high schools.
The program offers high school teachers unique opportunities to enhance their teaching and leadership skills through first-hand experiences, networking, and cultural activities.
Even icebreaker activities like the sculpture Mutruc and her fellow participants made on their first day have a secondary impact on their students.
“As teachers, we were so engaged and involved, and we immediately imagined our kids doing the same thing,” she says. “It’s a way for them to think critically and express themselves. They are the future citizens of our country. The way they behave shapes our future, so we should try to make them aware of how important they are as people — as citizens who should be encouraged to participate and make decisions for their country.”
New perspectives lead to inclusive approaches in the classroom
Throughout the six-week period, UNCG professors shared their research and innovative teaching approaches. Mutruc points to inclusive education as an example.
“In my country, until about 10 years ago, students with disabilities were taught in separate schools,” she says. “Today, we have many challenges because the teachers are not prepared, and we must manage by ourselves. Here, we’ve been shown different approaches.”
A UNCG professor opened Mutruc’s eyes to the rewards of classrooms that include a spectrum of learning types. “It’s a win-win,” she now believes. “Students with physical disabilities learn from their peers who help prepare them for adult life. At the same time, their classmates learn to be tolerant and helpful adults who are responsive to other people’s needs. It’s amazing how children can do that even easier than adults can.”
As fellows shared challenges and triumphs from their home schools, they uncovered differences and commonalities. “It seems students everywhere are very similar,” she says.
While some challenges, like smartphone and social media addiction, are universal, others, like access to technology, vary from place to place. When Mutruc visited Greensboro’s Western Guilford High School, she was impressed to see classes with smartboards and students with their own school-supplied computers. “In Moldova, we still use blackboards and chalk. Teachers pay for internet connection out of their own pockets,” she says.
Still, Mutruc realizes things could be harder. “Even though we have poor internet connection, our school has electricity and running water. One of our fellow teachers from Haiti showed us his school, and nothing exists. Just some trees, and the students sit on the grass.”
Her takeaway: “As long as we are motivated and passionate, we can teach where we are. We can do big things with what we have.”
Fulbright TEA is funded by the U.S. government, supported by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) of the U.S. Department of State, and administered by IREX. The Global Engagement Office and the School of Education are collaborating to implement the program at the UNCG campus.
Story by Robin Sutton Anders
Photography courtesy of Irina Mutruc
A growing partnership
UNCG proudly enjoys a long-standing collaboration with the North Carolina-Moldova Nursing Collaborative and the North Carolina/Moldova Partnership for Peace program through the Office of the North Carolina Secretary of State. The Guilford Rotary Club has been instrumental in the funding of the North Carolina Moldova Collaborative for many years.
The Collaborative has helped educate Moldovan nurses as they worked with refugees following the invasion of Ukraine, which wraps around the northern, eastern, and southern borders of the much smaller Moldova. UNCG has also hosted a delegation of Moldovan healthcare providers who came to UNCG to learn about the use of simulation in nursing education.
“With Irina’s participation in the Fulbright TEA program, we are hoping she is the first of many educators to exchange ideas with UNCG,” says Maria Anatasiou, Associate Provost and Senior International Officer for UNCG’s Global Engagement Office.
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UNCG Puts College and Career Within Reach for Civic-Minded Historian
Posted on November 04, 2024
It’s the eve of Election Day 2024, and this swing state has had its fill of campaign promises and hateful accusations, but UNC Greensboro student Kendall Garraway encourages voters to exercise their rights and remember their role in history.
“When it feels like oppressive forces are beating down on you and you have no choice but to give in, I look at history and I realized in every single aspect, the people have always won. I draw hope from history,” Garraway says.
Her journey, punctuated with tragedy and good fortune, makes you believe in the American dream and the power of education, despite a system that may seem flawed.
Education as a Way Out
Garraway’s formative years were spent in New York where her parents struggled to hold steady jobs and care for the family. “My parents didn’t graduate high school but instilled a love of education in me that took me farther,” she says.
In 2012, Hurricane Sandy displaced the family. Garraway lived with her mother in hotels and shelters funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and Garraway found solace from her circumstances in libraries and books.
“In New York, you see homeless people on the streets and in subways, and you realize that no matter how desperate your life seems, it can always be worse,” she explains.
Unfortunately for Garraway, it did get worse. As she was finishing middle school, Garraway’s mother was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer. She sent her to live with her older brother in Fayetteville, North Carolina, while she underwent treatment.
“We were all just surviving as a family unit, so I threw myself into my schoolwork,” she explains. “It was the only solution I saw to my problems. I saw education as my way out.”
Advanced placement courses and classroom debates about the 2016 election contest between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton sparked Garraway’s love of history and politics. “As a black girl in a majority white school with a strong military influence, I couldn’t just tell them they were wrong. I had to have facts to back up my opinions.”
World history classes opened her mind to oppressive forces in different eras and cultures and their similarities to present-day societal struggles.
“I had never made the connection that things existing before me were directly influencing what was around me right now,” she says. “I still believe that answers to issues of the present are found in the past.”
Advice as you head to the polls:
A vote in a country as historically influential as ours is a powerful thing. Vote with empathy, and vote with integrity.
– Kendall Garraway
The World’s a Classroom
Since finances were tight and family support was limited, college felt like a fantasy for Garraway: “I dreamed of living in a dorm and spending hours studying in a library where I didn’t have to worry about anything but school and educating myself.”
Deciding that UNCG’s values aligned with her dreams, she saved earnings from a part-time job to pay the application fees. Although she remembers her sheer happiness in being accepted, she couldn’t cover tuition and had to defer.
But in a strike of luck, Garraway’s aunt and uncle, who were living in Singapore, invited her to spend the first “semester” of her gap year in Asia with them. They were professionals without children who wanted to broaden her mind with new experiences. Garraway studied Mandarin, developed independence through travel and sightseeing, and celebrated her eighteenth birthday in Bali!
“When I think back on it, I realize it was a luxury that I never would have fathomed for myself,” she says. “I had never been on a plane before I went to Asia. They wanted to get me out of that ‘survival’ mindset and think about what I wanted to do with my life.”
Garraway returned home in early 2020 with the COVID-19 pandemic looming and her mother suffering through her last days. “I basically felt like I came back from a dream and was hit with a harsh reality.” She moved in with her uncle, who was an educator in Winston-Salem. He encouraged her to refocus on UNCG, apply for scholarships, and investigate the distance learning program.
A Spartan at Last
A year later, Garraway was back in New York, reconnecting with her father and attending UNCG as a full-time online student. Advisors like Joyce Clapp reassured her that distance learning would work for her. She found classes that engaged her like Comparative Politics, Understanding Race, and Queer Theory.
“I Face Timed with professors and dove into email threads giving me nuanced critiques of my writing,” she remembers. “These professors were pouring into me. Their praise and feedback built my character and built my way of thinking.”
“UNCG’s online program was a life saver during the pandemic. It allowed me to afford UNCG and finally made college possible for me.” – Kendall Garraway
Garraway even took advantage of campus resources like Career & Professional Development. As she approached her third year, she used Handshake to search for internships and interviewed for a summer job at Democracy NC, a non-partisan organization focused on registering voters.
“I was hired as a communications intern and was finally able to focus on my passion for informing marginalized groups. I saved up earnings from a part-time job at McDonald’s to cover airfare and living expenses for a summer in North Carolina.”
Garraway (top) with Democracy NC interns at the North Carolina State Capitol. (Photo submitted by Garraway.)
As Garraway continued her online studies in 2023, she also accepted an internship at a think tank in Manhattan, The Brennan Center for Justice, before coming back to North Carolina for a second year at Democracy NC.
So, in the year leading up to the 2024 election, Garraway is completing her online degree at UNCG and working for non-profits that encourage voter registration. She’s had hands-on experience in communications and policy research, written an op-ed that was published in the Raleigh News and Observer, and brainstormed with staffers at all levels about creative ways to get more people to the polls.
Garraway loves working with non-profits, where she can focus her efforts on what people need “so we can have a more representative government with equitable policies.” However, she is still intrigued by how the past informs the present. With only seventeen credits left before she graduates with honors, she’s contemplating law school, teaching at the collegiate level, and taking on more non-profit positions.
“I will always look for answers in the past,” she says. “I would not be where I am or who I am or the way I am without a history that has made it so. I just hope I can change history for someone like me that will exist in 100 years and make it easier for them to carry the baton.”
Story by Becky Deakins, University Communications. Photos by David Lee Row, University Communications (unless otherwise noted).
Solve today’s problems with knowledge of our history.
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Unexpected Opportunities Carve a Colorful Path for UNCG Art Student
Posted on October 30, 2024
When she was in high school, Destiny Turner had already set goals for her career as an artist, but she was unsure that college was the right track for her. Now, three years later, the Spartan studio art major realizes that saying yes to UNC Greensboro was just the first of a series of opportunities that led to her first public art installation.
A Walk in the Park
On a beautiful fall day, Turner stands with representatives from Greensboro Parks and Recreation and other city officials at the ribbon cutting for Mayer Park. The newly renovated public park, in the Brice Street neighborhood adjacent to UNCG’s campus, now features a sidewalk mural painted by Turner.
Turner, fifth from left, cuts the ribbon to open Mayer Park with other Greensboro officials.
The Mayer Park mural project began in the spring of 2024 when Turner’s design was chosen among six student artists who presented their work to city officials at the Greensboro Project Space (GPS). Caitlyn Schrader, of GPS, facilitates connections like these between UNCG School of Art and the City of Greensboro enabling students to share their art with the public.
“The Mayer Park mural was a wonderful opportunity for our students to gain real-world experience in deepening their understating of making art reflective of their local communities,” says Schrader. “Destiny’s design is an example of how the arts continue to be a thread that connects our institution and our surrounding communities.”
UNCG artists who presented designs for the Mayer Park mural. Turner with her winning quilt design.
A Blanket of Art for a Shared Space
When Turner first saw the park, it was an empty lot; but after researching the demographics of the area, she immediately understood the assignment. Her winning design features a quilt pattern, highlighting motifs and patterns that are consistent across quilts from various cultures in the country.
“Especially in America, quilting is something that is a part of the background of everybody’s culture,” she explains. “It represents shared fate and space.”
After a complete overhaul by the city of Greensboro, Mayer Park now features a dog run, a basketball half-court, playground equipment, and picnic areas. It is the perfect tucked-away space to serve UNCG students and young families living in the apartments and homes around this shared recreation space. The sidewalk that runs through the lawn is brightly painted with Turner’s vibrant quilt design.
Experience ‘Made in Italy’
Although Turner’s design was inspired by American quilts and she credits local organizations like Creative Greensboro for the chance to paint her first public mural, her interest in mural painting was sparked by a study abroad experience in Italy.
Turner wanted to study abroad from the minute she arrived on campus. After finding out she was too late to go on a group trip to Costa Rica with her Spanish class, she discovered an opportunity in Florence, Italy for art students. She worked with UNCG’s financial aid office to make sure her Pell grants and other scholarships would assist with the expenses she needed to spend a semester of her sophomore year overseas.
“My trip to Florence was not just my first time flying, but my first time out of the country,” she explains. “I was scared, but I was so determined to go.”
While in Florence, taking classes at Lorenzo de Medici Institute, Turner was invited to work with an Italian street artist on a mural for the school’s 50th anniversary.
“I never considered public art until I went to Florence,” she says. “It broadened my horizons of what I thought would be possible for me as an artist. I never would’ve been able to create this sidewalk mural without my study abroad experience, and the fact that it is so affordable to study abroad at UNCG definitely helped.”
The Art of Destiny
The opportunities Destiny Turner found at UNCG have advanced her art far beyond what she expected when she was a high schooler questioning whether college was for her.
Now, as a third-year student who has just completed her first solo art installation, Turner looks ahead to graduating with distinction from Lloyd International Honors College in 2026. She appreciates the guidance she has absorbed from teachers like Mariam Aziza Stephan, the drawing instructor who encouraged her to study abroad and nominated her for the Mayer Park mural project.
“I have seen Destiny’s willingness to try new things, engage with new ideas and artistic processes,” says Stephan. “Upon her return from Florence, I had the feeling that her approach to drawing became more rigorous. A rigor that comes from seeing more of the world and not being afraid of failing by taking risks because you have a larger perspective of risks that can be taken. Destiny has been one of the hardest working students that I have had the pleasure to teach, and I expect she will continue to surprise me.”
When asked about how she feels about her design being a part of the Greensboro parks system forever, Turner pauses at the gravity of the question. “The idea of having something permanent in the world – of my art and my ideas – has always been my goal as an artist. I hope to be able to impact the world through my art.”
Story by Becky Deakins, University Communications. Photography by Sean Norona, University Communications. Videography by Grant Gilliard, University Communicaitons.
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UNCG Honors Veterans and Armed service Members
Posted on November 04, 2024
This Veteran’s Day, we’re opening our doors for a special drop-by event to show our appreciation for the brave men and women who have served our country. This event will honor all that have served and are serving.
Veterans can stop by the Faculty Center on November 11 from 9 to 11 a.m. and from 4 to 6 p.m. to grab coffee and donuts in the morning and cupcakes and beverages in the afternoon. There will also be cards that veterans can take that have been signed from fellow UNCG employees expressing our appreciation for their sacrifice.
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UNCG IDEAS Brings Immersive Stage Production to Audience
Posted on October 31, 2024
“Carrot-top!”
Fans of the classic book “Anne of Green Gables” know that this taunt sets off the red-headed Anne (with an “E”), who responds to her classmate’s teasing by breaking a blackboard over his head. Chaos erupts in the classroom.
The scene, as presented by a community theatre in Burlington, North Carolina, added another layer of chaos. Two sets of actors were caught up in the fray, fighting in two languages – English and American Sign Language (ASL). Natalie Griffin, who played Anne Shirley, is deaf. She signed all her lines while interpreter Maddie Almers – now a student at UNC Greensboro – spoke those same lines beside her.
“Anne of Green Gables” was performed by Studio 1 as a shadow play, designed for a deaf or hard-of-hearing audience. Some of the actors could hear; others were deaf. They are each paired with an interpreter – known as a “shadow” or a “terp” – who provided sign language or verbal speech. They worked with Interpreting, Deaf Education and Advocacy Services (IDEAS) in UNCG’s School of Education to make it happen.
At Studio 1, It Takes Two
IDEAS faculty members Glenda Torres and the recently retired Lynne Allen pitched shadow plays to Studio 1’s executive director Tami Kress. “Lynne’s daughter was in a show, and they came to see her performance,” Kress recalls. “They said, ‘Hey, would you be interested in doing this?’ I thought, ‘I don’t know anything about it, but you know what? Let’s do it.’ And the rest is history.'”
Terps may mirror the action onstage by interacting with the actor or by one another.
Instead of placing an interpreter on the side, shadow plays have the interpreters follow the actors around the stage. The audience can fully immerse themselves in the performances because they do not have to “ping pong” their attention. It was a stellar opportunity for Studio 1 to expand its audience while giving students time to shine before graduation. Many of the terps are students recruited by the IDEAS faculty.
“When you’re a newer student, a freshman or sophomore, you get a lot of content-based courses, learning terminology and context,” says IDEAS major Josie Maita, who shadowed the character Ruby. “And sometimes you’re like, ‘Man, I just want to go out and do it.’ This is something for a student to look forward to.”
Maita originally planned to watch one of the shadow plays from the audience. Then she got an email from Assistant Professor Frank Griffin. “It said, ‘We need interpreters for Anne of Green Gables.’ I knew he was having a class downstairs, and so I ran down there and asked, ‘Are there still spots? Can I do the play?’ He said, ‘Yes. You need to be at rehearsal tonight at seven.'”
Almers’ first role as a terp was in Studio 1’s “The Little Mermaid.” She says those bonds she formed inspired her to enroll at UNCG to study ASL interpretation.
“That was surely a role and a production in general that had such a big impact on me and my knowledge of the Deaf Community,” says Almers. “Studio 1’s inclusivity led to me finding my passion for ASL and immersing myself in that community.”
Previous shadow plays include “The Little Mermaid” and “Into the Woods.”
Kress has directed for years, but she says there was a learning curve for staging ASL shadowed plays. She remembers the nervousness of both actors and interpreters going into their first production, but they clicked by the end of the first rehearsal.
“I don’t know how to explain it,” she says. “Everyone just realized, ‘We are like-minded people. We are all thinking outside of the box together.’ And it just took off from there. It was this cool meeting of worlds.”
Shadow Waltz
Studio 1 has a three-sided “thrust stage.” That means the actors must direct their performance in three directions while their interpreters focus their hands and faces toward the center section where the hard-of-hearing audience sits. Griffin, Torres, and Allen would sit in the gallery to make sure the interpreters were visible.
“My actress, Mackenzie, was a little spitfire,” says Maita. “She talked incredibly fast. And so, sometimes I wasn’t moving my hands fast enough. So, Frank would say, ‘You have to condense more.'”
Maita also learned how to emote alongside Mackenzie. “The character of Ruby cries a lot. She stomps, she squeals,” she says. “Facial expressions are really important in ASL. I had to use the facial expressions that I don’t typically use when I’m signing, the facial expressions that I see children use.”
Kress always tells her actors to put thought into their character’s personality. Even if they don’t have a single line, she expects them to express that personality in actions and reactions. She brought the IDEAS students into the process.
“I love how they came together,” she says. “In one scene, Natalie had to throw herself onto her bed. They come up with the idea for Natalie to throw herself into Maddie’s lap, and Maddie would comfort her. They were like best friends, but also the same person.”
Coming Attractions
IDEAS students will return to the stage in the Holly Hill Mall on November 15-17 for “Blithe Spirit,” Studio 1’s 13th shadow play production.
Kress says they picked this play based on feedback from the Deaf Community. “This year, they suggested we do a physical comedy,” she says. “A guy’s wife dies, and then he’s getting remarried, and she comes back as a ghost to try and chase off the new girlfriend.”
Kress is grateful for the chance to deliver the theater experience to more people. “I love making theater accessible. It has always been one of my passions. Making it accessible to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community really is an art form of its own.”
Maita is graduating in December, and she hopes the shadow plays will continue with future IDEAS students. She says, “When you’re an interpreter, you get to join so many different worlds. This was definitely a blast.”
Story by Janet Imrick, University Communications Photography courtesy of Studio 1
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3MT Finalists Announced for 2024 Competition
Posted on October 29, 2024
An 80,000-word thesis or dissertation would take nine hours to present.
Their time limit is three minutes.
Join them and the UNCG Graduate School for the 3MT Final Competition on Tuesday, November 5 from 2 to 3 p.m. in the Alumni House. This event is free and open to the public.
The 3MT Competition challenges master’s and doctoral students to explain their thesis or dissertation research to non-specialist audiences in just three minutes with one PowerPoint slide. This competition celebrates the discoveries made by graduate students and encourages them to communicate the importance of their work to the broader community.
The winners will be selected and announced at the end of the final competition: first place ($1,000), second place ($500), and People’s Choice ($250). The audience will select the People’s Choice winner, so come out, watch the competition, and cast your vote!
3MT Finalists in Alpha Order (Titles subject to change):
Sarah Campbell, History Faculty Mentor: Dr. Torren Gatson Revolution, Restoration, Recognition: The House in the Horseshoe National Register Nomination Reimagined
Esther Cardenas, Biology Faculty Mentor: Dr. Zhenquan Jia The Effect of Carbon Nanodots on Ultrasonic Vocalizations and Other Behaviors of C57BL/6J and LDLr-/- mice
Terry Chavis, Higher Education Faculty Mentor: Dr. Brad Johnson From whose point of view? A phenomenological investigation of epistemological relations with Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Traditional STEM Curriculum & Pedagogy
Ashley Herring-Nicholas, Nanoscience Faculty Mentor: Dr. Eric Josephs The Power of One – CRISPR-Cas precision editing of single nucleotide variants
Stacy Huff, Educational Research, Measurement, and Evaluation Faculty Mentor: Dr. Sandra Ayoo Exploring Compassion Fatigue in Program Evaluation
Nooshin KianvashRad, Nanoscience Faculty Mentor: Dr. Dennis LaJeunesse Cracking the Code of Drug-Resistant Fungi: Nanotechnology Meets Bioinformatics
Merna Melad, Nanoscience Faculty Mentor: Dr. Eric Josephs How Far Is Enough? Dreaming of a Future Beyond 6 Feet Apart
Crystal Thinzar, Psychology Faculty Mentor: Dr. Margaret “Megan” Fields-Olivieri Keeping it R.E.A.L.: Understanding Everyday Socialization Processes in Parents of Toddlers
Panesun Tukur, Nanoscience Faculty Mentor: Dr. Jianjun Wei Fast-Track Innovation: Unleashing AI and ML for Rapid Product Development
Nora Webb, English Faculty Mentor: Dr. Risa Applegarth The American Witch: Acts of Communication and Rebellion
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UNCG Researchers Find Feeding Practices Play a Central Role in Infants’ Rapid Weight Gain
Posted on October 28, 2024
Infants who gain weight rapidly are at a higher risk for obesity. UNCG scientists have uncovered which factors are most closely linked to rapid weight gain during infancy, and they provide helpful recommendations for parents.
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Ambitious Animations
Posted on October 29, 2024
Honors Ambassadors Jasmine Doctor and Sa'mya Mohammad
Lloyd International Honors College ambassadors on storytelling, connections and leadership
Empowering students comes in many forms at UNC Greensboro, including by giving students spaces to tell their stories, make personal connections, and lead by example.
UNCG seniors Jasmine Doctor and Sa’mya Muhammad – animation majors in the College of Visual and Performing Arts – recently put their academics and marketing skills on display. They combined forces to give a virtual presentation on new media to students at the NC School of Science and Mathematics, many of whom were interested in game design.
“We presented a slide show that was an overview of new media and design, including some of our work, and talked about programs students can combine with their majors, like we do in the Lloyd Disciplinary Honors,” Muhammad says. Among the slides, Doctor included storyboards and 2-D animation, and Muhammad added 3-D animation and modeling.
The two are primed for career prospects in animation with a growing demand for artists who can create 3-D and 2-D graphics for video games, news broadcasts, professional sports teams, and animation studios. Sharing their UNCG experience with the next round of future animators was an apt way to reflect what it’s taken to prepare them for launch from the program.
The honors advantage
Artwork by Jasmine Doctor
Doctor, who is from Florence, SC, and Muhammad, from King’s Mountain, NC, met online before they came to UNCG four years ago and were matched as roommates in the Lloyd International Honors College where they both serve as ambassadors.
“Honors College taught us a lot about how to grow as a person, be more of a leader, find new opportunities and try new things.” says Doctor. “It’s one reason I came to UNCG. I liked the requirement to study abroad, which has been an interest of mine since I was really young.” Doctor has traveled to both Japan and Italy through UNCG; the Honors College offers scholarships and grants to help fund travel expenses.
“It also provides disciplinary artists so we can elevate our art classes, and it gave us experience in making presentations,” Doctor says.
Muhammad adds, “When I met the Honors staff, their energy was contagious. They were passionate about what they were teaching, and that’s something I need — someone teaching the class who’s just as passionate as I am.”
Animation aspirations
Doctor plans to work in the animation industry, maybe in small, independent studios, in the U.S. or Japan, where she hopes to live someday. She has been interested in the country since she met a Japanese exchange student in fourth grade. The two are still friends. She traveled to Japan in 2023 through UNCG and felt at home there. Her minor in Asian studies enables her to focus on Japanese culture and language. She wants to compare the animation industry in the two countries.
Muhammad wants to attend graduate school and come back to UNCG to teach animation. She too has visited Japan, as well as South Korea, with assistance from UNCG. She was once interested in working abroad but has grown attached to UNCG and wants “to create opportunities at home before I create opportunities anywhere else,” she says.
She’d also like to open her own animation studio focused on children’s entertainment. Her goal is to create shows that help children embrace their environment and make them more open to trying new things. “I want to feature characters from around the world and help children see that they can succeed, no matter where they come from, or what they look like.” In her minor in entrepreneurship, she is studying how to start and run a business.
Artwork by Sa’mya Muhammad
Connections for the future
Both students appreciate the opportunities UNCG provides to build relationships with professors. “You’re encouraged to go to office hours, to talk to them in class and take advantage of them while you have them,” Doctor says. “I want to stay in contact with them and work with them in the future.”
Muhammad adds, “My professors have helped me feel comfortable in myself and my work. They’re really good at making sure their students have their plan set for the future.”
Story by Mary Daily
Photography and artwork courtesy of Jasmine Doctor and Sa’mya Muhammad
