While in high school, Olivia Santangelo ‘22 entertained the thought of attending a four-year university but wasn’t sure if that was a path she would have the opportunity to pursue. Today, she is currently on track to graduate from Carolina this December with a biology degree and a minor in neuroscience.
Growing up, Santangelo faced personal hardships that made it challenging to participate in meaningful pursuits inside and outside the classroom. “Knowing that I was not the most well-rounded college applicant, I tentatively strung an application together on my own and only applied to one university on a whim — Carolina. While I did not get in, I ended up being waitlisted.”
Santangelo did not let that discourage her from her bigger goals and dreams. “This did not leave me feeling rejected but rather profoundly encouraged as I knew that with time, I was capable of producing a higher quality academic and professional performance,” she said. Santangelo decided to continue pursuing higher education and attended a local community college. She earned her associate’s degree in 2019 and reapplied to Carolina the following year when she was accepted.
Santangelo reflected on how The Carolina Fund Scholarship helped her achieve her goal of attending a four-year university. The Carolina Fund provides the University with flexible funding to meet critical campus needs and seize emerging opportunities that will enrich student experiences, faculty research, and scholarship. Santangelo shared, “Without the generous financial support from Carolina, I would have been hesitant to jump into an undergraduate program at a four-year university when I did. This scholarship has assisted me in being set to graduate on time with distinction, as I was able to focus on my academics without the overburdening stressors that financial hardship can cause.”
“Transferring to a new school amid a global pandemic has presented some unique challenges,” she continued “However, there was one moment on a fall afternoon when I stepped into an empty Kenan Stadium and looked out onto the field where the sky appeared as if it were painted a beautiful Carolina blue. I remember taking in the vastness of it all and feeling especially accomplished and proud to have been accepted into this university at that moment.”
As Santangelo prepares for her final exams in a course that will complete her degree requirements, she looks forward to post-graduation life, where she plans on taking additional pre-requisite courses in preparation for further education in laboratory medicine.
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Collards sizzle in a pan on a hot stove before a lid stifles their chorus. Cutting boards, vegetables, and dishes crowd the countertop in a small apartment kitchen. A nearby sweet potato pie exudes the warming aromas of cinnamon, allspice and bourbon, filling the room with its perfume each time the oven door opens.
“If apple pie is the most American pie, then sweet potato pie is the most Black American pie,” said Bailey Benson ’23, a Morehead-Cain Scholar majoring in food studies at UNC-Chapel Hill.
She pulls the pie from the oven to cool, then dons plastic gloves and reaches for a bag of chicken that has been marinating in a sweet-and-spicy peanut sauce. Her roommate, Serenity Bennett, clicks off the stove dial and removes the pan of collards. The mouth-watering meal is accompanied by sweet potato cubes, couscous and a spicy margarita — all recipes included in Benson’s cookbook.
“An Afrofuturist’s Guide to Cooking” is her undergraduate thesis project. Benson’s life experiences thus far culminate in pages that connect the reader to not only food, but also a rich history of Black Americans descended from people displaced by the trans-Atlantic slave trade. This displacement, known as the Black diaspora, occurred throughout the world, but Benson focuses on the borders of the U.S. for her project.
Benson weaves together art, music, recipes, interviews and historical documents to tell the story from the Black perspective, using her own life experiences to inform her process.
“It started as a cookbook,” she said, “but now I describe it as an educational celebration of Black joy.”
Her approach to the cookbook makes the recipes and cultural history more accessible, and she hopes to eventually publish it to help others relearn their past in an inclusive way.
“I want everybody to be able to not only read it and enjoy it, but also cook from it and have a good meal.”
Read more about Benson’s project…"
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Fidele Mugisha ’21, could have an entirely different story. As a young boy, he experienced the worst of humanity: the slaughter of his people, hopelessness, sadness and fear that can change a person’s heart.
The ongoing civil war against his tribe, the Banyamulenge (Congolese Tutsi) meant his family was always on the run. When Mugisha was just 9, he and his parents and younger siblings lived near the Gatumba Refugee Camp near Bujumbura, the capital of Burundi, with their people.
The Forces for National Liberation massacred more than 166 civilian Banyamulenge and wounded another 106 at the camp on Aug. 13, 2004. The trauma for Mugisha was profound but he dared to dream of a different life.
In 2015, Mugisha and his family arrived in Durham, North Carolina. During their first month, as the oldest of nine children, he went to work to help support his family, vacuuming cars at a car wash and mowing a golf course.
Through the Carolina Student Transfer Excellence Program (C-STEP) for high-achieving community-college students, Mugisha was able to graduate from Durham Technical Community College before moving to Carolina for his next step in higher education.
He earned the Carolina Covenant, which covered his full financial needs through grants, scholarships and work-study, and he successfully enrolled in UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School. Mugisha is now an ISG investment pricing analyst with Lenovo in Morrisville, North Carolina.
Never forgetting his past, Mugisha performs community service by mentoring and tutoring young refugees. Faith – in God and God-given gifts – is what has taken Mugisha from that tragic day at the refugee camp to UNC Kenan-Flagler alumnus.
“I’ve learned honestly to forgive and love people,” he said. “When they do me wrong, I genuinely choose to love them because that’s what God asks us to do.
Read more about Mugisha’s journey to Carolina and success as an alumnus…"
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Kate Golson and Fareeda Akewusola at a Carolina basketball game. (courtesy of Fareeda Akewusola)
Honors Carolina advisory board co-chair Brian Golson and his wife, Alisa, endowed the Golson Family Honors Carolina Scholarship as a recruiting tool for extraordinary students.
The inaugural recipient is Fareeda Akewusola ‘26, a first-year student from Houston, Texas, who had a choice of more than a dozen prestigious universities. She had narrowed the field to Carolina and the University of Chicago, both of which offered full-ride scholarships.
After visiting both, she said yes to Carolina on the spot.
She knew studying abroad was a must. She plans to declare neuroscience as her major and is applying for a neuropharmacology study abroad program in Australia in summer 2023.
Outside the classroom, Akewusola can rattle off a diverse list of activities she’s involved in — including the campus jiu-jitsu and wrestling clubs, the pre-health fraternity Alpha Epsilon Delta and the One Africa student organization.
She and the Golsons regularly stay in touch, and she has become friends with their daughter Kate, who is a sophomore at Carolina. “Most scholarships don’t come with relationships with donors and senior faculty,” said Akewusola. “It’s significant that I have an extended family here who I can talk with about anything.”
The Golsons are thrilled that their gift was instrumental in attracting Akewusola to Carolina.
Having a hand in enticing exceptional students to attend Carolina is incredibly rewarding, “and selfishly, we want them at UNC,” Alisa Golson said.
Read more about the Campaign for Carolina’s impact on the Honors Carolina program…"
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