Attracting Exceptional Students

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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