No Stranger To Hard Work

Tarik Woods ’20 is no stranger to hard work. He got his first job at 14, working to help support his five siblings, to buy a car and clothes. Hard work and drive led the Salisbury, North Carolina, native to introduce two juvenile justice reform bills before Congress, and with counsel from then-President Barack Obama. Through his skillful leadership, both bills passed.

That tenacity to effect positive change brought Tarik to UNC-Chapel Hill as a Carolina Covenant Scholar. As a member of Carolina’s Student Congress, the sophomore English and public policy double major (and philosophy minor) already is working to improve representation and better reflect the student population.

After graduation, Tarik plans to attend law school, become a Judge Advocate General (JAG) officer in the U.S. Navy, then a federal prosecutor. Then he’ll run for Congress. And if things go as he plans, you can vote for him for President in 2044.

Tarik says the Carolina Covenant is “something for those students who have worked their butts off to have it, and when they get here, they keep working their butts off.”

Watch Tarik explain why the Carolina Covenant is so valuable to him.

This is story number 128 in the Carolina Stories 225th Anniversary Edition magazine.

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