Charlie Paine poses in front of a building on the Emory University campus that he is trying to save from demolition.
The College of Charleston attracts some of the most engaged – and engaging – students in the country and the world. Witness the class of 2019, a group of over 2,300 freshmen who hail from 39 U.S. states and 9 countries around the world. Among them are valedictorians, entrepreneurs, professional musicians, Eagle Scouts and accomplished athletes. We’ll introduce you to just a few of them here:
Meet Charlie Paine from Atlanta, Ga. Charlie is passionate about historic preservation. In fact, his efforts to preserve a 1920s building on the Emory University campus were featured in Atlanta’s Creative Loafing magazine this spring.
At the College, he plans to major in historic preservation and community planning and says he chose the College because of the prestigious program that it has in this field.
Sophia Emetu, the College’s inaugural RISE Scholar.
And say hello to Sophia Emetu, who is attending the College as its inaugural R.I.S.E. Scholar (Recognizing Intelligence, Strength, and Engagement). This scholarship is for highly talented Honors students with demonstrated need. It was endowed last year by alums Sara ’02 and Ben DeWolf ’02.
Emetu is from Columbia, S.C. She will be enrolled in the Honors College and says she plans to pursue a major in biochemistry.
Last spring – as valedictorian at Columbia High School – she told her fellow graduates that they should: “Walk out of this place knowing that you have the skills to learn, the aptitude to succeed, the abilities and creativity to make a difference and the potential to solve problems that face society.”
Sophia sounds like the perfect CofC Cougar.
Preston Johnson performing on stage at the Blackberry Jam in Franklin, Tenn.
Another member of the Class of 2019 is Preston Johnson, a singer-songwriter from Nashville, Tenn. He says his influences are Lynyrd Skynyrd, Alan Jackson and Brad Paisley.
Johnson has been performing in venues around the Southeast for over five years, both as a headliner and as an opening act. He sometimes appears with a band and sometimes plays solo.
After visiting the College last year, he wrote a song about Charleston entitled “Carolina.” You can catch Preston playing that song on YouTube.
Gerald Williams pursuing his passion as a competitive sailboat racer.
Then there’s Gerald Williams from Hong Kong, one of several international students who are freshmen this year.
Williams plans to join the College’s varsity sailing team. He’s been a competitive sailor since the age of 12, and says that he chose the College “because of its fantastic sailing program and the fact that it helps student-athletes create a balance between their academics and their sport.”
After spending the past year in Turkey, Brenna Knippen is nearly fluent in Turkish.
And if you’re interested in Turkey, then you’ll want to get to know Honors College student Brenna Knippen, who is from outside Chicago. Brenna opted to take a year off between high school and college so that she could participate in a National Security Language Initiative for Youth scholarship program in Turkey.
She spent the better part of the past year in Izmir, and arrived back in the U.S. the day before her college orientation session. On her blog (Traveling Through Turkey), she says learning Turkish has brought her indescribable joy.
Knippen admits that she’ll miss the food and so many other things about living in Turkey, but is excited to be embarking on a new adventure in Charleston.
Mike Edenzon is gearing up for life at the College of Charleston.
And here’s Mike Edenzon of Princeton, N.J. Edenzon is something of a Renaissance man. He played high school baseball, was a junior golf instructor for Nike and a camp counselor for the Special Olympics.
He also designed his high school’s centennial logo.
But where Edenzon really excels is in computer science. He’s already developed several of his own apps, including one that is for sale on iTunes. (It’s an app that allows high school students at his alma mater – the Hun School – to check their schedules.)
