Her professor suggested the Peer Tutoring program, run through the Learning Center in the College of Arts and Sciences.

“I’ve been coming here ever since the beginning of the semester, twice a week,” said Greer as she waited for a one-on-one session at Dey Hall, six days before her Spanish final.

Peer Tutoring offers students like Greer free help from their fellow Tar Heels in nearly 150 classes, from foreign languages to chemistry and biology, statistics and computer science, business and economics, and subjects in between.

This fall, 947 students used the program, attending 1,958 appointments — on Zoom and in-person at Dey Hall and Student and Academic Services Building North — according to Robin Horton ’10 (MA), ’18 (PhD), the Peer Tutoring specialist at the Learning Center.

The 80-plus tutors who helped them are also students. They have all earned a high grade in the subject they tutor and have taken (or are enrolled in) Horton’s EDUC 387: Peer Tutoring course.

Tate Schwalm, a student tutor on staff at the Learning Center, directs a student toward their Peer Tutoring appointment at Dey Hall. Schwalm, who tutors in Spanish and Portuguese, enjoys helping students, especially those he works with regularly. “Those are probably my favorite sessions because if you know they’re coming in again, you can set small goals with them and hold them accountable.” (Jon Gardiner/UNC-Chapel Hill)

‘The best and brightest at Carolina’

EDUC 387 covers topics like learning strategies, study skills and ways to share concepts and resources.

“Tutoring is not teaching,” Horton said. “This is kind of surprising for a lot of them in the beginning. They’re encouraged to ask questions, help guide the student and redirect them to resources so that they have long-lasting support after the appointment.”

In other words, the students receiving help still do their own work, but they benefit from a peer’s guidance.

“They don’t tell you the answers,” Greer said. “You have to put in the work yourself. I like that aspect of it.”

Helping Greer was Sierra Flynn-Nesbeth, a junior currently taking EDUC 387. A Buckley Public Service Scholar, Flynn-Nesbeth was drawn to the course and being a tutor for two reasons: to earn APPLES service-learning credit and to hone her already strong Spanish skills by working with others.

“It’s rewarding when you see the concept finally clicks” with a student, she said.

Other students take Horton’s course for experiential education credit. Many are there because of a professor’s encouragement, like Diya Kalyanshetti, who lends expertise in statistics and Spanish.

And some, like Kara Forslund, who received help from tutors in chemistry and biology, decide they’re interested in tutoring others.

“I was like, ‘Oh, I really like this. This is super helpful,’” Forslund said. “Then I just looked up how to become a tutor on the Learning Center website.”

After taking Horton’s course, she was asked to become one of the 20-plus paid tutors on staff. Now she tutors others in the same subjects that brought her to Peer Tutoring for help.

What keeps the job fun and worthwhile? Forslund enjoys the challenge of tailoring her approach to each individual.

“You might come across a student where you have to try to navigate something differently than you thought was going to work and then try a couple different ways to go about something,” she said.

Horton has overseen the program since 2019. One constant has been the professionalism and brilliance of the hundreds of student tutors she’s worked with and taught.

“They tend to be some of the best and brightest at Carolina,” she said. “They work hard and are really responsible.”

Greer can see the finish line in her once-daunting Spanish class. She thinks others can benefit from this peer-to-peer program.

“It’s been really helpful,” Greer said. “I would recommend it.”

Robin Horton (left) oversees the Learning Center’s Peer Tutoring program. Horton teaches EDUC 387: Peer Tutoring, which each of the 80 student tutors she works with have either taken or are enrolled in. Kara Forslund (second from right), took Horton’s class after previously receiving tutoring through the program and has since become a staff tutor. (Jon Gardiner/UNC-Chapel Hill)

Rameses, the beloved ram mascot, made his first appearance at a Tar Heels football game in November 1924. Now, 100 years and 22 Rameses later, the mascot is an enduring presence on campus. 

Press play above to learn about the history of Rameses at Carolina. 

The Carolina professors co-teach Art & Science: Merging Printmaking and Biology, an interdepartmental course in the College of Arts and Sciences. According to its syllabus, the class “brings art majors and science majors together to make artwork that arises out of scientific inquiry.”

Goldstein, the James Peacock III Distinguished Professor in the biology department, handles the science. Grabowski, the Kappa Kappa Gamma Distinguished Professor of Art, lends artistic expertise.

“We often get students with a foot in both worlds,” Grabowski said. “Most Carolina students carry a double major or a major and multiple minors. We’ve had art students with STEM majors and plenty of people with other majors that also inform their work.”

In the work students produce, science influences art and vice versa. “Often the science content becomes the vehicle for something with a lot of emotional and personal meaning,” Goldstein said. “In lots of ways, the art influences the science as well, and that’s really interesting to think about because it’s subtle.”

Once the work is complete, the students will display their pieces at an art show in the Genome Sciences Building lobby in January. Take a look at last year’s show.

Check out photos of students and teachers at work.

Sophomore Sophia Oh receives guidance from Goldstein while working on her project at the Hanes Art Center.

Junior Jacqueline Ari works with Grabowski on her project at the Hanes Art Center.

Junior Aliha Younus works on her art piece at the Hanes Art Center.

Senior Sophia Atkinson receives guidance from Grabowski on her project at the Hanes Art Center.

Sophomore Jesse Patete works on his art piece at the Hanes Art Center.

At the time, Huang was an international student at UNC-Chapel Hill from Wuhan, China, studying business and computer science. He also was interested in photography. So, every year on his way to China, he would stop in a different country to take pictures.

On this particular morning in 2023, when Huang took “Guanajuato’s Blue Hour Charm,” he was on his way to China, having booked a connecting flight through Mexico City. He then traveled five hours by bus to spend his one-night layover in Guanajuato.

“I really feel like the Carolina Global Photography Competition has turned what could have been simple layovers into rich cultural explorations,” Huang said.

The photography competition’s review committee picked Huang’s photo as a finalist for the 2024 exhibition, but it wasn’t his first selection. In 2022, he was the second-place winner with “Under the Waterfall,” shot at Goðafoss Waterfall during a vacation in Iceland. “Wandering Souls in Český Krumlov,” a photo he made in the Czech Republic, was also a finalist in the competition one year.

The FedEx Global Education Center is home to UNC Global Affairs — which coordinates the photography competition — as well as the Study Abroad Office, Carolina’s six area studies centers, International Student and Scholar Services and the curriculum in global studies. Finalists from the Carolina Global Photography Competition are displayed there as part of the annual exhibition.

Huang showed his Český Krumlov photo, hanging in the building, to a fellow student who came here from the Czech Republic. “My friend was really amazed to see her country represented at UNC-Chapel Hill,” Huang said. “The Carolina Global Photography Competition has a remarkable impact on campus diversity. It allows many countries to leave a visual footprint at UNC.”

In addition to traveling regularly to China, Huang also participated in a study abroad program during his senior year. He traveled to Singapore through the global immersion elective at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School. Sharon Cannon, the clinical professor of management and corporate communication at the business school who led the course, remembers being struck by Huang’s confidence and adventurous spirit and how he used his language skills to help his peers navigate the city.

Huang is currently studying computer science at Brown University. He hopes to meld his interest in technology with his love of travel by working as a software engineer for a travel-tech company like Hopper or Airbnb. Until then, Huang plans to continue using his layovers as chances to explore, learn about and photograph interesting places. He hopes that his photos will continue to contribute to the richness and representation that the photography contest brings to the UNC-Chapel Hill campus.

“I think [the photography competition] serves as a catalyst for opening students up to the world and to global experiences, like it has done for me,” he said.

UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, staff and alumni are encouraged to submit their photos to the 2024 Carolina Global Photography Competition by Sept. 16.

“They have one of the most engaged alumni bodies for their organization,” said Marcie Leemore, director of enrichment programs at Carolina Alumni. “The organization exists to keep Carolina’s traditions alive.”

The way the order’s members do that has changed over the 44 years of the group’s history. Chartered in 1980, the Order of the Bell Tower has helped host visitors to the chancellor’s box at Carolina football games and served up breakfast (Waffles at Wilson or Biscuits at the Bell Tower) on University Day. They also offer “care packages” of snacks and other items parents can have delivered to students during exams.

But the True Blue booklet that students could stamp when they took their first sip from the Old Well or climbed the Bell Tower has been replaced by the Carolina Alumni app, where they can win prizes by clicking off up to 70 traditions.

The group is also service oriented, sponsoring a Shadow Day that allows teenagers to experience what life on a college campus is like and working together on Habitat for Humanity builds. In fact, the very first students recruited for the order were already running an action line phone service to help answer questions about navigating campus.

“People would call and ask, ‘How do I make an appointment at student health?’ or ‘What are the free movies showing at the Union this week?’” recalled Laurie Norman ‘83, director of alumni relations and annual giving at the School of Education. Norman was a charter member of the order and an adviser for the group when she worked for the alumni association.

“I would describe it as a service-based organization that focuses on alumni and student engagement with one another. It’s just an opportunity to meet alumni that some other organizations would never have,” Norman said.

She remembered being awestruck by the alumni she met at football games, after coming early to place seat cushions in the chancellor’s box. “As a first-generation college student coming from a small town, Wilkesboro, to then meet some of these people that I knew were in the state government and in other roles — I thought that was a pretty big deal.”

Lexi Bell ’22 was a member of the Order of the Bell Tower. (Jon Gardiner/UNC-Chapel Hill)

Making connections with alumni and other students was one of the biggest challenges for more recent members, like Andrew Spratley ‘24, who joined the organization during the pandemic and became president his senior year.

The members brainstormed ways to keep traditions alive by revamping them with socially distanced and remote options. Spratley oversaw reinventing Shadow Day under pandemic conditions. He compiled a massive email list, asking guidance counselors across the state to promote a Zoom panel discussion to their students.

“There might have been 500, or there might have been somewhere around 1,000 because people just kept signing into the Zoom session,” Spratley said. “It was much more than what I was expecting to show up on a random Tuesday night.”

Spratley, now a first-year law student at the University of South Carolina, encourages new students to apply to join the order. “It’s always a great group of people, if you’re looking to get involved with UNC.”

Students are invited to attend Order of the Bell Tower interest meetings at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 12 or Sept. 20. Pizza and drinks will be provided during the event, which will be held at the George Watts Hill Alumni Center on Stadium Drive.

A team of six student managers handles the website, social media, events, finance and strategy so creators can focus on making handcrafted fashions, jewelry, artwork, stickers, prints and other décor.

“We have 30 creators and there’s more interest,” said Student-Made UNC campus manager Shreya Gundam ‘25, a computer science major from Cary.

Carolina was one of the first five universities to join Student-Made, a network of student-run businesses begun in 2019 and now active on 11 campuses. The platform supports student entrepreneurs with systems to help with marketing, shipping, promotion, strategy and more. At Carolina, Student-Made UNC also gets support from Innovate Carolina’s 1789 venture lab, with workshops, classes and networking opportunities.

Since launching Student-Made UNC in 2021, these Tar Heel makers have built up their craft inventory, uploaded photos and descriptions to a sales website (on summer hiatus until Aug. 20) and taken part in several pop-up shops. In the 2023-24 academic year, Student-Made UNC accounted for 957 orders for 1,300 units and $18,500 in sales, hosting 25 pop-up sales events in the community.

More than that, the platform gives these entrepreneurs the skills and confidence they need to succeed.

“Student-Made helped ground me and find a place at UNC,” said Gundam, who began her Once Upon a Scrap business using the sewing skills her grandmother taught her.

“When I was younger and staying at my grandma’s house, there was no wi-fi, but there was plenty of fabric,” she said. “During COVID, we stitched hospital gowns out of old blankets.”

Now Gundam upcycles new cloth scraps into floral wreaths, ruffled earrings and keychains, and potted plants. “I was already making products,” she said, but through Student-Made, “I learned to interact with people and gained a lot of confidence to market myself.”

“I’ve always been pretty crafty,” said Emma Wieber ‘26, creator of The Dainty Daffodil jewelry line, which features drop earrings, hoops and beaded necklaces and bracelets. “A lot of people I know have small businesses, and this is a university where that’s encouraged.”

(Courtesy of Emma Wieber)

Student-Made found her on Instagram, Wieber said. Now, as social media manager, she returns the favor by making Instagram and other platform posts to promote the Student-Made UNC creators.

An advertising and public relations major from Siler City, Wieber doesn’t know if she’ll make jewelry her career but wants to continue creating as a hobby. “I can’t imagine not doing it,” she said.

As the Student-Made UNC community engagement manager, Payton Wilkins ’26 handles onboarding and training for new creators and plans community events for the team, like craft nights or going out for dinner or bubble tea.

A junior from Graham, Wilkins taught herself to crochet using kits and YouTube videos but got serious about making her craft into a business during the COVID-19 lockdown. She crafts bees, turtles, dinosaurs and bunnies with carrot backpacks. She had tried selling her crocheted animal creations on her mother’s Facebook page, on Instagram and through an Etsy shop, but with Student-Made, “I’ve done way better.”

Other student managers include Mary-Slade McKee, content creator; Ana Guevara, finance and strategy manager; Geensia Xiong, website manager, and Anna Routh, events and partnerships manager.

A communication and information science double major from Morganton, Xiong is not a creator herself but relishes her promotional role uploading photos and descriptions of the crafts. “I love supporting them. They’re all so cool, and not enough people know about it.”

(Courtesy of Emma Wieber)

Student Mikaila Thompson looks at a vinyl record in the Beat Lab. (Donn Young/UNC College of Arts and Sciences)

To develop skills in rap, beatmaking or DJ-ing, students chose from one of three courses: The Art and Culture of the DJ, Beat Making Lab or Rap Lab. Each class day featured a focused session with the teachers followed by jam sessions and discussions among the three classes.

Student Mason Wasik is pictured with teaching assistant professor Maya Shipman and her co-instructor who is known as VSPRTN. (Donn Young/UNC College of Arts and Sciences)

The institute is led by teaching assistant professor Maya Shipman (professionally known as Suzi Analogue). A chart-topping prolific producer, songwriter and composer, she is also the musical director of the UNC Hip Hop Ensemble.

Instructor VSPRTN helps student Briar Rose. (Donn Young/UNC College of Arts and Sciences)

In an Endeavors magazine story on the Beat Lab, Analogue said she works continuously to make sure the lab’s equipment is up to date.

(Donn Young/UNC College of Arts and Sciences)

“Hopefully, the Beat Lab serves as an example of how we can make music creation more equitable and accessible in our world and use it as a point for unity and diplomacy for different communities,” she says.

Instructor VSPRTN helps student Briar Rose. (Donn Young/UNC College of Arts and Sciences)

The institute draws its instructors, structure and philosophy from the Next Level international hip-hop exchange program developed by professor Mark Katz. That program recently celebrated its 10th year.

Student Brooks Farabow at the Hip Hop Institute. (Donn Young/ UNC College of Arts and Sciences)

Students explore the Beat Lab all year as a community space where musicians can use a wide variety of DJ gear, electronic music tools and digital resources to practice, create and collaborate in making music.

Read more about faculty member Maya Shipman (Suzi Analogue).

Photojournalist Josh Mouser of First Flight High in Kill Devil Hills edits photos from a scavenger hunt that challenged him to get something different from everybody else.

Sofia Ahmad, the associate editor-in-chief of the school newspaper at West Johnston High in Benson, writes a profile of state legislator Tim Longest, whom she and other students interviewed in a news conference minutes before.

The three of them were among the 150 students from 24 high schools across the state who, accompanied by chaperones from their schools, came to Chapel Hill last month for a three-day deep dive into all things media. At the North Carolina Scholastic Media Association’s annual summer institute, students are treated like the professionals they admire, learning from skilled educators, many from the Hussman School of Journalism and Media.

“I was a little nervous coming in because I didn’t have a lot of experience, and I didn’t know how tough the assignments were going to be,” said Topham, who added she’s now more likely to study media in college. “But once I got here and we started doing it, I really loved it.”

Attendees of the institute could choose focuses, including broadcast news, web design, news, photojournalism and yearbook. (Johnny Andrews/UNC-Chapel Hill)

The tradition of students across North Carolina coming to UNC-Chapel Hill to learn about journalism has a long history.

“It goes back to 1936 when students at the Daily Tar Heel first invited area high school students to join them here for events and then led to the formation of this association,” said NCSMA director Monica Hill.

Carolina students remain at the forefront of the association. A team of four student assistants help with outreach and preparation for the institute and other programming, including a sports journalism camp and statewide seasonal workshops.

“The work is really high-intensive because we have lots of programming, and we run a statewide contest,” Hill said. “They interact with K-12 teachers and students and parents, and they’re very mission-oriented jobs. They are students who want to help students.”

Audrey Kashatus ’25 (left) said “the important thing” is that the high school students are “interested in college journalism, no matter what college that might be.” (Johnny Andrews/UNC-Chapel Hill)

Audrey Kashatus ’25, a media and journalism major, said she appreciates the opportunity to tell high schoolers what they can “expect and what they can look forward to” in college. On the camp’s opening day, she moderated a Q&A on college journalism with her Daily Tar Heel colleague Emmy Martin ’25, the paper’s former editor-in-chief.

Some institute attendees go on to thrive at Carolina and beyond. NCSMA student assistant Abigail Welch ’24 later became editor-in-chief of Cellar Door, Carolina’s oldest undergraduate literary magazine. Former NCSMA student assistants have become communication pros, like Kendra Douglas ’16, a sideline reporter for the Orlando Magic, and Timothy Daye ’18, the Chicago Bears’ manager of social media content creation.

The institute also attracts alumni as teachers, like Julia Wall ’13, a professional photographer and videographer who has worked for The News & Observer and The Assembly. She said her current job wasn’t on her radar when she was her students’ age.

The institute highlights media as a potential career path but also shows how the training can be useful in other professions. For example, Ahmad is interested in law, but said reporting is “just a great skill to have.”

While some of the attendees may one day become Tar Heels, the purpose of the institute is to prepare students to excel wherever they go.

“The important thing is that they are interested in college journalism, no matter what college that might be,” Kashatus said.

Julia Wall ’13 assists a student in her photojournalism class at the North Carolina Scholastic Media Institute. (Johnny Andrews/UNC-Chapel Hill)

But many Carolina fans may not know that the University now has a full-fledged women’s collegiate dynasty in a non-varsity sport. Carolina’s Pleiades team is a Goliath in the flying disc sport known as “ultimate Frisbee” or “ultimate.”

When the Pleiades traveled to Wisconsin in late May to vie for their fourth-straight national title, they could feel everyone in the stadium rooting against them.

“No one really likes to see the defending back-to-back-to-back champions win,” quipped team member Martha Plaehn. “So we were dealing with a crowd that maybe was not friendly to us.”

The jeers didn’t hinder them. Neither did Stanford’s infamously stingy zone defense.

On May 27, the Pleiades defeated Stanford 15-10 in the Division I women’s championship to bring a fourth-straight national title back to Chapel Hill.

“It felt incredible, and it doesn’t get old,” said Dhara Buebel, another team captain. “I am so incredibly impressed by what my teammates did, and that’s something that won’t wear off – that feeling of accomplishment, that feeling of not only do we get to do this really cool thing, but we get to do it together.”

Founded in 1995, the Pleiades program grew through the systematic effort of players, coaches and alums to become the juggernaut it is today, making seven-straight nationals appearances and winning its last four.

Simply put, the Pleiades don’t lose, especially in recent years. Starting in February 2020, the Pleiades went a staggering 1,498 days without losing, winning 143 games in a row before dropping a regular season contest against Carleton College on March 17.

Players point to multiple factors for that sustained success, starting with head coach Jessi Jones and her staff. A master strategist, Jones has developed systems that the Pleiades can use in every game – with room for creativity when needed.

Just as important is the culture that Jones and the Pleiades established. Named after the “Seven Sisters” star constellation, Pleiades feels like a loving family, welcoming players of all gender identities and all levels of ultimate experience.

“I think Pleiades is really cool because of the way that that it uplifts its players,” said star player Dawn Culton, who has been part of all four national titles. “I’ve never been on a team where people have believed in each other to the extent that people believe in each other on Pleiades.”

Culton scored six goals in the team’s most recent national title game, and she earned national player of the year honors. A May graduate from the UNC School of Social Work, Culton said she enrolled at Carolina, in part, because of Pleiades’ reputation in the ultimate world.

But even for less-experienced players like Plaehn, who tried out for Pleiades on a whim during her first year in school, the program quickly provided a special sense of community.

“My experience at UNC is completely wrapped up in my experience with Pleiades in a really beautiful way,” Plaehn said. “This is a community I never realized I would discover. All of my best friends are my teammates. My partner is one of my teammates.

“I know there are other communities like that at UNC, and they’re beautiful and maybe undiscovered, but I think having a community like Pleiades is so important and has completely shaped my college experience.”

Press play above to watch a video from Commencement.