UNC Asheville's Top 10 Stories

2020

By UNC Asheville

December 1^st, 2020

What will you remember most about 2020? Of course, the COVID-19 has impacted all of our lives in ways we couldn't imagine in 2019. But with challenges and tragedy has also come compassion, resiliency and creativity as the UNC Asheville community forged ahead through this unpredictable year. Take a look back at our Top 10 Stories from 2020, and join us as we look ahead to a new year, and new stories, in 2021.

Sweet Success

There’s a reason the giant cookies on alumna Caroline Dockery’s Instagram page for her bakery, Morsel, look so good.

Part of it is that they’re giant cookies, obviously.

The other part is that Dockery’s degree in art from UNC Asheville help guide her photography skills as she works to promote her independent, small business.

“I had a concentration photography, so I worked closely with Carrie and Eric Tomberlin, and they were phenomenal,” Dockery said. “It taught me immensely about just thinking through concept more than the product itself. It’s definitely learning experience…it's lent well to what I'm doing now.”

Get A Taste

Student Emergency Fund Changes Student Lives During Crisis

“Both of my part-time jobs at the Asheville mall closed when COVID-19 hit,” shares senior Lillie Bailey. “As a type-one diabetic, most of my paychecks go to pay for insulin. Suddenly, my source of income to pay for my expensive diabetes medicine was gone. I didn’t make enough to qualify for unemployment benefits and I was left in a challenging place.”

For UNC Asheville students like Lillie, when courses moved to online instruction in March in order to protect the health and well-being of the campus community, this change brought more than sadness over missing the last few weeks of her senior year. It brought financial hardship and stress that made it difficult to concentrate on her courses.

Explore more stories just like Lillie to see the impact gifts to the Student Emergency Fund have on our students during this exceptionally challenging time.

ALUMNUS JOSH TAN AND MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY’S FIGHT AGAINST COVID-19

As systems manager at Wake Forest Baptist Health’s Department of Radiology, UNC Asheville alumnus Josh Tan ’97 finds himself doing a little bit of everything, especially as his work has shifted to focus on COVID-19. It’s a challenge in adaptability than Tan began preparing for as a student, when he majored in computer science and minored in music at UNC Asheville.

“All that training I got at UNC Asheville was fun during my time there, but it helped me with my work ethic,” Tan said. His computer science major taught him computer programming skills, which led him to a job after graduation in computer hardware and networking. “I came over to Wake Forest a few years later with the background that I can do computer programming and networking and hardware. It’s kind of a weird combination where you’re a hybrid, where a lot of people just do software or just do hardware. Because of that I can fix computers, I can program computers, and I also manage systems and help people learn how to use software.”

Read On

IMAGINING HEALTH JUSTICE

At the intersection of health data, creative arts, and community engagement, you'll find UNC Asheville professors Lise Kloeppel and Ameena Batada, a host of community partners, and a class of enthusiastic students working together to rethink the connections between art, healing, and health justice in Asheville.

That work didn't end when the pandemic began--in fact, its importance was made more clear than ever.

Imagine

Around the World: Student Fulbright Scholarships

Dozens of UNC Asheville students and alumni have taken their education global and traveled the world on a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship. Read about their adventures in their own words, and drop us a line at alumni@unca.edu if you're a UNC Asheville Fulbright alum with a story (and maybe a great photo or two) to share!

Explore

A NEW FRONTIER FOR UNC ASHEVILLE

Summer 2020 ushered in UNC Asheville’s first all online semester as the University sought ways to safely conduct classes in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. For many UNC Asheville faculty, online classes were a new experience—one that presented new challenges, but also unexpected joys and rewards.

How They Did It

EXPANDING NEMAC’S REACH THROUGH FERNLEAF INTERACTIVE

From majoring in music and computer science to transitioning to environmental studies, alumnus and FernLeaf Interactive founder Jeff Hicks ‘08 would say that his experience was a “classic UNC Asheville story.” After exploring multiple majors, he found his passion at the intersection of computer science and environmental studies, interning first with the USDA Forest Service before joining the NEMAC team. He has since turned that passion into a career that helps communities prepare for and respond to a changing world.

Hicks continued to work for NEMAC after graduation, researching ways to make climate change data actionable for improving local and regional decision making.

Learn More

New Directions

Students know it by its Bulldog name—pre-rendezblue—the first-year program held every August before classes start that helps incoming students explore their new home, from urban adventures in downtown Asheville to wilderness experiences in the National Forest. One hundred percent of the students participating in the wilderness experience say the program helps them succeed at UNC Asheville. They connect around common interests, get a jump start on the transition to college, and bring newfound expertise back to the classroom and back to the trail, particularly for the students who sign up to lead the adventures the next year.

Join the Adventure

UNC ASHEVILLE ALUMNA SHELBY BURLESON ADVOCATES FOR SURVIVORS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

Many effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are easy to see: crowded emergency rooms, empty city streets, vacated school buildings—but some effects are not as visible. UNC Asheville alumna Shelby Burleson ‘19 works as a court advocate for New Hope of McDowell County, a domestic/sexual violence victim shelter and advocacy organization, where she works for those whose plights often go unseen, and can become more serious during times of quarantine.

As a court advocate, Burleson accompanies victims of domestic violence and sexual assault to court hearings and assists with filing domestic violence protective orders. Though courts are not operating as usual under COVID-19 restrictions, Burleson’s work falls under emergency relief court orders, so her work with New Hope continues.

BEHIND THE MASK

At UNC Asheville, we know that we are Bulldogs, wherever we are. We also know that our community is at its best when we’re able to be together. Meet a few of the people who made it possible for many of us to be together over the fall semester.