Davidson College

Chris Alexander Chris Alexander, the McGee Director of the Dean Rusk International Studies Program, Associate Dean for International Programs and Associate Professor of Political Science, has found himself the perfect job, at the crossroads of the campus—and at the crossroads of political science theory and global current events
Carlos Alvarez Carlos and Malu Alvarez have established a new scholarship program that will open Davidson’s doors to the best students from around the world.
Morgan Arant ’12 Singer, radio sports talker and wearer of a white lobster suit, Morgan Arant ’12 is making the most of Davidson.
Bryant Barr '10 A star shooting guard on Davidson’s NCAA Division I basketball team is double-majoring in economics and mathematics.
Laura Beach '07 Laura Beach’s delight in food is really about community, and she embraces Davidson’s academic and social life at breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
John Behm ’12 A Bonner Scholar, Cats Connect mentor, poli sci major, outside linebacker and Allstate Good Works award recipient, John Behm ’11 is making a difference at Davidson.
Austin Bell ’10 He saw a lot of potential for being a mass communications pioneer at Davidson, and Austin Bell ’10 has made the most of it, in the residence halls, in the community and in the classroom.
Richmond Blake '09 Richmond Blake is on track to a career in diplomacy, thanks to his undergraduate Pickering Fellowship and recent national Truman Scholarship.
Matt Bondaryk ’09 Matt Bondaryk ’09 has taken his interdisciplinary understanding of medicine to a global level with two abroad experiences that emphasize healthcare.
Michael Brun ’14 A musician from an early age, this international student finds fertile ground at Davidson for exploring music as well as medicine—and plans to give back to his native Haiti.
Chris Burton '08 Davidson was the first liberal arts college in the nation to eliminate the burden of loans from student financial aid packages. Chris Burton ’08, who was Student Government Association president in the inaugural year of the initiative, known as The Davidson Trust, talks about what it means to students.
Zack Byrd ’10 A young actor found himself, his craft and a community of soul mates when he came to Davidson College.
Malcolm Campbell Malcolm Campbell’s ambitions as a teacher have always stretched far beyond the boundaries of his own classroom.
Blake Candler ’13 A third generation Davidsonian shares why Davidson’s focus on Community Service has made the College a special home for him.
Sara Claire Chambless '12 Making art is first an internal and subjective process, says Sara Claire Chambless, but the backdrop of a liberal arts education is what fuels and nurtures her creative energy and ideas, through classes like English, philosophy and history.
Tim Chartier Tim Chartier, associate professor of math, may be the only person in the world doing creative work in algebraic multigrid mathematics and as a mime.
Grace Cheney '13 Although she came a long way from home, Grace Cheney '13 never felt homesick during her transition to college life, from Davidson Outdoors' Summer Odyssey program through Orientation, to meeting her perfectly matched hallmates and into speaker lectures and classrooms.
Chris Clunie ’06 From the classroom to the hardwood—and now to the airport runways of his yearlong Watson Fellowship —Chris Clunie ’06 never gives less than his best effort.
Avril Coley '14 The daughter of Jamaican professionals who immigrated to the U.S., this first-generation American is grateful for a merit scholarship at Davidson that will make it easier for her to afford med school in the future.
Michaela Corr Almost half of Davidson’s freshman class remains with their roommate for sophomore year. Can a first-year roommate influence what we learn at Davidson?
Russell Crandall Russell Crandall, associate professor of political science, believes in the value of public service and intellectual inquiry. He spent a year working on the foreign policy staff at the National Security Council, and he currently is on leave directing Western Hemisphere Affairs in the Department of Defense.
Stephen Curry '10 2006-07 SoCon Freshman Basketball Player of the Year; 2007-08 finalist for the Wooden Award and the Naismith Trophy for National Player of the Year honors; NCAA record holder for three-point field goals made by a first-year player; member of the 2007 Silver medalist USA U-19 World Championship Team.
Jenn DeKnight ’10 This Honor Code-defending history major followed her interest in language from Davidson to Latin America to the Middle East.
Will DeLoache '09 Whether it’s through captaining the Davidson Ultimate Frisbee Folk (DUFF) team or helping lead a Davidson team of synthetic biologists to solve a systems problem using an E. coli cell, this Nashville native gave his all to life at Davidson.
Kealy Devoy '08 As Davidson’s inaugural Sustainability Fellow, Kealy Devoy ’08 is helping keep Davidson red, black and green. She’s working with students, faculty and staff to assess the college’s impact on the environment, establish partnerships across and beyond the campus and help people take action that can lead to real change.
Ania Etienne ’11 Ania Etienne, a Haitian-American artist from Brooklyn, established clear comfort zones for herself in her first year at the small liberal arts college in North Carolina. Then, she began to move out of them.
Mark Foley An economist has become intrigued with a new subfield in his discipline, one that blends economic theory with psychological insights about human behavior.
Ali Farr ’12 Following her interests and passions inside and outside the classroom led this academic activist to share both with her fellow students.
Scott Frantz, Jr. ’09 Scott Frantz was looking for a small, D-I school, and felt at home as soon as he stepped onto the Davidson campus. As a varsity swimmer, he’s seen as much chlorinated water as grass or red brick sidewalks.
Kaneisha Gaston ’13 A first-generation student who’s been on Davidson’s campus all her life carries the pride of her parents and grandparents with her every day.
Emily Glaser ’12 Emily Glaser ’12 credits The Davidson Trust with an experience that started with a freshman-hall flickerball team and is settling into challenging academics and the possibility of study abroad.
Sharon Green A scholar in theatre and social justice stages a play about the lives of Iraqi women and engages the community in a dialogue about critical issues.
Billy Hackenson '13 This well-traveled and internationally aware first-year student finds Davidson’s ethos and resources the perfect fit for the collegiate life he envisions—in the classroom, on campus and in the community.
Elaine Hargrove ’09 As a Bonner scholar with an international background, Elaine Hargrove ’09 wants to make a difference through community service on a global scale.
Arie Hefter ’11 A Jewish German major from Birmingham, Ala. takes his life lessons where he finds them, from the tennis court to a temple in Hawaii.
Laurie Heyer A Davidson professor who always dreamed of teaching wrote a textbook with her Biology Department colleague that takes her lessons to students around the world.
Annie Merrill Ingram A rambling Americanist literary scholar has created a home at Davidson in the classroom and in the wide world of Davidson Outdoors, combining her love of literature with her love of big skies and a green earth.
Ethan Jaffe '09 A scholar athlete finds that his own balance tilts happily toward the academic life—and inspires him to find new ways of passing on what he’s learned to other Davidson students.
Ernest Jeffries While an undergraduate student at the University of South Carolina, Assistant Dean of Students Ernest Jeffries was actively involved in student life, eventually asking his mentor how he could turn that interest into a career in higher education.
Steve Kaliski '07 Steve is prepared for a post-graduate Big Apple adventure in showbiz, thanks to his academic and performance work with the Theatre Department on campus and abroad.
Utsha Khatri '09 and Upasana Khatri '10 These sisters from Silver Spring, Md., have a passion for interdisciplinary work that gets at the heart of socially driven issues.
Austin Kieffer ’12 As a Bonner scholar with an international background, Elaine Hargrove ’09 wants to make a difference through community service on a global scale.
Gilmour Lake ’58 A Davidson trustee and retired owner and chief executive officer of Computer Credit, Inc. in Winston-Salem, N.C., he created a scholarship for the children of Presbyterian ministers, first awarded in 1996.
Daniel Legrand ’11 Like many students entering Davidson, Daniel Legrand came to campus without a concrete idea of his major. It didn’t take long for him to hit the right note.
Andrew Ma '12 Andrew Ma grew up in Seoul, then went to high school in Culver, Ind. With Davidson, it was hate at first sight. But he came “to go somewhere different from where I’d been before.” And now, “it’s the first place where I’ve felt like I can be myself.”
Athan Makansi ’10 Athan Makansi’s leadership of the Honor Council, his academic and social life on campus, and his experiences abroad combine for a fulfilling college career imbued with what he calls “Davidson’s robust spirit.”
Christie Mason '10 A natural leader matures into a true change agent at Davidson, creating a leadership conference, a new course in the curriculum, and some havoc on the Ultimate Frisbee course.
Bob McKillop Bob McKillop has been coaching men’s basketball at Davidson for 20 years, racking up the most wins of any coach in Wildcat or Southern Conference history. His proudest statistic: 65 of 65 seniors have graduated during the McKillop era. His goals this year: Get better. Play to win. Have fun. Make every play count.
Michael Mellody '11 Terry Scholar, Chidsey Leadership Fellow and Honor Council member, this English major dedicates his free time to writing and performing original music with fellow Davidson student musicians in the band You and Your Effects.
Melodie Mendez ’13 This Bonner and HHMI Scholar brings a diverse background to Davidson and beyond, as she takes her self-designed Environmental Studies and Spanish major to Europe and Latin America.
Mohamed Egal ’13 A refugee from the violence of Somalia makes it to Davidson, where he plans to study the complexities of geopolitics, particularly in his home continent of Africa.
Leanna Minix '12 The Davidson Trust gave this English and philosophy major access to a strong liberal arts education that she will take into the world beyond Davidson.
Joe Morrison '14 A musical, athletic first-year student from Chapel Hill, N.C. finds much to admire in his classmates and teammates from around the country and around the world.
Malcolm Moses-Hampton ’12 As a psychology major with a neuroscience concentration who plays defensive back on the Wildcats football team and dreams of being a neurosurgeon, Moses-Hampton has carved out his own niche at Davidson.
Adriana Nassar '13 A pre-vet major who's spent summers researching turtles on the beach, Adriana Nassar '13 also finds time for fun, as a leader and film programmer for the college's Union Board.
Mark Nesbitt '13 From the classroom to the poker table, from the Honor Code to sailing at the Lake Campus, a first-year student discovers the many ways that Davidson is its students.
Nick Noreña '11 Davidson’s academic, extracurricular and international possibilities, and its diversity of people, were the perfect fit for a worldly young man interested in why people do the things they do.
Chris Paradise Chris Paradise is an aquatic ecologist, but the bodies of water that intrigue him the most are far too small to splash around in.
David L. Perry The inaugural director of the Vann Center for Ethics brings a strong moral compass of his own, bolstered by academic study that ranges from religion and philosophy to literary criticism and the ethics of war.
Beth Peters ’11 This runner, hoopster and secret math nerd blossomed at Davidson into all that and a French scholar and soccer goalie, too.
Christoph Pross ’10 A German national who enjoys teaching fellow Davidson students things about his language and culture “not found in books,” this Kemp and Terry scholar is a driving force in Davidson’s economic and political science academic life.
Faheem Rathore '12 Commitment to the Honor Code, being a Chidsey Leadership Fellow and a summer with the Davidson in Washington program all perfectly suit this political science major, whose sights are set on a career in D.C.
Mac Read '10 A star high-school pitcher who couldn’t see not playing baseball, Mac Read initially also couldn’t see being able to afford Davidson. Because of scholarships and work-study—and no loans, thanks to The Davidson Trust—he’s brought his pitching career to Davidson, added a physics major, and learned how to balance the two.
Madison Rigger ’12 Madison Rigger has been coming to Davidson since she was a little girl, to visit her aunt, Prof. Shelley Rigger. "I always thought it was a 'pretty school.'" But she hadn't thought much about attending here.
Lauren Robles '10 Lauren Robles crossed the continent to enroll at Davidson. It was worth it. She’s excelled in an art department where every professor knows her name. As head cheerleader, she had the best seat in Detroit to watch Davidson’s dance with basketball fame.
Ana Rodriguez ’12 Theatre and medicine might seem like strange bedfellows, but to Ana Rodriguez, combining these two gives a perfect example of how special Davidson is. “Honestly, I think that Davidson is the only place where you can be any major at all and still be Premed.”
Pat Sellers A political science professor is using his skills and his own Davidson education to guide the development and revision of the college’s curriculum.
Darrell Scott ’10 The college’s mission statement of “humane instincts and disciplined and creative minds for lives of leadership and service” took an unexpected turn or two during the college career of Darrell Scott ’10.
Mordecai Scott ’10 A beneficiary of The Davidson Trust as a service-based Bonner Scholar, Mordecai Scott ’10 uses diverse experiences in his own life to enrich the broader student experience at Davidson.
Anna Marie Smith '09 A theatre major from Shelbyville, Tenn., Anna Marie Smith '09 made the most of her Davidson years, from taking a chance on a semester traveling with the classics trip to making friends in high places.
Clint Smith '10 From watching his hometown endure Hurricane Katrina to witnessing severe poverty in Senegal, this novelist and poet has a lot to write about.
Heather Smith ’10 A Davidson “legacy,” Heather Smith found her own way into the academic and campus life of the family alma mater.
Billy Thom ’11 Wildcat men’s basketball has provided perspective for Billy Thom ’11 since before he set foot on campus. Now that he’s here, it’s still central to a much broader view of his present and the future.
Mercedes Robinson ‘09 The first in her family to attend college, Mercedes Robinson ’09 balanced Division I basketball with a neuroscience curriculum and learned that you can get your work done and still have fun.
Katie Richeson ’11 Katie Richeson ’11
Shelley Rigger Regularly quoted in the national and international media, the Brown Professor of Political Science is the person in the U.S. to consult about Taiwanese politics.
Vanessa Williams ’13 Soft-spoken and strong-willed, Vanessa Williams ’13 rolled up I-95 from the Sunshine State to Davidson, sight unseen, to jump feet first into the life of Davidson College: academic rigor, fun on the first-year halls, and a community of—and for—diversity.
Cary Wright '09 Honor Council chair Cary Wright ’09 helps people understand what it means for Davidson to be a community of honor: It’s about what individuals do in their daily lives—at Davidson, and beyond.
Kun Zhang ’11 A math major from Beijing, Kun Zhang ’11 values collaboration, whether it be tutoring at Davidson or through the remarkable rescue efforts in the aftermath of the Sichuan earthquake in China.
Meikaela Zwieryznski ’10 A Belk Scholar from Pittsburgh, Pa., serves in student government as a way to give back.