2025 Archive

Joffrey dancers fan out across the stage.

Joffrey Ballet delivers unparalleled experience for USC student performers

March 27, 2025, Kristine Hartvigsen

It’s been a whirlwind semester for dancers and musicians at the University of South Carolina. Twenty-four Joffrey Ballet company members arrived on campus March 17 for a three-week residency culminating in an unprecedented collaborative performance April 5 at the Koger Center for the Arts. Students and faculty from USC’s Betsy Blackmon Dance Program and the USC Symphony Orchestra have joined forces with members of the Joffrey entourage to marry movement and music into a spectacular concert for the community.

Female student using a camera

USC youth summer camps 2025

March 03, 2025, Téa Smith

With only a few short months until summer, it’s time for parents to find summer activities for their children. USC offers a wide variety of summer camps for all ages and all interests from music to soccer, dance and engineering.

Paulia D. Williams, winner of the 2024 Dennis A. Pruitt Outstanding Advocate for First-Year Students Award

2024 outstanding student advocate talks career, TRIO, award

February 18, 2025, Thom Harman / photo by Kim Truett

Paulia D. Williams won the 2024 Dennis A. Pruitt Outstanding Advocate for First-Year Students Award, the fourth TRIO staff member to win the award since its inception. Williams knows that most students need some help transitioning to college, especially first-generation college students. She sees it every day in her role with TRIO Programs — and she lived it herself.

Site of Starbase operation on beach in Boca Chica, TX

The Starbase rocket testing facility is permanently changing the landscape of southern Texas

January 28, 2025, Robert A. Kopack

If there is a leader in the aerospace industry, SpaceX is it. Boca Chica, Texas, is home to SpaceX’s flagship assembly and test installation, Starbase. Since 2021, research has been conducted with environmental groups and community members in south Texas who see space exploration as a landscape-altering industry. Geography professor Robert A. Kopack writes about Starbase for The Conversation.

Coastal seagrass at Baruch with observation tower in background

The good, the bad and the gutsy

January 03, 2025, Kristine Hartvigsen

The USC Baruch Institute's new director, Jill Stewart, is endlessly fascinated by the natural alchemy of the oft-maligned yet mighty microbe. These tiny living microorganisms are everywhere, from the surface of our skin and the air we breathe to the water we drink and the soil beneath our feet. In fact, microbes are essential to the persistence of life on Earth. So why do they sometimes get a bad rap?