Nicole Graysmith ’94 ’99 (JD) is doing just that, pursuing a Master of Public Administration degree from the UNC School of Government alongside her son, Atticus.

What began as an offhand suggestion turned into a full-fledged family affair.

Atticus Graysmith, a 2024 NC State graduate, came to Chapel Hill to study information science at the UNC School of Information and Library Science. Passionate about community engagement, he decided to pair that with a master’s degree from the UNC School of Government.

After earning her law degree from Carolina, Nicole Graysmith worked as a legal aid attorney in the environmental justice field.  A few years after becoming a mother, she switched to working for a family IT business while teaching and taking on nonprofit work.

When Atticus Graysmith enrolled in the MPA program, he saw how the curriculum would benefit his mom. Now, more than three decades after finishing her undergraduate studies in Chapel Hill, she’s enrolled as a Tar Heel yet again.

“Once Atticus got into the MPA program, he came to me and said, ‘Mom, I think this would be perfect for you,’” she said.

Though he encouraged his mom to consider public administration, he was surprised when she applied.

“At first I thought it was kind of crazy,” he said. “My mom already had a law degree. But once she explained to me why she wanted to do it and how she wanted to get back into full-time nonprofit work, it made sense to me. It also excited me because now I get to go on a journey with my mom.”

While the two share similar course loads, he takes classes on campus, and she, balancing work and other nonacademic responsibilities, studies remotely. Still, they connect over coursework and daily conversations.

“We’ve actually gotten to do some of the same assignments, and it’s been funny to hear how we tackled them differently,” Nicole Graysmith said. “One assignment we both had was to write a memo advising Gov. Stein on how to deal with problems at the DMV. Maybe I’m too wordy, but I wrote four pages, and I think Atticus wrote a page and a half.”

Nicole Graysmith said that while their differences sometimes make her laugh, she’s proud of her son’s ability to form his own opinions and ideas.

When asked about his mother’s perspectives on assignments, Atticus Graysmith’s response was more succinct.

“It’s alright,” he joked. “She’s wrong a lot of the time.”

Jokes aside, Atticus Graysmith is grateful to share this experience with his mom. It’s the latest chapter in a long family history with Carolina: Nicole Graysmith’s father and husband are both alumni, and her youngest daughter, Rosemary, is a first-year student. The family has also lived in Chapel Hill for years, mere minutes away from campus.

“We’re a Chapel Hill family,” Atticus Graysmith said. “It feels right that we’re all here, getting an education together.”

“Jeff’s background gives him a unique perspective on AI strategy, one that the University needs if we are going to succeed at responding to the evolving needs of our students, faculty and staff,” Interim Provost James W. Dean said. “We are extremely grateful to have him in this key role, and I know he will take a thoughtful and strategic approach to AI across campus.”

Bardzell, who has led SILS since 2024, accepted a secondary position leading the University’s AI strategy in October. Recognizing the urgency of a comprehensive AI plan across the University’s academic mission, Bardzell is stepping into this new role full-time, focusing initially on teaching and learning.

In his new role, Bardzell is considering ways to bolster and connect existing AI work across teaching and learning at the University. He sees opportunities to support student learning in three ways: courses in basic AI literacy as part of the general education curriculum, courses covering technical and responsible use of AI that cross-cut numerous professional tracks, and technically focused courses for students interested in working in AI-related or -adjacent fields.

Unlike other institutions that have appointed leaders with data science backgrounds to similar positions, Bardzell’s experience in human-centered computing offers a different perspective to AI challenges and opportunities.

“AI brings considerable opportunities and also risks,” Bardzell said. “Higher education has a critical role to play in shaping how AI unfolds, and preparing students for a world where its use is ubiquitous is one of the most impactful ways we can do so. I am excited to collaborate with faculty, staff, and students to help shape that future.”

Diane Kelly, Wilson Distinguished Professor in the School of Information and Library Science, has been named interim dean. She will serve in this role while SILS works alongside the School of Data Science and Society to create a new school focused on preparing students for work in information- and data-intensive professions and settings, including libraries and archives. This yet-to-be-named school will launch in July 2026.

“It is an honor to serve as interim dean,” said Kelly. “One of my main reasons for coming back to Carolina was to be able to use my administrative and leadership experience in a way to help the school, and more specifically, the people that I care about so deeply.”

Kelly has previously served as vice provost for faculty affairs at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, where she led academic personnel services, including hiring, review, tenure and promotion of all faculty, and faculty development and advancement.

“Diane’s experience and expertise, including her long history with SILS, make her a great leader for the school,” Interim Provost Dean said. “I have enjoyed working with her, and the University is appreciative of her willingness to serve as interim dean, particularly in this time of transition and opportunity.”

“Diane has deep experience as an academic leader, and I know the school is in good hands as it makes this transition,” said Bardzell.

From 2016 to 2020, Kelly was director and professor in the School of Information Sciences at Tennessee, where she guided the school through several significant successes, including an enrollment increase in the MSIS program and the creation of a new bachelor’s degree in information sciences. Kelly began her faculty career at Carolina in 2004 where she served as assistant, associate and full professor at SILS.

Google PhD Fellowships directly support graduate students as they pursue a doctorate in computer science or a related field. The fellowship lasts up to two years, providing each fellow up to $85,000 per year toward education costs, living expenses, travel and personal equipment, and connecting each of them to a Google research mentor.

This year, Google provided 255 fellowships across 35 countries and 12 research domains, recognizing “researchers who understand that accelerating scientific discovery is vital to solving the world’s toughest challenges.”

Vivi Ito

Ito is also a graduate research assistant in the Center for Information, Technology and Public Life. Her adviser is Francesca Tripodi, associate professor at UNC SILS and principal investigator with CITAP.

Ito’s research takes an innovative, human-centered approach to understanding how artificial intelligence systems shape trust, learning and decision-making in seeking health information. Her project explores how AI-driven search tools, such as AI Overviews and ChatGPT, affect user trust and learning outcomes compared to traditional search engines.

For Ito, who came to academia after a decade-long career in digital marketing, this recognition represents both professional validation and personal fulfillment. “I come from the industry, and I wasn’t very happy,” Ito said. “Being recognized with this fellowship feels like a symbol that my transition has been successful and that I’m doing something I really like — with purpose.”

Her research journey began during her master’s studies, when she investigated how people with chronic or underdiagnosed conditions, such as endometriosis and heart failure, use digital platforms to find information and build communities. Those early projects revealed how challenging it can be to access trustworthy health information.

Vaidehi Patil

Patil’s research seeks to make deep learning models safer and more responsible for real-world applications. Her work combines aspects of safety, privacy, security for large language models, multimodal models and multiagent systems. Her doctoral work is advised by Mohit Bansal, the John R. and Louise S. Parker Distinguished Professor in computer science. She is part of the Multimodal Understanding, Reasoning and Generation for Language Lab and the broader UNC-AI group.

“I’m honored to receive the Google PhD Fellowship and grateful for the recognition of my research on machine unlearning, defenses against adversarial attacks and multiagent privacy. This support motivates me to explore further how large models can reason about privacy and collaborate responsibly, especially in real-world, multiagent settings,” Patil said. “I’m especially grateful to my adviser, professor Mohit Bansal, and my mentors and collaborators for their invaluable support and encouragement.”

Before pursuing a doctorate at Carolina, Patil earned a Bachelor of Technology in electrical engineering, with a minor in computer science and engineering, and a Master of Technology in AI and data science from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. She has interned for top tech companies, including Google DeepMind, Apple, Adobe Research and Amazon AGI Labs.

See the full list of 2025 Google PhD Fellowship recipients on the Google Research website.

From health care to machine learning, four Carolina experts broke down how they think AI will change their respective fields over the next decade.

Kandyce Brennan

Clinical assistant professor, UNC School of Nursing 

Tell us about your research. 

My work focuses on integrating AI-enabled tools to improve patient-centered care, enhance educational outcomes and promote health equity, ensuring technology supports humanistic and compassionate health care practices.

I’m leading a project that exemplifies these principles by developing SARHAchat, an AI-enabled chatbot designed to provide sexual and reproductive health education and support to young adults in rural and underserved communities.

 How do you see AI affecting your field in the next decade? 

In the next five years, I expect AI in health care will shift from experimental tools to trusted partners in care delivery, especially for underserved populations. The key evolution won’t just be in the technology’s capabilities, but in our understanding of how to implement it equitably.

Looking 10 years ahead, I envision AI fundamentally reshaping health care accessibility. We’ll likely see AI systems that can provide personalized health education and support that adapts to individual literacy levels, cultural backgrounds and communication preferences.

Francesca Tripodi

Lead faculty, Master of Applied Data Science, UNC School of Data Science and Society; associate professor, UNC School of Information and Library Science 

Tell us about your research. 

My research focuses on how generative AI is reshaping the way people search for information. Together with my collaborators at the Search Prompt Integrity and Learning Lab, we are exploring how people come to trust information curated by GenAI, analyzing the sources AI-Overviews rely on and investigating how biases or inaccuracies on one platform can undermine the integrity of these results.

 How do you see AI affecting your field in the next decade? 

“AI” is both a concept and a tool impacting many facets of human life — labor, education and decision-making. I reject the notion that AI is “taking over” and rendering humans obsolete. The future of AI depends less on the technology itself and more on how corporations and governments choose to invest in human infrastructure. Humans created the foundations of AI, the companies applying it and the policies that regulate it. To understand how AI will evolve, we must look critically at these human actions — and the power structures that drive them.

Youzou Lin

Associate professor, UNC School of Data Science and Society 

Tell us about your research. 

My research focuses on teaching computers to “see” inside the Earth and the human body using waves. Just like ultrasound lets doctors look inside the body, or seismic waves let geologists study what’s underground, the new computer methods that I design combine AI with the laws of wave physics. By blending AI with physics, we can create sharper, faster and more reliable images.

How do you see AI affecting your field in the next decade? 

The next big step is building AI that is guided by wave physics — the science of how sound waves, seismic waves and other signals travel through materials. My team is focused on this challenge, creating AI systems that can work even when data are scarce by learning directly from physics. Looking further ahead, I believe AI will not only use known wave physics to make imaging sharper and faster, but also help us discover new physics, opening the door to breakthroughs in how we see both the human body and the Earth.

Jessica Zegre-Hemsey

Associate professor, UNC School of Nursing 

Tell us about your research. 

My program of research in emergency cardiac care is focused on improving patient outcomes among individuals with acute cardiovascular conditions. My team investigates noninvasive cardiac monitoring and other physiological measures for early disease prediction and to advance early risk stratification and triage, diagnosis and access to lifesaving care. I am a nurse scientist collaborating with an interdisciplinary team of cardiologists, emergency providers, EMS, engineers and computer scientists to advance science and knowledge of evidenced-based care.

 How do you see AI affecting your field in the next decade? 

In 10 years, I think AI will be more readily integrated into real-time clinical decision-making across health care settings. For example, in a fast-paced setting such as EMS, AI strategies might have potential to make predictions that can readily help EMS clinicians make decisions and take appropriate steps for treating an emergent condition.

In the future, it will be critically important that disciplines continue to work together to develop, test and validate models to ensure reliability and accuracy before they are used in standard practice. I think, however, there is great opportunity for AI to augment clinical practice across the health care spectrum.

Arnsberg earned a master’s degree in library science from the UNC School of Information and Library Science. A self-described lover of school, Arnsberg also holds a master’s degree in international relations from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas, and a certificate in nuclear deterrence from Harvard University.

Before coming to Carolina, Arnsberg studied mathematics at the University of Colorado Boulder. Growing up in an Air Force family, she developed a love of public service from an early age. She enrolled as an ROTC cadet and was commissioned into the Air Force upon graduation. She served on active duty for several years in Texas, at the Pentagon and in Qatar, and now continues in the reserves. In her military career, she primarily served as an operations research analyst, applying her mathematical expertise to support decision-making within the Air Force.

While her work as an Air Force officer primarily involved applying her intellectual skills to solving operational problems, her proximity to military operations fostered her growing interest in national security and international relations. Over time, she became increasingly drawn to the broader context behind the problems she was helping to solve.

“Serving in the military, you have to stay up to date on international relations,” Arnsberg said. “I was often far from the fight, but it’s important for any military person to know what’s going on in the world. If we decide to go to war, that affects all of us –– military or civilian.”

While her SILS degree developed her skills in research methods and information management, Arnsberg realized that her core interests lay in understanding how information and strategy intersect on the global stage. She is returning to Carolina as a member of the Royster Society of Fellows, The Graduate School’s prestigious fellowship program for the most talented graduate scholars.

Accepted into doctoral programs in both political science and information science, she decided to focus primarily on political science and international relations as a way of applying her expertise to pressing real-word issues.

“I’m interested in the systems that influence decision-making in war,” she said. “When we make the decision to go to war, how do our information gathering and decision-making systems operate? Researching that question could help us make better decisions related to big global conflicts.”

Arnsberg says she’s looking forward to returning to the Carolina community, citing the University’s excellence in scholarship and service. “I loved the academic environment at Carolina,” she said. “There’s a lot of momentum here to do meaningful, grounded work.”

As one of Carolina’s most promising incoming graduate students, Arnsberg hopes her research will enable her to have a positive impact on the world.

“I don’t know exactly what my next role will be, but I know I want to help people across the world avoid and recover from conflict.” Arnsberg said. “Through this degree, I’m hoping to better understand the systems that influence and shape their lives and find ways to make those systems work more fairly and effectively.”

Holly Lovern, the director of Violence Prevention and Advocacy Services at Carolina, refers frequently to emerging, evidence-based research to inform prevention work and confidential support services offered to students, faculty and staff.

When Lovern initially reviewed a newly released report on a five-year trend analysis of domestic violence in North Carolina, she didn’t realize the research was spearheaded by recent Master of Professional Science alumna Rylee Li ’23 (MS ’24) during an internship under the direction of Elizabeth Sager (MPH ’16).

“Our campus is a microcosm of the larger community around us, and it’s helpful to see the ways in which impact looks similar and different across environments and settings,” Lovern said. “It’s important to strengthen awareness and visibility of resources available on campus and in the community. Rylee’s role in the report is a great example of the importance of partnership between the University and North Carolina.”

Li was an international student who transferred to Carolina to complete her degrees at the UNC School of Information and Library Science. Her master’s degree program required an internship, which landed her a role as a data evaluation intern with the North Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence, where Sager is the director of evaluation.

The report produced generated media coverage from across the state, in part because it noted an increase in domestic violence cases during the last five years. The report also included research on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on services, funding and capacity for care.

Connecting this research to the Carolina community of compassion and care by way of violence prevention proved to be a fulfilling opportunity.

“During my internship, I didn’t expect the report to be such an impactful thing,” Li said. “We all have this tendency to underestimate the work we create. It felt so good to know that it made such a contribution to the Carolina community. It’s work that I’m very interested in doing and in a way in which I want to apply my skills.”

As a student, Li volunteered her time with a campus health informatics student association and began to connect with the incoming coalition intern for this fall.

“Students contribute in so many different and impactful ways,” Li said. “It makes me feel more confident and connects all the dots that I’ve learned from my courses. Internships are a great way to watch myself and my peers evolve.”

VPAS and its gender violence services coordinators offer confidential support and services for people who are directly or indirectly affected by gender-based violence or harassment. Their support is open to the entire Carolina community, including undergraduate, graduate and professional students.

Tripodi is an associate professor at the UNC School of Information and Library Science and lead faculty at the UNC School of Data Science and Society. She studies how artificial intelligence is reshaping search engines like Google — and how it can amplify the biases already present in the data used to train these systems. She also teaches a master’s-level ethics course at the data science school. Through her research and teaching, she unpacks how AI is changing how we access and understand information.

AI is rapidly expanding, with the market projected to reach $1.34 billion by 2030. It’s already being used in self-driving cars, surgical tools and health apps. And while AI offers benefits like increased efficiency and decision-making abilities, it also raises serious concerns about its energy use, data privacy, algorithmic bias and workforce disruption.

UNC Research Stories sat down with Tripodi to discuss these issues and why ethics must be at the heart of AI development.

You teach a master’s-level course on AI ethics. How do ethical considerations shape the way we collect and use data in AI systems?

Ethics are messy. You can’t just “do” ethics; you have to keep incorporating them. Plus, ethical frameworks are often at odds with one another. In AI and data science, there’s this idea of creating unbiased automated decision-making. But I try to teach students that everything — from how you define the problem to the data you use — is shaped by human choices….

And so what concerns me is how are we getting the data? Are we getting access to data from places with more lax consent procedures? Are we creating agreements with other countries where citizens don’t have the same data rights? What are the larger societal consequences?

What are the pros and cons of using AI tools in everyday life?

I think all tools have the potential to help or harm. Take ChatGPT. I used to make camping lists and always forgot something. ChatGPT generated a checklist in seconds and saved me hours. AI can save time and increase clarity.

But let’s look at other applications. For example, there are new e-commerce tools being used to determine when someone sees a doctor. In theory, they reduce bias — patients might otherwise be seen out of order due to how they look or act, or because of underlying social biases. But those same biases may already be embedded in the AI’s training data. Nurses, doctors, and patients cannot really override the algorithm if their experience or “gut instinct” tells them otherwise.

What worries me is that we’re investing heavily in machines and not in people. These systems are marketed as neutral, but they’re really about cutting costs — and what’s being cut is investment in human beings. For every task we automate, could we instead invest in human infrastructure?

What role should private companies, governments and universities play in setting the ethical boundaries for AI development and deployment?

The corporate development of AI is key. Companies have a responsibility to approach it with integrity and caution — not just rush to monetize it without understanding the long-term impacts.

Governments also have a role to play. It’s disappointing that we still lack real legislation around data privacy and governance. The federal budget reconciliation bill is especially concerning. It removes states’ abilities to regulate data, which goes against the U.S. federal structure.

At the education level, we need to teach students how to use these tools responsibly, think ethically and help improve them.

Read more about Tripodi’s work.

“He comes home every day talking about all the teachers and his conversations with the lunch ladies,” said Selena Trujillo. “I love how passionate and intentional they are. If they see a child needs something or is struggling, they’ll take the time to make sure that kid is still where they need to be.”

The innovative K-2 lab school in Roxboro, North Carolina, has had this effect on students since it opened in August 2023. A partnership between UNC-Chapel Hill and Person County Schools, the academy is part of a UNC System initiative to strengthen university partnerships with public schools, improve student outcomes and provide high-quality teacher training. The academy focuses on serving the whole child, working directly with students and families to achieve well-being beyond the classroom.

Selena Trujillo saw her son’s speech improve in just a few months. “The teachers have really worked with him,” she said. “When he comes home now, he is reading books to his little sister every night, and he’ll sound out each word when he is reading.”

‘Putting down roots in Person County’

The academy started with only 28 kindergarten students, adding first grade a year later. This year, CCA had its first second grade class, bringing the total number of students to 103. In June, those first students from 2023 will move on to third grade at North End Elementary School.

Before leaving the academy, these second graders worked on a capstone art project with the UNC School of Information and Library Science and the Ackland Art Museum. The SILS and Ackland teams used 16 lessons covering physical education, music, art and library science to help the second graders create an art installation of a tree, with individual leaves crafted by each student.

The tree mural is now on display at the Carolina Community Academy. (Submitted/Amy Richardson)

The art project is just one example of collaboration within this campus-wide coalition of schools and units — led by the UNC School of Education — that’s bringing the best of what Carolina has to offer to Roxboro. In addition to SILS and the Ackland, collaborators include the schools of medicine, public health and dentistry; Carolina Athletics; Morehead Planetarium and Science Center; and the North Carolina Botanical Garden.

Amy Richardson, director of Carolina Community Academy and PK-12 partnerships at the School of Education, says the installation’s leaves represent each student’s individuality, while the tree shows that they are part of something bigger than themselves. The school hopes to continue this tradition yearly.

“This group of students has been with us for three years, so there are elements of growth,” Richardson said. “This commitment to putting down roots in a community is very symbolic. These are the students and families who said ‘yes’ to us and have helped us grow and shape who we are as a school. We have worked incredibly hard to set them up for future success.”

The academy is also focusing on its next steps. The staff want to provide a space for Tar Heels and Person County residents to volunteer and for the academy to give back to the community with a food pantry and donations of diapers and clothing.

“We are a partnership with the community,” Richardson said. “I really appreciate the UNC School of Education and Person County Schools leadership for thinking about this not only from a standpoint of setting out to create and establish a new school, but for being intentional about how they work with the community to help strengthen Roxboro and Person County.”

It’s what led her to UNC-Chapel Hill, where she thought she’d go on to medical school. When her premed plans shifted, Adams called her software developer brother for advice. He encouraged her to explore the information field.

She decided to enroll in INLS 161: Tools for Information Literacy with Ron Bergquist. In that class, she realized how information science tools and methods could be applied across industries and disciplines. She saw that it could support her goal of solving problems on her own terms.

One of those problems was hair care. Like many others with natural hair, the Tar Heel cheerleader had to guess which products would work best with her hair based on several factors, including curl pattern, porosity and density. She accumulated a “shelf of shame,” a collection of expensive hair products that turned out to be not suited for her hair.

Then one day she saw her grandmother using a plant-identification app and had a lightbulb moment: What if there was an app that could analyze hair type and texture?

There wasn’t, so the idea for HairMatch was born.

From information literacy to the app store

In the summer of 2023, Adams completed a business strategy internship with Delta Airlines. That’s where she met Matt Steele, a Georgia Tech student interning on the software side. Though their hair care experiences were vastly different, Matt — who swam competitively —understood the challenge of trying to restore damaged hair.

When Adams began seriously imagining HairMatch, she reached out to Matt, knowing he could help bring her vision to life. Together, they built the app, using his coding and user interface/user experience design skills, and incorporated a vision-language model to analyze hair types.

In her entrepreneurship class, Adams thought deeply about her users, developing key personas — like moms with daughters who have different hair textures. The app’s design evolved to include step-by-step style guides, explanations for tricky ingredients like sulfates and insight into how treatments like highlights or heat styling affect different hair types.

Matt and Adams officially launched HairMatch in November 2024. Since launch, HairMatch has seen over 4,000 downloads, 500+ paying users and active engagement from people in 29 countries.

Much of this success was built on Adams’ powerful online presence. A Sephora Squad member, she shares beauty, branding and hair care insights with over 1.3 million followers across platforms — including 345,000 on Instagram and 882,000 on TikTok. She also credits skills she honed in the classroom and an Innovate Carolina’s 1789 Student Venture Fund grant that helped propel her idea from prototype to app store.

HairMatch was a runner-up in Microsoft’s Imagine Cup, a global competition for student developers tackling real-world problems through tech. Finalists presented their work May 19 on a global stage at Microsoft Build in Seattle.

(Submitted)

What’s next

Adams graduated May 10 with a Bachelor of Science in information science and minors in entrepreneurship and urban planning. This summer, she’s heading to Atlanta to join IBM as a brand specialist in the technology sales department.

She is excited to continue learning from others: “I look to people who bring different insights and experiences. They might not confirm what I already know, but they can challenge me and serve as a sounding board.”

Alycea Adams was a member of the cheerleading team at Carolina. (Submitted photo)

Boyer, a graduate student in the UNC School of Information and Library Science, is the son of two librarians who have worked in places like Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Shanghai, China, where Boyer spent a decade of his youth.

When he wasn’t at school, Boyer was watching his parents work at Shanghai American School’s library. That experience ultimately led him to pursue a master’s of library science at Carolina.

That wasn’t his original plan, though.

Boyer received a bachelor’s in cybersecurity and history from Montreat College, where he formed a deep connection with the small campus community in the western North Carolina mountains. There’s family history there, too — he spent many summers as a child with his grandparents in Black Mountain.

During his senior year, Boyer felt that cybersecurity wasn’t his true passion. Back living in the U.S., he found a sense of comfort while at a library, a place that reminded him of his parents and made him feel at home. In library science, he saw a way to combine all his skillsets into one academic focus.

Check out these 10 things you need to know before attending UNC-Chapel Hill’s Spring Commencement.

“I began to think I could be a digital archivist,” Boyer said. “I had developed computer skills and was still fascinated with history. That combined with my knowledge of libraries just drew me to finding my next chapter.”

Boyer was already familiar with Carolina. As a child, he came to campus to undergo a series of corrective surgeries for cleft palate. Even at a young age, the work happening on campus left a lasting impact.

As a graduate student, he’s still in awe of the faculty, specifically citing Elliott Kuecker as a big influence on him during his studies.

“He, along with so many other people in the department, are not only great professors but huge resources for us who we can always come to when trying to figure out our next steps,” Boyer said.

Boyer has kept busy outside the classroom, too. He works as a digital archive graduate assistant at NC State, a role in which he processes born-digital material. He also served as senior vice president of the Graduate Professional Student Government.

While he left Montreat unsure of where his next step might take him, Boyer is now ready to use the skills Carolina has prepared him with to work in a field he loves. And he’ll be right back home — inside a library.

“While I’m focusing on a different aspect of library sciences than my parents, I still feel like I’m keeping up the legacy,” Boyer said. “Now I know what I want to be doing with my life and that’s working in an archive.”