Friends, professors and fascinating coursework helped guide senior Alice Bennett to the most meaningful aspects of her Carolina experience –– and a degree in American studies.

The Carolina English professor talks about failure, the value of walking and the origin of his life-changing “napkin doodles.”

Carolina has helped Angela Nguyen realize her career and academic goals. At age 45, this first-generation college student will walk across the Winter Commencement stage, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in religious studies.

Catherine Haas (M.A. global studies ’22) and fellow graduate students won an Arts Innovation Grant to launch a digital student journal, The Global Gazette.

Nearly 6,200 Tar Heels celebrated their graduation at Sunday’s Spring Commencement, where keynote speaker Frank Bruni challenged the Class of 2022 to choose happiness and count their blessings. Bruni encouraged the new alumni to exercise ‘a special kind of wisdom.’

Following graduation, Ph.D. student Lucia Stavig plans to continue advocacy work and to uplift the efforts of Indigenous women and communities so they can heal. At Carolina, her adviser was Florence Babb in the department of anthropology in the College of Arts & Sciences. 

The Carolina community near and far can join in on the Doctoral Hooding and Commencement celebrations by livestreaming the ceremonies at commencement.unc.edu.

Senior Alaina Plauche has heeded her own advice to future Tar Heels about studying abroad. This Carolina Covenant Scholar never could have imagined that her academic journey would take her to Bhutan, Spain, Uganda and Washington, D.C.

Ph.D. candidate Alexis Dennis will graduate with her third degree from Carolina this weekend and continue the research she began as an undergraduate in 2008.

Carolina Covenant Scholar Thidar Aye’s journey to Chapel Hill began in Myanmar. At UNC, she fell in love with research and hopes to one day enter a Ph.D. program in biology.