If Not Us, Who?

IF NOT US, WHO? VOLUME I

COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA, APRIL 30, 2018

NUMBER 1

A NEW ERA OF EMPOWERMENT HOW FIVE WOMEN ARE IGNITING CHANGE LOCALLY AND NATIONALLY IN POLITICS, SOCIAL ACTIVISM, EDUCATION AND BUSINESS.

PLUS: HOW YOU CAN TOO.

Editor’s letter

Women’s empowerment has always been a significant part of my life, even if I didn’t always know it or appreciate it. After graduating from an all-girls high school, I readily made my way down South to a big state school; the furthest thing from my small, all-girls school.

What I didn’t realize while searching for that normal, movie-like high school experience was that I was being primed for a lifetime of leadership, a skill most other girls weren’t being taught.

The idea of a woman leader never seemed niche or nuanced to me. In fact, that’s all I really knew. After all, who else was going to be the student body vice president at an all girls high school instead of, well, a girl?

I saw similar resilience and leadership outside of school, too. Having grown up surrounded by empowered moms, teachers and female CEOs my entire life, it’s no wonder that a woman leader seemed normal.

“If Not Us, Who?” is a series dedicated to that idea. Women leaders aren’t an anomaly. They’ve been here all along.

A leader in her own right, not only within business, medicine and education, but also politics, Dr. Mamphela Ramphele tells her story of a lifetime a fighting for equality on page 3. Similarly, Mills Hayes, the student body vice president at the University of South Carolina shares how her childhood impacted who she is today and the importance of being an independent woman on page 11. Gabby Goodwin, Federica Clementi-Kaufman and Christina Andrews all have similar tales of overcoming the odds to make room for more women leaders.

It’s my hope that through sharing their stories, these five women are able to not only teach readers, but also inspire them to go after their own dreams.

One woman’s story can be the beginning of someone else’s.

Lexi Hill

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Kylie Sheaffer In September 2014, Emma Watson spoke at the United Nations as part of the launch of HeForShe. She called for women and men to make gender equality a top priority in their lives, but publicly questioned her authority on the issue. She doubted whether she, a self-proclaimed “Harry Potter girl,” could be an effective spokesperson on such a massive and entrenched problem. How could one young woman make any real change?

While she never expressed true surety in her authority, Watson did express that her passion for gender equality gave her grounds for acting. Watson doubted herself, but also realized that someone had to take the leap, if he or she wanted any change to happen. She asked, “If not me, who? If not now, when?”

“If Not Us, Who?” has been spoken throughout history by a number of public figures, in many different variations. However, that evening in September, alone in my freshman college dorm room, was when it first hit me.

At that time in my life, I was figuring out my own opinions and views on the world. For the first time, I had real responsibility and hoped to live my life big and well. Hearing Emma Watson put to words so much of what I was feeling profoundly struck me. Watson has always been one of my role models, because I’m one of those self-proclaimed “Harry Potter girls.” In that moment, she gave me agency to act. I had positive representation to look up to and change I wanted to make. I’ve carried that phrase with me throughout college and apply that philosophy to my life.

This series is a search for women that make the world shake a bit. We interviewed strong, intelligent and amazing women on the projects that they devote their lives to. It’s my hope that, like I found that night in my dorm room, another reader finds a role model or representation that she can apply to her life, too. This series has already taught me so much, but one of the biggest takeaways I’ve learned from these women is the importance of action. If you see a problem in your life, community, or the world, being idle won’t fix anything. There’s no point in waiting around for someone else to solve the problem, because that person may never come. No problem is too large, and no dream is too lofty. If Not Us, Who?

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By Lexi Hill

Dr. Mamphela Ramphele is a South African activist, politician, medical doctor and anthropologist. She came to the University of South Carolina’s School of Law event, Women as Agents of Change, to talk about how she’s impacted South African medicine, education and social reform.

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Ramphele with some of Tickeyline

Segregated past Dressed in a vibrant, fitted kaftan and head scarf, symbolic of the deep heritage sewn into the fabric of her home country, Mamphela Ramphele begins to explain the history of South African politics.

“The old system was a colonial apartheid model that excluded the majority of the population,” said Ramphele.

This system began in 1948 after the Afrikaner National Party, an all-white government, came into power. Under apartheid, non-white South Africans had to live in secluded areas separate from white people and use segregated public spaces.

This continued into 1958 when the new prime minister, Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd, segregated the community further in the hopes of mitigating any revolt of the majority non-white South African population.

This new effort, the Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act of 1955, led to 10 separate Bantu homelands. The Bantustans, as they become known, was their new citizenship, effectively removing all non-white people from the national government and limiting their political rights.

This racial segregation is rooted in the history of South Africa, dating back well before apartheid. In fact, this effort to weaken the majority population actually began around 1913. When the 1913 Land Act was passed, just three years after South Africa gained its independence, forcing black Africans to live in reserves and banning them from working as sharecroppers.

This deep-seated history is why it took more than 50 years, and countless activists led by the African National Congress, to end this segregation and push for a more equal South Africa. It wasn’t until 1994 that a new constitution was ratified and the first majority non-white coalition government, led by Nelson Mandela, won the election.

“The new system is a constitutional democracy where everyone is equal before the law, where there is explicit anti-discrimination on any ground and where there is a promotion of unity and diversity,” said Ramphele. The time between the old and new South Africa is where Ramphele’s story starts.

“The old system was a colonial apartheid model that excluded the majority of the population,” said Ramphele, a social anthropologist, medical doctor and activist from South Africa.

villagers, who she worked with while at Ithuseng, the health project she started in Lenyene. Photo courtesy of Dr. Mamphela Ramphele.

Rooted in activism “I was too young to understand it, but could see that something was wrong,” said Ramphele. At the age of six, she was living in a mission village with her family that was dominated by the Dutch Reformed Church, led by a leader and pastor called a Dominee.

It was here that Ramphele saw firsthand how the apartheid ripped apart communities like her own. The Dutch Reformed Church justified the apartheid as a God-given way of life.

The idea was that because God created everyone, no one should “put things together that God put apart,” explained Ramphele.

Village leaders governed following these beliefs, teaching members of the village that “you are inferior because you are black and we are superior because we are white,” said Ramphele.

People were required to be baptised, confirmed and active-churchgoers. “If you don’t do these things, then you aren’t allowed in the village,” said Ramphele.

As a result, when one of the villager’s mother died, she was not allowed to be buried in the church because she didn’t fall into line with the Dominee’s sententious ideals. Recalling the story, Ramphele’s brows furrowed, “Everyone just kept saying it was unjust!” The beginning of a revolt had occurred.

There was a heightened urge for resiliency in urban areas around 1955. “They were mobilizing people. They would have bus strikes and other strikes against the system,” said Ramphele on the atmosphere around the time. Subsequently, her village followed suit, and stood up for the woman and her mother.

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Dr. Mamphela Ramphele at Zanempilo Community Health Centre in Zinyoka village outside King Williamstown. Photo courtesy of Dr. Mamphela Ramphele.

Protesters rang the church bell, which could only be rung by the church ringer who is under the Dominee’s instructions.

“There was chaos,” said Ramphele. “My father took us, and my mother who was expecting a little baby, to his rural home about 60 kilometers away from where the village was.”

When they came back about a year later, the village had been completely decimated. “There was a division between those who supported the Dominee and those who opposed him,” said Ramphele. Those who opposed had been forcibly removed by the police. “Suddenly, the village was declared a black spot in a white area and people were then forced to leave the area,” said Ramphele.

Living the fight When Ramphele was beginning her education to become a doctor, that same Dominee from her village proved to be a catalyst for her future.

“After hearing that I wanted to become a doctor, the Dominee told me my father was dying,” said Ramphele. “And he said, you can’t become a doctor, your father is dying. Who is going to pay for you,” said Ramphele.

His rebuffs didn’t stop her, though. “That made me more determined. I said I’m really going to show this man, that whatever he thinks, I’m going to be a doctor. I’m determined to be a doctor.”

So, in the late 1960s, Ramphele began taking pre-med classes at the University of the North and eventually began her medical career at the University of Natal Medical School in 1968. At that time, that was the only university that allowed black students to enroll without prior permission from the government.

While in college, Ramphele was one of the founders of the Black Conscientious Movement, “which was really an approach to mobilizing people to acceptance,” said Ramphele. “They are non-status, non-European, non-white, so the idea was for them to define themselves in more positive terms and be agents of their own liberation.”

Throughout her time as a student, Ramphele became involved in more political activism. She worked with the South African Students’ Organisation, a student organization that resisted the apartheid through political action. Before graduating in 1972, when Ramphele qualified for her degree and became a doctor, she became the chairperson of the local SASO branch.

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The next step After completing internships in the Eastern Cape and the Limpopo province, Ramphele founded the Zanempilo Community Health Care Centre, one the first public healthcare programs apart from the public sector in South Africa.

“In South Africa during the apartheid system, if they didn’t like you or found you to be a threat in the sense of possibly mobilizing people to rise against the regime, they declared you a terrorist or a communist and you would then be restricted either to house arrest or a small area where you can work. So, for eight years, I was restricted,” said Ramphele.

During these years, Ramphele worked with poor communities, mainly women and children, and men who had worked within the migrant labor system.

“The work we did there completely transformed people’s lives,” said Ramphele. “People would assume that you have six children and three of them would die, but children don’t have to die from preventable illnesses.”

Ramphele and her team tackled infant mortality and good nutrition. In order to do this, they prevented the death of infants because of lack of fluid or hydration and encouraged people to have their own gardens so they could have fresh fruit and vegetables.

“It was a revolutionary community health approach that focused on promotion of well being, prevention of ill-health and curative treatment when people were ill,” said Ramphele.

After those eight years, Ramphele went back to the university environment and started working at the University of Cape Town as a researcher. It was there that she curated the knowledge and studies that contributed to her book, A Bed Called Home, which she published after studying the migrant labor system in South Africa.

“Nothing stuck, nothing worked,” said Ramphele. “So, I went back to South Africa and worked in the Eastern Cape to try what I had been working on at a national level at a community level.

Fantastic possibilities, but again; the corruption in the country meant that they could allocate money for the project, but it never arrived.”

Despite years of effort, with obstacles circling at every turn, Ramphele has continued to help the people of South Africa achieve everything they’re capable of achieving.

A bed called home “The sum total of the home of that man, who is an able man, whose wife was living in rural areas, was a bed. That’s it,” said Ramphele while describing the environment where migrant laborers lived.

“Upon arriving, you can expect to see row upon row of beds, which are not beds as you and I would expect, but slabs of concrete with numbers on them,” said Ramphele.

The migrant labor system, which was created under Arch British Colonial Imperialist Cecil John Rose, began after gold and diamonds were discovered in South Africa.

“He decided as the prime minister of the colony, that we must keep African people under a very tight leash,” said Ramphele.

“One of the ways to do that was to bring African men to urban areas to work, where they were kept in a highly policed environment so they can’t steal the gold and diamonds they’re mining.”

Ramphele focused on these living conditions, later attaining her doctorate in anthropology as a result of her research on the politics of space. ”If you restrict people’s physical space, their psychological space in also restricted,” said Ramphele. “They cannot develop spiritually and you’re basically undermining their humanity.”

Tapping into her experience as a medical doctor and research as an anthropologist, Ramphele took on the next phases of her life. She became the deputy vice chancellor at the University of Cape Town, where she was able to help transform the university into a system that “welcomes men and women, black and white.”

As a result of her work, Ramphele became the president of the University of Cape Town from 1996 to 2000. From there, she went on to work in Washington, D.C., as the managing director of the World Bank, where she dealt with issues of human development. In 2004, Ramphele was asked by both World Bank and the United Nation to co-chair a global commission on migration.

Ramphele now “I’ve been an activist now for 50 years. I still don’t give up. And the reason is simple,” said Ramphele. “If I give up, what do I do? I am not prepared to sit down and fold my hands and be depreressed!

“I believe South Africa has all the opportunities and resources to become a great country.” Looking down at the pattern on her dress, Ramphele laughs and says, “One of the tragedies of Africa is our continent is a cradle of humanity. We should be the leaders. We are people who invented writing, mathematics, cosmology; but that is all lost in the wash. Instead, we tend to emulate other cultures rather than showcase what the continent has to offer. So, this is it!”

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Dr. Federica Clementi-Kaufman has spent her career studying and teaching the perspective of the ‘other.’ Her Jewish identity has shaped her entire life, and given her a deeper understanding of her studies.

By Kylie Sheaffer

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The reminder Federica Clementi adjusted her scarf and laughed. “Do you really have to take pictures of me?” the USC Jewish Studies professor asked. “I’ve always been absolutely terrible in photos.”

She has studied photographs, and the people in them her entire life, in an effort to unravel the stories of those who suffered and survived the Holocaust and the generations who have come after.

Reminders of Clementi’s Jewish identity are visible in her office, a reflection of the woman who has spent a lifetime devoted to understanding mass genocides and how people can evolve and become more understanding.

Her office walls are home to Russian movie posters, and antique furniture, fill the room. Her book, Holocaust Mothers and Daughters: Family, History and Trauma, sits front and center on her desk.

“I never spend any time here,” said Clementi, whose work consumes her. Clementi’s interest in Holocaust survivors began in her early childhood and has continued throughout her academic career.

In fact, Clementi has committed her life towards studying the Holocaust from the perspective of its victims. Subsequently, she’s become an expert on the long-term psychological effects of genocide survivors.

“The children of Holocaust survivors tend to carry a lot of the PTSD symptoms of their parents, particularly in Israel,” said Clementi.

The Holocaust, the mass extermination of European Jews by the German Nazi regime, occurred throughout Europe from the early 1930s to 1945. The discrimination towards the ‘other’ occurred for years before the Holocaust, though, and still exists today.

It’s nearly impossible to calculate the number of victims of the Holocaust, although six million Jews are believed to have perished in the concentration camps. The United States Holocaust Museum conducted a study that estimated that over 15 million people were murdered during the genocide, including Nazi political opponents, the handicapped, homosexuals, gypsies and others deemed imperfect by the Nazi regime.

It’s even harder to total the victims that didn’t die. Instead, those who lived over a decade living in unimaginable fear after surviving concentration camps and the poor living conditions in Jewish ghettos, as they became known.

The children of those survivors, who have lived lives similarly affected by this genocide and the PTSD it has caused, will also be difficult to estimate.

Academia has studied the effects of trauma on mothers and have established a theory that, when a mother’s life has been so altered by fear, their DNA can be affected. Physical traits are passed along to their children and can be observed and compared to others who are also second-generation survivors of trauma. This can even be studied with animals.

“You can see this in cows,” Clementi said. “If a calf witnesses the murder of its mother, the stress can alter it for the rest of its life.” High-anxiety environments that impact a mother can also affect the behavior of her offspring and their potential for growth.

Psychologists have observed that children of Holocaust survivors share similar personality traits, regardless of where they live or where they’re from.

“The children of Holocaust survivors tend to carry a lot of the PTSD symptoms of their parents, particularly in Israel,” said Clementi.

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Surrounded by numbers Clementi grew up in the 1970s in Rome near what has since been coined the Jewish ghetto. Throughout Clementi’s life, the echoes of the ghetto were everywhere, with the symptoms PTSD of second-generation survivors not far behind.

“From a Jewish point of view, Europe is a cemetery,” Clementi said.

As a child, she saw old graffiti and paintings on walls of swastikas and anti-Semitic messages. She felt surrounded by the Holocaust and its survivors.

“It bothers you, it humiliates you, but you live with it as though it’s a natural part of life,” Clementi said.

“There were these elderly people, at the time, that I’m sure were probably only in their 50s, but to me as a child they were ancient, that walked around with these numbers tattooed on their arms,” Clementi said. “If you asked, adults would tell you.

They would tell you who these people were, and how many people in their family had died. There were little traumatic things we would see and talk about all the time.”

People she loved and grew up with were survivors of this massive genocide. As a child, all she wanted to do was take their pain away. “If I could’ve only gone back to take away their suffering,” she said. “If I could only take that away from them.

If I only could set the clock back and change things for these people. Which is a stupid thought, I know, but I was young.”

Clementi fondly remembered a woman who worked downstairs from where she lived. The woman cooked homemade pasta, and was so warm and enormous, but had a prominent tattoo that stuck out on her arm. The reminder of the Holocaust was always there.

The Jeiwsh ghetto of Rome is seated between the Tiber River and Venice Square.

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The necklace Clementi’s

uncle gave her when she was eight.

The star in the room Even though she was Jewish, everyone around her seemed to be white, Italian and Catholic. The Jews had been in Rome since the Roman times, but the Fascist background of Italy was felt sharply by Clementi. She felt it was still the land of Mussolini Benito.

“When I was 8 years of age, my uncle who ran a jewelry store gave me a golden Star of David,” Clementi said. “It was beautiful and I felt he was so excited to give it to me. No one ever told me not to where it, but I was aware that no one else was [wearing the Star of David].”

Being Jewish in Rome was never difficult for Clementi as a young child, but in middle school it became a problem. She felt she was a popular girl, and was really friends with everybody, but she had a few bullies. When she least expected it, slurs would come out.

“A boy beat me up. I mean he broke an umbrella on my head, and said a number of anti-Semitic things,” she said. “But when my parents came to talk to the teacher, she just said “‘Oh, he has a crush on her.’”

Disappointed by the anti-Semitism and sexism she was increasingly witness to in her hometown, Clementi took her studies abroad. She was in search of a place where she could feel comfortable and continue her studies.

She spent her academia focused on Jewish studies and the Holocaust. She studied in Poland Israel, and at Brandeis University. However, that feeling of being the ‘other’ always followed her.

“When I was abroad, it really became apparent,” she said.

“Your best friends, the people you eat with and spend your life with, your intimate friends, would still joke or make slurs about being Jewish. When those lines come out, you feel how they look at you differently.”

Despite the discrimination, Clementi continued on. She joked that her life journey is very geographical; almost like her own Ulysses epic.

“I went on this life-long journey trying to find a place for myself where I could be who I am, do my work and at least feel comfortable and not feel threatened,” she said. To escape the misogyny and anti-Semitism of Europe, Clementi decided to move to America.

“I had a very strong feeling I was not going to move back,” she said. “My parents asked how long I’d be in America, and I said, ‘Maybe life?’”

Clementi credits the support of her parents to much of her accomplishments in life. Their encouragement and support through her academia were uncommon in Italy. They pushed her to go for anything and everything she wanted to do, even though she was a woman and an only child.

“My mom told me to just do anything I wanted, and demand for it. I had an entire world around me telling me otherwise, but the support of my parents was everything,” she said.

After studying at Brandeis University, Clementi moved to New York and worked various jobs, including teaching at Columbia University. In fact, when Clementi was offered a job at the University of South Carolina, she recalls looking the city up on a map. “I had to look it up! I really had no idea,” she said laughing. Despite this, she grabbed her cat and violin and drove to Columbia.

“I realized that what I did was more important than where I did it. In my 20s and 30s, it had to be New York. I had to be in the center of the world,” she said. “In my 40s, I realized I really wanted to devote myself fulltime to writing and for time to myself. In New York you don’t have time for yourself, forget about it.”

Clementi now Through her studies, and through her teachings, no matter the name of the course or the subject matter, Clementi has carried one theme throughout her life: to be open to the idea of the ‘other.’

“We have the capacity of overcoming our egos and selfishness, to look another being in the eyes and recognize the importance of their existence,” she said. “There are things in this world so much bigger than our individual singularity. Things like the environment and peace, and they are worth our lives. If we could spend our lives fighting for things that make everyone’s existence better, that’s a life worth living.”

Clementi defines the ‘other’ as anyone, or anything, that is different than your immediate life. It’s minorities, and animals, and even the climate.

“Everything is profoundly connected,” Clementi said.

Currently, Clementi is working towards studying the connection between genocides and ecology. She is researching similarities between victims of genocide and victims of ecocide.

Clementi is also studying the long-term effects of the Holocaust on the Jewish mental and physical landscapes of Europe.

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Mills Hayes is a junior journalism student at the University of South Carolina. As the vice president of the student body, her goal is to inspire the next generation of empowered women leaders.

By Lexi Hill

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Empowering women Mills Hayes, a junior journalism student at the University of South Carolina, sits in her new office inside of the Student Government wing. She was sworn in as the vice president of the student body less than a week ago.

For her, equal representation in politics is more important now than ever. It was a tenet of her platform, something she made clear while addressing students at her inauguration. At the swearing in, she wore an all-white jumpsuit, a color reminiscent of the women’s suffrage movement of the late 1800s and early 1900s, at her inauguration.

“I look forward to a future where there are more than one-in-five members of Congress that are women,” Hayes said. “I look forward to a future, where female politicians are judged more on their policy positions and less on their wardrobe. I look forward to a future where women, and especially women of color, make $1 for every $1 a man makes.”

Women’s representation in government is still limited. In fact, according to UN Women, the organization dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women, only 22.8 percent of all national parliamentarians were women as of June 2016, effectively making 77.2 percent, or over three fourths of the decision-makers, men.

It’s no wonder that women’s rights aren’t represented effectively. Their voices never stood a chance compared to their male counterparts.

When it comes to representation in the United States government, the statistics become even more grim. Women’s representation in the U.S. compared to other countries dropped from 52nd place to 102nd in the last two decades, according to Inter-Parliamentary Union. In the last year alone, the U.S. dropped two spots, from 100 to 102.

Those statistics don’t get much better locally, either. In South Carolina, women are also in the minority when it comes to representation in elected offices.

Ranking 24th in the country for gender parity, the state pales in comparison to others. In December 2016, the state swore in four women to the Senate, the most women sworn in at the same time in State House history.

Currently in the the S.C. State House, there are only four women in the Senate out of 46 senators, and 23 female House members out of 124 members. So, despite the fact that women make up 51.5 percent of the state’s population, only nine percent of members in the Senate and 19 percent of members in the House are women.

At the university level, gender disparity in elected roles exists as well. According to the Daily Gamecock, only 20 percent of student body candidates are women, despite the majority of the undergraduate population being women.

This, coupled with WalletHub’s 2018 report placing South Carolina in the top six states that are the worst for women, proves the need for strong women’s voices at all levels of government, especially here in Columbia.

A reason for everything “I wasn’t originally planning on going to the University of South Carolina,” Hayes said. “I’m from Lexington, which is about 30 minutes away.”

For this South Carolina native, her dream was to go out-ofstate for college. However, she ended up changing her mind in favor of the University of South Carolina.

“I knew about the student media opportunities and journalism program,” Hayes said. “Those are two of the biggest reasons I ultimately chose to go here.”

So, she packed her bags and prepared for the next four years.

Only, she never could have anticipated what they would have in store for her.

“The first thing I did was go through sorority recruitment,” Hayes said. “I think a lot of girls get caught up in superficial or cool things, but it was never about that for me.”

For Hayes, Zeta Tau Alpha allowed her the opportunity to support a cause close to home. “My stepmother passed away from breast cancer, so it’s a cause that’s important to my family,” Hayes said.

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A funny story

“She went from being this dynamic person, taking care of her kids and living life, to a woman confined to her medical bed. It was really hard to watch.”

It was life-altering moments like that that has made her the leader she is today. “My family has always been in a transition; there’s never not something going on,” Hayes said. “Going through loss, watching my family members experience loss and then ultimately watching new relationships flourish gave me a unique perspective on life.”

When it comes to a position as immersive as the student body’s vice president, Hayes believes a leader should see problems from all perspectives. It is a lesson Hayes learned early on in her leadership roles on campus.

“I learned a lot as the station manager, namely how to work with other people,” Hayes said.

A leader in the making “I actually tried out for freshman council and didn’t get it,” Hayes said, laughing. “It’s a council consisting of 30 freshmen who represent their grade and weigh in on Student Government issues.”

Hayes didn’t let that deter her, though. After joining Zeta Tau Alpha, and becoming the philanthropy co-chair for Think Pink, an initiative created to raise money for breast cancer awareness, Hayes decided she wanted to become more involved on campus.

“I also joined Student Gamecock Television (SGTV) within student media,” Hayes said. “I started off as a News 4 staffer and had no idea what I was doing.” Sometimes inexperience pushes you to work harder, she said, which is exactly what Hayes did. “I worked my way up to become the co-Weekend Preview producer, SGTV’s weekly segment, that updates students on events happening in the area,” Hayes said. Subsequently, she became the news director at the beginning of her sophomore year and later the station manager.

As the station manager, Hayes managed an executive staff of 19 people and a general staff of over 100. “I learned a lot as the station manager, namely how to work with other people,” Hayes said. Her ability to manage a team while respectfully and quickly solving problems is the reason she was eventually put in touch with Taylor Wright, her presidential running mate on the Student Government ticket.

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Hayes never planned to run for student body vice president. However, that all changed when she met Wright.

“We actually met before we decided to run together,” Hayes said as she threw her head back and covered her eyes. “It’s a pretty crazy story.”

When she was the station manager at SGTV, someone on the team group message posted a racially insensitive joke. It caused Hayes to re-evaluate how the team was being run.

“I removed her from the team and had an informal body meeting with the whole team to address the situation,” Hayes said. “I sat there with everyone, and said, ‘Let’s just round-robin this. I wanted to figure out what we could have done differently and understand the problem from every perspective.’ I wanted to make sure this never happened again.”

Twisting the ring on her finger, Hayes fast-forwards to a few weeks later, when she presented the station’s semester accomplishments in front of the student organization of leaders.

“I was so nervous. I had a feeling someone was going to ask a question about the message,” Hayes said. Sure enough, someone did.

“It was Taylor! He wanted to know how I addressed the incident,” Hayes said. “When we met to talk about potentially running, he brought up that moment and how well I handled it.”

With some help Learning to be a leader starts well before you’re in the role. For Hayes, it started when she was young. “I wouldn’t be here today without my parents,” Hayes said. “I’ve learned a lot from them both. I go to my dad for all of my career-related questions. And I credit my mom for teaching me how to be an independent, strong woman.”

Her list of mentors doesn’t stop there. One of the people who’s always been a role model to her is her sister, who is never short of advice to offer. “She never gives up on people,” Hayes said. “I’m so independent, so sometimes I fall into the trap of a one-track mind, just focusing on what I need to get done.”

When she catches herself forgetting to check in with friends and family, she reminds herself of something her sister has always said: “Although I’m the star of my own show, I’m not the star of everyone else’s.” She said she has to make sure she supports others.

“I think as women, we see each other as competition sometimes,” Hayes said. “But women who are against each other don’t get anything done.”

While it might seem like Hayes has it all together, it’s not always easy. With every new role comes new challenges, or the reminder of old ones. “I’ve always had this insecurity that I’m not good enough,” Hayes said. “I’ve always felt like I needed to show the world that I matter in some way.”

In a time where social media is so encapsulating or there’s always an urgency to be working on a bigger and better project, it’s easy to get wrapped up in those insecurities.

“I think as women, we see each other as competition sometimes,” Hayes said. “But women who are against each other don’t get anything done.”

For Hayes, her goal as vice president is to remind students of that fact, the idea that there’s room for everyone at the table. “You have to put yourself into perspective,” Hayes said. “Women can accomplish so much, especially with the support of one another.”

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By Kylie Sheaffer

Dr. Christina Andrews is a professor for the College of Social Work at the University of South Carolina where she works to educate people on drug abuse and treatment.

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Magnitude Christina Andrews, a professor in the University of South Carolina’s College of Social Work, rolled her chair over towards her computer and pulled up a slide. Her office was completely clean.

Everything appeared to be organized and in its place, which may be essential for someone who’s studying such a chaotic epidemic.

“I’ve got a slide that’s pretty cool where you can kind of see how things just happened,” Andrews said, sifting through a PowerPoint on her computer. “That was 1999, and it’s just been growing and growing and growing. [The Appalachia region] was the epicenter.”

Andrews is an expert on drug abuse, drug treatments, and the opioid crisis. She’s currently working on a national longitudinal study of drug treatment centers in the United States. She wants to find the best ways to combat the opioid epidemic because the magnitude of the crisis is far reaching. Andrews plans to apply her research to communities in South Carolina, to try and minimize the effects of drug abuse in our state.

“This is the most deadly drug epidemic in our nation’s history,” she said. “Deaths from opioid overdoses at this point have far-exceeded deaths from AIDS at the height of that epidemic.”

According to Avert, an organization that focuses on the global statistics of HIV and AIDS, at the height of the AIDS epidemic in America, around the beginning of the 1990s, there were over 100,000 reported cases in the United States. The World Health Organization predicted the actual number of cases were a couple hundred thousand more.

In 2015 alone, it was estimated that roughly two million Americans were struggling with abusing prescription drug pain relievers.

“It’s now become one of the top ten causes of deaths in the United States,” Andrews said.

Drug overdose is the leading cause of accidental death in the U.S., with opioid-driven overdoses accounting for 60 percent of those deaths.

“We have seen for the first time in many years the decrease in life expectancy of Americans and that is almost wholly attributable to the epidemic,” she said. “It’s one of the biggest health emergencies we’ve ever had.”

In 2015 and 2016, reports from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention indicated that life expectancy for Americans was declining. The U.S. has typically seen a gradual rise in life expectancy year after year, with only occasional years where the life expectancy stays the same or randomly declines.

The rates in 2015 and 2016 were the first time that the U.S. has seen a two-year decline in life expectancy rates since the height of the AIDS epidemic.

The life expectancy rates for a country typically reflect the well-being and level of health for a country.

“It could not be more serious,” Andrews said.

Prescriptions and South Carolinians Andrews pointed to a location on a map that was covered in a dark red color.

“One place where they’re having a real problem is in Horry County, which is up where Myrtle Beach is,” she said. “There have been more [opioid-related] deaths there than any county in the state. Which is very concerning because it’s so much less populous than Richland County or Greenville County, where our cities are.”

South Carolina has not come out unscathed from the epidemic.

“Right now, in South Carolina, doctors write as many prescriptions for opioids as there are in the state, every year,” she said. “We’re in the top 10 in terms of the number of prescriptions per resident. Not a place you want to be.”

According to the CDC, the worst states for prescribing medications per residents were Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee. South Carolina ranked ninth.

Andrews explained that it’s difficult to determine why the epidemic hits hardest in particular areas. Researchers are trying to figure it out, but there are a number of contributing factors as to why some areas are susceptible to the opioid epidemic.

One factor could be that rural areas, with many physically- demanding jobs, have higher rates of workplace injuries. Doctors were encouraged in the 1990s to prescribe opioid prescriptions for pain relief. As these injuries occurred, physicians were happy to prescribe medications like OxyContin, which were new on the market, to provide any kind of relief. The research just wasn’t there yet to prove how highly addictive these medications might be.

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But it’s not just rural areas that have been affected, at this point.

“I think that because of the magnitude of the opioid epidemic there are very few people who aren’t touched by it one way or another,” Andrews said. “Either personally or by having a family member, or a friend, or a coworker, who’s struggling with opioid abuse.”

South Carolina is also seeing a growth of opioid addictions in the rural northwest counties.

“You’ve got this area around West Virginia that just keeps growing and growing, and now it’s starting to hit this corner [of South Carolina],” she said. “The concern is, what do we need to do as a state to keep it from spreading.”

A federal affair Andrews has been studying drug abuse, and specifically the opioid crisis since she began her doctorate in 2006.

Her devotion towards studying the opioid epidemic, and particularly the positive effects of drug treatment and its financing, resulted in her being asked to serve as a witness for a U.S. congressional hearing.

“One of the major reasons I think I was asked to attend the hearing is because of the work [I do] around Medicaid and insurance expansions,” Andrews said. “Just that acknowledgement of how critical those funds are to states and communities really being able to leverage an effective response.”

The hearing was focused primarily on how necessary the funding of ACA and Medicaid is to the opioid epidemic.

“One in three people receiving treatment for opioid addiction is getting their treatment through Medicaid,” she said.

Andrews laughed about the timeline of getting to the congressional hearing, because everything happened very quickly.

“They asked me a week before. I had to book a flight, pull a testimony together and be there the next week,” Andrews said.

“And I probably had 20 emails a day with their staffers, all hours of the day and night all weekend long.”

She emphasized how excellent everyone was to work with, and how beneficial it was that she had colleagues who had delivered congressional testimonies before.

“I was certainly a little nervous going into it, but I think what I realized pretty quickly was that you’re talking to a really generalist audience of lawmakers who have to understand a little about a lot of things,” she said. “And so, the questions that they were posing were excellent ones, but they were ones that I definitely felt equipped to speak to.”

Andrews said that funding for drug treatment and healthcare is crucial, and that is what got her to the hearing. Without money, people won’t receive necessary treatments for battling their addictions, and treatments have been proven to be the most effective way to cut down on overdose and addiction.

“The bottom line is that people will die,” Andrews said.

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Dr. Andrews holding the

Breakthrough Star, which was

awarded to her for her research.

Why social work?

Andrews studied at the University of Chicago for her doctorate.

“The school’s motto was ‘Where fun goes to die’ and it was definitely challenging and serious,” Andrews said. “But, I felt like I had a team by my side through that whole program. I never had a moment of doubt that this is what I wanted to do with my life.”

Andrews felt drawn to social work because she likes to break down the big picture of an issue and find solutions for it. Social work gave her the freedom to study significant problems with real world applications, and brainstorm innovative methods for solving them.

Being the first of her family to go to college, Andrews didn’t expect opportunities that would become available to her.

“I think I thought I wanted to be a hairdresser,” Andrews laughed. “My family was working class. I’ve definitely exceeded my greatest kinds of expectations for things I thought I would do, which is wonderful.”

Andrews credits some of her work ethic to her mom. She joked about the yin and yang nature of their relationship, but recognized that her mom’s quiet and gentle support gave her the freedom to become who she wanted to be.

“She was a single mom raising my brother and sister and I on her own,” Andrews said. “I definitely got to see what hard work and personal sacrifice looked like.”

Hard work and personal sacrifice are two things that Andrews is familiar with. For years she’s devoted time to teaching and researching the effects of drug treatments for those struggling with opioid conditions. She’s always loved her job, even when she was working hours on end.

“It was time to go home and I just didn’t want to stop,” Andrews said. “I just love the work.”

“It was time to go home and I just didn’t want to stop,” Andrews said. “I just love the work.”

Next steps “It sounds cheesy, but a real goal for me is to give back more to the community here,” said Andrews. “I’m interested in developing a coalition of key stakeholders to take on the issue of treatment here in South Carolina.”

She wants to convene the coalition as soon as possible, to determine where the gaps are in treatment, what the needs of South Carolinians are, and what resources South Carolina could still benefit from.

Andrews is hopeful for South Carolina and the future of medical treatment for individuals struggling with drug abuse.

“I think we need to focus on prevention and treatment,” Andrews said. “One out of every five people struggling with opioid usage is receiving any kind of treatment. On the prevention side, I think we need to focus on safer prescribing methods.”

One out of every five people struggling with opioid usage isn’t receiving any kind of treatment.

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Gabby Goodwin is the 11-year-old CEO of Gabby Bows, the first company to create double face-double snap barrettes.

By Lexi Hill

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Rooted in style Hair can be curled. It can also be straightened, or pressed, braided, crimped, cornrowed and waved. Hair reveals history, acting as a signifier for different time periods.

For African-American women, hair goes deeper than history.

As Ayana Byrd and Lori Tharps note Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America, the style of braids tells a much more complicated story.

“From day one, Black children are indoctrinated into the intricate culture of hair,” writes Byrd and Tharps. “Learning the language of Black hair culture goes hand in hand with understanding the technology.”

Continuing, the pair writes, “the original tool of Black hair culture has to be the ancient hand-carved African comb.”

As new tools were created to manipulate hair, the vocabulary expanded. “Other equipment can be grouped according to function in the following categories: straighteners, styling tools, moisturizers, pomade, and accessories.”

Knowing the tools and understanding the language of Black hair culture doesn’t mean you’re in the club yet, according to Byrd and Tharps. “Certain rituals and rites of passage must also be experienced.”

Rites of passage “Little Black girls usually get their hair washed anywhere from once a week to once a month, and then it must be arranged into some sort of style or it will be nearly impossible to manage until the next washing,” the authors note.

For many people, “memories of early hair-care rituals are unforgettabl. Regardless of the look, “the hair has to be combed out, a small section at a time, and blow-drying is often necessary.”

Gabby Goodwin and her mother, Rozalynn, of Columbia wanted to change that hair care routine and make it a little bit easier. For them, like so many others, the hairstyle was way too hard to maintain.

“My mom used to drop me off at school after spending hours on my hair, only to pick me up later with half the bows missing,” said Gabby.

Start of something big Surrounded by kids who are visiting EdVenture Children’s Museum in downtown Columbia during spring break, 11-yearold Gabby Goodwin arrived for a different reason entirely. She had spent most of her break traveling and working on projects for her business, something most other pre-teens aren’t doing.

“It’s a great experience to be an entrepreneur,” Gabby said. “I get to meet new people and see new things.”

As the face of Gabby Bows, a company she started with her mom six years ago, Gabby has had the opportunity to build a brand while still attending school as a straight-A student.

Gabby Bows took off after Rozalyn Goodwin vented on Twitter about barrettes that never stayed in her daughter’s braided hair.

As it turns out, she wasn’t the only parent looking for an answer to this exasperating problem.

“I was always playing outside, so when I got home, my braids and barrettes would be a mess,” Gabby said. She recalls her mom and grandma always fixing her hair; the problem was never-ending.

“My grandma’s pet peeve was when my bows weren’t positioned right, so you could see the hair and not the barrette,” said Gabby.

That’s where the idea for the Double-Face, Double-Snap barrette came to fruition. With two faces, the design of Gabby bows ensures that no matter what activity you’re doing, the bow will always stay in place and look the way it should.

Since then, the duo has been featured in national and local media outlets, including The Washington Post and the NBC Today show.

“It probably took about two years to make the products,” Gabby said. “Now we fill online orders in all 50 states and eight countries.” Edventure is one of 57 locations across 16 states.

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Living the dream As Gabby arrived with her mom and brother, Michael, they stopped in the gift shop to see the set-up of Gabby Bows barrettes.

“I’m four years in the business, so it’s just natural now,” said Gabby, smiling ear to ear with the confidence of someone well beyond her age. “Now, what a five-year-old or a seven-year-old was doing is now an 11-year-old living her dream.”

It’s not easy to balance it all, though. Gabby’s day starts around 6:30 a.m. so she has time to get ready for school at 7:30 a.m. “I get home around 3 p.m. and start doing my homework,” Gabby said. “My mom usually comes home a little bit later.

That’s when we fill orders for the business.”

Gabby is in the gifted program at school, which she credits for her high standards. “It’s strict work, so I have to make sure I balance my schedule to get everything done,” said Gabby.

“The teachers expect higher performance than last year because we’re in fifth grade.”

However, despite all of the stresses of maintaining her grades and contributing to the family business, Gabby still manages to have fun. “I do tap and ballet, but sometimes I like to make up my own dances and dance with my friends.”

As she talked about her friends, Gabby laughed recalling those dance routines. Even now, as her laugh filled up the cafeteria at Edventure, it’s hard to remember that Gabby is only 11.

Almost as quickly as she started laughing, she stopped and begins to talk about her hopes for the future, just in case becoming a professional dancer doesn’t work out.

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Gabby with her mother, Rozalynn, and

brother, Michael.

Passing it forward “I just ran into a customer when I was in Washington, D.C.,” Gabby said. “That happens all the time, but I always love meeting new customers.”For Gabby, who started Gabby Bows to help girls like her who were losing their barrettes and getting into trouble, it’s always been about her customers.

“I won’t give up on other people,” said Gabby. “My classmates and customers look up to me, so I don’t want to give up on them now.” In fact, one of the things Gabby is most passionate about is helping the next generation of young entrepreneurs, a sentiment that seems to start within the family.

Gabby turned around with a toothy grin after helping her younger brother with his work. From the table we’re sitting at, it’s clear how much he looks up to Gabby.

“He wants to start a business too, but with books. He’s always watched and learned from me,” said Gabby. “It’s great to see him go out there and go after his dreams too.”

Although Gabby makes it look fun, it’s not easy starting a business, which Gabby’s learned from experience. “I always say ‘no’ is just an abbreviation for ‘next opportunity,’” said Gabby.

“That’s why my biggest piece of advice is to never give up.”

Staying true to that was harder at the beginning for Gabby, who considers herself an introvert. “In our first commercial, I kept crying because I was so nervous. I had this necklace on, and if you watch the video, I held onto it the whole time. Now, I talk to people all around the world.”

It’s that resilient mindset that keeps Gabby going when she could’ve easily called it quits. “A lot of people are scared to follow their dreams because they don’t want to fail,” Gabby said. “I always say to just follow your dreams and don’t lose hope.”

“I want to grow the business with my future daughters,” she said. For her, this is just the beginning.

Gabby Bows explained

The barrette up-close

Step 1

“My grandma’s pet peeve was when my bows weren’t positioned right, so you could see the hair and not the barrette,” said Gabby. Now, she doesn’t have to worry about her hair staying in place. All she does is place her hair in the middle strip, and then fasten both sides.

Step 2

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