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Always a great day
to be a Tar Heel

Meet our Tar Heels

“It’s a great day to be a Tar Heel” is a phrase you’ll often hear around Carolina, and for a good reason.

Every day, Tar Heels create a positive impact on the world by improving their communities and inspiring change through their talents. They’re artists, scientists, humanitarians, researchers and innovators doing extraordinary things.

Meet some of our students and learn more about the groups they are active in to find out why every day really is a great day to be a Tar Heel.

Two students sitting on McCorkle place with text that reads

Community Builders

  • Abhishek Shankar

    Abhishek Shankar

    Abhishek Shankar was among several students who worked to launch the UNC-Chapel Hill Asian American Center this fall to share a deeper understanding of the unique experience of being Asian American in the American South with the campus community.

  • Tori Bobrowski

    Carolina senior Tori Bobrowski spends her time outside of class volunteering with Eye Ears Nose and Paws to help train mobility assistance and medical alert dogs.

  • Collin O'Donnell

    Collin O’Donnell

    Collin O’Donnell enlisted in the United States Army right after high school and was leading soldiers in Afghanistan by the time he was 21 years old. Now as a Carolina senior, the Tar Heel is serving as a leader for student-veterans.

  • The exterior of Carroll Hall.

    Carolina Association of Black Journalists and the UNC-Chapel Hill chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists

    Tar Heels in the Carolina Association of Black Journalists and the UNC-Chapel Hill chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists are making strides in the media industry before they even leave Carolina.

  • Linking Immigrants to New Communities

    Linking Immigrants to New Communities

    Members of Campus Y’s Linking Immigrants to New Communities student group have been hosting English as a Second Language classes and discussion groups virtually this semester to provide a support network and help the new community members better acclimate to the area.

  • Sherrod Crum and Kenechukwu Uwaje

    Black Entrepreneurs Initiative: Kenechukwu Uwajeh and Sherrod Crum

    Kenechukwu Uwajeh and Sherrod Crum founded the Black Entrepreneurs Initiative to promote, develop and connect Black student-entrepreneurs at Carolina.

Innovators, problem solvers

Carolina innovators are working to solve some of the world’s biggest problems, and students are a driving force behind that mission, with Tar Heels founding and leading their own companies.

Their startups are building diversity, breaking down stigmas and empowering future generations.

Learn more about
Tar Heel innovators
  • Rida Bayraktar

    Carolina sophomore Rida Bayraktar founded Pink STREAM to educate, motivate, empower and inspire kindergarten through eighth-grade girls in science, technology, robotics, engineering, arts and math.

    Learn more about Pink STREAM
  • Nehemiah Stewart

    Nehemiah Stewart used the skills he honed in the research lab to launch an innovative take on ride-sharing services last year. Now, the Tar Heel is using his entrepreneurial experience to bring a new social venture to life.

    Learn more about Stewart's projects
  • Becca Segal and Niki Vilas Boas

    Niki Vilas Boas and Becca Segal founded Wotter, a company that produces competitive swimming accessories designed exclusively for women, to empower female swimmers and encourage them to stay in the sport.

    Learn more about Wotter

Tar Heel Researchers

Meet more researchers
  • Alyssa Grube in the research lab.

    Alyssa Grube

    A graduate student at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, Alyssa Grube honed her research skills by spending her summers at the Galapagos Science Center where she studied antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the environment.

  • Derrick Carr sitting in an office.

    Derrick Carr

    A doctoral student in physics, Derrick Carr is following his childhood passion for skywatching by conducting research that is making important contributions toward identifying characteristics of galaxies very different from our own.

  • Sondrica Goines standing outside.

    Sondrica Goines

    Sondrica Goines always knew she wanted to conduct scientific research. Now as a doctoral student, she's a member of a research group that studies perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, which have been detected in North Carolina’s waterways.