Student Spotlights

Lance Bumgardner is only a few short weeks away from graduating, but is making an impact on the University before he transitions from student to alumnus.

Sunnya Hadavi may not have discovered it immediately, but an inner passion for journalism would reveal that there is more to the story for this international studies and data science major. Those passions ultimately led her to the Niner Times, where she's been editor-in-chief the last two years.

After years of getting involved in a variety of areas on campus, Kenan Moore was named the third-ever Golden Niner this past October during halftime of the Charlotte 49ers’ football game against Navy.

In less than two years at the University, Coleman balanced earning his graduate degree, a graduate assistant position for the women’s volleyball team, an internship in operations at Krispy Kreme and working as coordinator for student programming in Health and Wellbeing.

Matthew McGrew is in just his second year at UNC Charlotte, but this sophomore in electrical engineering has already sparked positive changes. McGrew became student champion and ambassador for the Jamil Niner Student Pantry in the Collegiate Hunger Challenge.

How does a second-year UNC Charlotte computer science student amass nearly 200,000 Twitter followers and end up backstage with Kendrick Lamar? Sreyas Kodukulla is most known as SK, his name on the @raptalksk Twitter account.

Kaylen Forney came to UNC Charlotte last January to begin her undergraduate research. One year later, she was presenting a model she helped create that can accurately predict how a bridge will distort after natural disasters.

This spring, Caleb Achidi was awarded with UNC Charlotte’s Derrick Griffith Servant Leader Award, an honor bestowed to a first-generation college student of junior or senior standing who has demonstrated leadership through on or off campus service to others.

On Feb. 24, 2022 Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation” in Ukraine. There were then reports of explosions in three of Ukraine’s most populous cities. For Aleksandra Degernes, a Russian-born US citizen with family and friends in her home country, it's been a whirlwind of emotions.

The self-proclaimed "seniorest of seniors" has worked as a professional model since her first semester at Charlotte, while also managing a rare skin condition that causes her body to shed its skin at an extremely fast rate.