{"id":23723,"date":"2018-02-20T11:26:47","date_gmt":"2018-02-20T16:26:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=23723"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:54:08","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T16:54:08","slug":"unsung-heroes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=23723","title":{"rendered":"Unsung Heroes strive to even out the playing field"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Erica
Erica Wallace (left) and Jan Yopp will receive the MLK Unsung Hero award.
(Jon Gardiner\/UNC-Chapel Hill)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Many students arrive at Carolina knowing exactly what to expect. Their parents and grandparents, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles all came here. They know what classes to take, where to get ScanTrons, even how to spell U-N-C with their arms. And even if they don\u2019t know, they have lots of friends and family they can ask.<\/p>\n

Those aren\u2019t the students that this year\u2019s faculty and staff recipients of the MLK Unsung Hero Awards are concerned about. These heroes have different titles. Erica Wallace is coordinator for peer mentoring and engagement in the Center for Student Success and Academic Counseling in the College of Arts & Sciences, and Jan Johnson Yopp is a professor in the School of Media and Journalism and dean of Summer School for Academic Affairs. But they have a similar mission: to even out the college playing field so that every student can succeed after arriving here.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want us to be the university that says, \u2018We\u2019re the university that admitted you. Hope to see you at graduation in four years!\u2019 That is not the university that we are,\u201d Yopp said. \u201cThat might work for 80 percent of the students here, but what about that other 20 percent?\u201d<\/p>\n

Each year, the MLK Unsung Hero Awards go to two faculty, staff or community members who have exemplified a steadfast commitment to inclusion. Through their everyday work and advocacy, these awardees have made significant contributions to social justice, equity and diversity and have made a positive difference in the lives of others at Carolina.<\/p>\n

Wallace and Yopp will receive their awards on Feb. 19 at the MLK Celebration Keynote Lecture and Awards Ceremony in Memorial Hall. This event was rescheduled because the University was closed on the original date due to\u00a0snowy weather.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe applaud Jan Yopp and Erica Wallace for their dedication and commitment to furthering the University\u2019s mission of sustaining an inclusive community for all at Carolina. In striving for a more inclusive campus through their initiatives and activism, they have positively impacted potential and matriculated students, as well as underrepresented racial and ethnic minorities, who continue to reach their highest potential,\u201d said G. Rumay Alexander, Carolina\u2019s chief diversity officer and associate vice chancellor for the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. \u201cTheir work exemplifies the efforts made by many on this campus toward ensuring equity that often goes unrecognized. We value and acknowledge their contributions and are pleased to recognize them as this year\u2019s Unsung Heroes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peer to peer<\/h3>\n

Wallace has spent the past three years running three separate peer-mentoring programs, serving 300 to 400 first-year and transfer students. They are the Minority Advisory Program (which dates back to the 1970s), the Carolina Covenant Peer Mentoring Program and the Carolina Student Transfer Excellence Program (C-STEP).<\/p>\n

\u201cPeer mentoring is one of the ways colleges and universities have assisted these students in that transition, because it has nothing to do with the student\u2019s intellectual capacity,\u201d
\nWallace said. \u201cIf you think about the inception of colleges and universities, they were made for elite white men who came from wealthy backgrounds. So it\u2019s great to have a person who comes from a similar background to say, \u2018Hey, I\u2019ve been through what you\u2019re going to go through. Here\u2019s what I do to navigate this place.\u2019 That gives these students confidence that they can\u00a0make it.\u201d<\/p>\n

She is also the chair of the Womxn of Worth Advisory Board, a collaborative campus effort involving undergraduate students, graduate students and faculty and staff from various departments. The group\u2019s mission is to create and sustain a community to promote academic excellence, holistic student success and wellness, identity development and sisterhood.<\/p>\n

Wallace told her own story as an example of how people are on individual journeys, how she wanted to attend Carolina but wound up at Davidson College and loved it. \u201cI made my way to Carolina when I was meant to be here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

A big part of what Wallace and Yopp do is to reassure the students they meet that \u201cnot all those who wander are lost,\u201d as J.R.R. Tolkien once wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have a certain idea of what college is or what\u00a0it should be, that they have to do XYZ to be successful,\u201d Wallace said. When they have to drop a class or change a major,\u00a0they can get derailed\u2014unless someone is there to let them know it\u2019s OK.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo help them find where they\u2019re supposed to be and how to get there,\u201d Wallace said. \u201cI think that\u2019s super important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Feeling different<\/h3>\n

Yopp felt a little different herself when she came to Carolina as\u00a0a student 50 years ago. She was in the second class of women admitted as first-year students. In her 40 years working at\u00a0the University, she has tried to make it a more inclusive and\u00a0supportive place.<\/p>\n

As a professor in the MJ School, she has been a co-adviser to the Carolina Association of Black Journalists student group since its inception 26 years ago. She was instrumental in creating the Chuck Stone Program for Diversity in Media and Education, an intensive summer workshop for high school students. She also teaches in the four-day workshop modeled on the multicultural Rainbow Institute that she and the late professor Chuck Stone co-directed in the early 1990s.<\/p>\n

Yopp has done the same as dean of Summer School. \u201cSummer School has many functions to introduce incoming students to campus, so they can learn their way around, get accustomed to academic rigor and make friends,\u201d she said. \u201cSummer School also helps students stay on track to graduate.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to supporting the Summer Bridge and Chancellor\u2019s Science Scholars programs, Yopp partnered with other offices to launch the Transfer Student Program and Start Strong, new summer transition programs that especially benefit nontraditional, underrepresented, veteran and first-generation students as they begin their academic careers at Carolina.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just the facilitator,\u201d Yopp said. \u201cIt\u2019s people like Erica who are making it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Story by Susan Hudson, University Gazette<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Erica Wallace is coordinator for peer mentoring and engagement in the Center for Student Success and Academic Counseling in the College of Arts & Sciences, and Jan Johnson Yopp is a professor in the School of Media and Journalism and dean of Summer School for Academic Affairs. They are recipients of this year’s MLK Unsung Hero 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