Senior Circuit...Prashant PatelWhen Prashant Patel was in seventh grade, he got his first taste of Wofford College. The school was hosting a summer program for gifted and talented students and Patel was fortunate enough to be invited.
“I really enjoyed that program,” says Patel, who lived in Union, S.C. but has since seen his family move southeastward to Columbia. “Later on, when I was in high school, I was nominated to be a Wofford Scholar. I came back to visit the school and also visited Furman. In the end, I preferred the Wofford environment and so I ended up coming here in the Fall of 2005.”
Patel has been involved in a number of organizations and activities…
• He has been a member of the Debate Society, where he has served as parliamentarian and vice president
• He has been a member of the Wofford College Libertarians, where he was vice president and most recently president this last year
• He has been somewhat involved with the Philosophy Club
• He was a Campus Union delegate his sophomore year and is currently a judicial commissioner
• He is a member of the Salt Shaker staff (saltezine.wordpress.com), an online e-zine that he helped create this past Interim
• He has tried to be involved in as many political events on campus as possible, a major passion of his
• He has been one of the main organizers for student debates that have taken place in Leonard Auditorium the last two years
• He has worked at Wofford’s IT Help Desk since his freshman year and is currently one of the student managers who works there a few evenings each week
• During the fall semester of his junior year, he studied abroad in Denmark, focusing on a program in Marine Biology
Then there is his academic side.
“I am a biology and philosophy double major,” says Patel. “I came here with the intention of going to law school some day, and started as a biology major. The reason for this was so that I would have a good scientific basis for practicing environmental law, which is still a potential interest of mine. I also really love Biology and everything I learn about how life works.
“I've stuck with biology all this way, but in the second semester of my junior year, I also went on a philosophy craze. I took three philosophy classes in one semester and ended up declaring a philosophy major before the semester was over. I even ended up writing an Honors Paper for Philosophy. It was a passion that I found late in my college career, but I jumped all over it, and it has been a great experience.
“I find that Biology and Philosophy overlap quite often, at least as far as my studies go. I am able to integrate knowledge from both fields into all of my classes, and that has made my liberal arts education all the more rewarding.”
Speaking of which, the day is fast approaching when Patel will graduate from Wofford. As you might expect, he has the immediate future meticulously planned out.
“This summer, I will be doing very little outside of working for my parents and hopefully taking the patent bar exam. Next year, I will be attending Mercer Law in Macon, GA. I received a full tuition scholarship, and in this economy saving that much money means a lot! I hope to be an attorney in a few years time and continue living in the Southeast. My interests include environmental law along with intellectual property/patents law and constitutional law.”
Patel says his best memory of his time here at Wofford was the second semester of his sophomore year.
“I was taking three philosophy classes, a biology class on research, and a business law class. I was very busy due to all of this, and yet I had so much fun in all of my classes and outside them, too. It was so great to be able to truly enjoy school and my free time with all of my friends. A lot of my good friends graduated last year, so it was the last time I really got to hang out with all of them. But I still had plenty of good friends to make this senior year enjoyable as well!”