Senior Circuit...Stacey Leigh Turner
Stacey Leigh Turner grew up in Fort Mill, SC, home of Carowinds and the AAA Charlotte Knights. The Queen City of Charlotte, N.C., is only 10 minutes away, but Turner wanted something different for college.
“I knew I wanted to go to small school because I didn’t want to be just another face the crowd,” she says. “I also wanted a school that was relatively close to home. When I visited Wofford, I knew it was the perfect fit for me.”
And fit in she has. Turner was a Wofford Ambassador her freshman and sophomore years. She joined Delta Delta Delta sorority and recognized by Order of Omega for her leadership in the greek community. She has also been in the American Chemical Society, serving as president this year. And she recently received the high honor of being inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.
Her ability to focus academically from the beginning helped her tremendously.
“I came to Wofford knowing I wanted to be a Chemistry major,” she says. “Throughout my freshman year, I took classes to prepare myself to go to pharmacy school. However, my plans changed by the end of first semester sophomore year. I was taking Organic Chemistry and really enjoyed the stuff I was learning in that class. I decided that pharmacy wasn’t the right career choice for me. After that, I spent the next two and half years preparing myself to go to graduate school.
“Next year I will be attending graduate school at Duke University to pursue a PhD in Chemistry. After graduate school, I would like to pursue a career in the pharmaceutical industry doing research on new drugs. My long term goal is to return to academia and teach.”
One of the things Wofford has taught her is to expand her horizons. The girl from Fort Mill has become a woman who has seen the world.
“Wofford has provided so many amazing memories,” says Turner. “One of my favorites would have to be my Interim trip this past January to Egypt. It was such an amazing experience.”