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Searching for the Right WordsStudents add to research on Holocaust by translatingprivately held documents.The paper is yellowed with age, theneat handwriting faint but still legible.“My dearest,” the letter fromRavensbrück Women’s ConcentrationCamp begins. “I have received the lettersfrom December 8th and January 6th, thethree packages also. I thank you verymuch for your effort with everything.”The message, penned by Czechprisoner Libuše Marianová in February1943, is among a trove of World WarII documents that were translated forthe first time by students in AssistantProfessor Alex Lorenz’s Introduction toGerman Translation class in fall 2019.Those documents were shared withLorenz by a private collector, BradLephew, who had been searchingfor someone willing to undertake thetime-consuming task of translatingthe German script. When Lephewconnected with Lorenz, the professorsaw an opportunity for his studentsto learn about a dark part of Germanhistory through primary sources.Now Lorenz’s class, held every twoyears, has a new collection to workwith – the papers of Holocaust survivorSamuel Finkel, whose granddaughterreached out to Lorenz after hearingabout the first project.The work is meaningful on many levels,Lorenz says. “I took this on because Iknew there’s a need,” he says. “Most ofthese families are Americans who havethis background from the Holocaust, andImages courtesy ofUpstate Archives.linaUniversity of South Caro6 UP Magazinethey have all these documents at homethat they tried to decipher and nobody ishelping them with that.”Professional translators generallyprefer high-paying jobs, he notes –documents or manuals needed bycompanies or corporations. Havingstudents translate these personalcollections provides a service to thecommunity, Lorenz says, while alsodeveloping important career skills –research, teamwork, writing, revising.Like other students, senior NataliyaVykhovanets found deciphering the oldfashioned handwriting one of the biggestchallenges of doing a translation. “Youdon’t want to misinterpret one of thewords, since that could change thewhole meaning,” Vykhovanets says.Though she’s a German minor,Vykhovanets was pleasantly surprisedshe could successfully translatesomething written in a language she isn’tfluent in. Lorenz says students only needtwo semesters of German to be able totranslate. “Writing is the first thing thatdevelops in language acquisition,” heexplains.Just like in a professional translationagency, students work in teams ona batch of documents. Lorenz mixesstudents of different fluency levels, sothose more experienced in German canhelp those who aren’t, and from differentmajors, to bring a variety of perspectivesto the work.The Finkel collection includes manypersonal letters and documents thattrace the family’s history from the timetheir home in Austria was seized bythe Nazis and the family split up, tocommunications sent by Samuel Finkelfrom the detention camps in Englandand Australia where he was held,to Finkel’s efforts to reunite with hisdaughter in San Francisco and find outthe fate of his wife after the war.Freshman Julius Storino says workingwith the documents makes personal thedevastation of the Holocaust. “Normallywhen you hear about the Holocaust, youjust see a big number. You forget thatbehind all these numbers is a personwith their own story,” he says.At the end of the semester, each grouppresents their work to the client andshares their reflections about what they’velearned. The translations, which bearthe students’ names, and the scanneddocuments are then submitted to theSouth Carolina Digital Library Collections,where scholars and history buffsanywhere in the world can access them.Lorenz says he would like to securefunding that would allow a student orstudents to work year-round on translatingHolocaust-era collections. These aredocuments that are significant not just tothe people who own them, he notes, butto all of us. “That whole time really shapedthe society that we are today.”

Game TimeEsports arrives at USC Upstate.BY TREVOR ANDERSON, ’04In October, USC Upstate launchedits esports program aimed at attractingprospective Spartans and enrichingthe student experience by creating athriving gaming community on campus.A varsity program is scheduled todebut during the fall 2022 semester, butesports will be offered as a club activityin spring 2022.Esports is located in a 1,600-squarefoot gaming center within theuniversity’s Health Education Complex.The center can feature up to 45 gamingstations, each equipped with a stateof-the-art computer by Alienware thatincludes an 11th generation Intel Corei9 processor 2.5 gigahertz with a 1terabyte hard drive and 32 gigabytes ofRAM memory, and an Nvidia GeForceRTX 3090 graphics card.“Few co-curricular options inAmerican higher education areexpanding like esports,” says Dr. BritKatz, interim vice chancellor for studentaffairs at USC Upstate. “As greaternumbers of universities work to createmeaningful experiences for studentsthrough egaming, USC Upstate alsoaspires to compete with our consoles,keyboards and headsets.”“Research confirms that esportsplayers will enroll in an institution thatis hundreds of miles away from home ifelements like a terrific gaming station,excited peers, meaningful competitionand affiliation exist,” Katz adds.USC Upstate leaders and officialsfrom other Big South memberinstitutions are actively pursuing thedevelopment of competitions thatcould result in an informal conferencechampionship.The varsity program will initiallycompete in three games: “League ofLegends,” “Valorant” and “RocketLeague.” A range of other games willbe available to club players, and theuniversity plans to continue to growthose options over time.Nick Ames, assistant director ofintramural sports, club sports andsummer camps at USC Upstate, saysstudent polling showed overwhelmingsupport for the inception of an esportsprogram. Ames will direct the program,which will operate under campusrecreation.“After listening to requests from ourcurrent and prospective students, weare excited to bring esports to Upstate,”says Donette Stewart, vice chancellorof enrollment services and director ofadmissions at USC Upstate. “Our newgaming center will feature the bestAlienware computers on the market, sowe are looking for competitive studentsto join us. We will offer students achance to play the games they enjoywhile they earn a top-notch degreethat will prepare them for rewardingcareers.”uscupstate.edu/magazine Summer 2021 7

Learn Where You LiveStudents examine the dynamics of a city withwalks through Spartanburg.With all the changes that havetransformed the city of Spartanburgover the last 15 years – new shops,restaurants, housing, neighborhoodredevelopment – Colby King hadthe perfect case study for his urbansociology class.King, an assistant professor ofsociology, wanted his students tolook at the ways a city’s organizationand structure shape the people wholive there, and how residents in turncontinually refashion the place wherethey live by the choices they make andthe ways they describe it.“The way the city is built, wherethe buildings are situated, how theneighborhoods are situated relativeto downtown, whether there’s publictransportation, all those things shape anindividual’s experience as they navigatethe city,” King says.At the same time, he adds, “thedecisions that individuals make everyday about how they go about their lifein the city, changes the nature of thecity every day,” from the organizationsthey belong to, to the activities theyparticipate in.To give students an on-the-groundlook at these issues, King organizeda series of walking tours that took hisstudents to different neighborhoodsin Spartanburg and allowed themto interact with city and communityleaders. Students learned about thecity’s trail system from Ned Barrett ofPartners for Active Living; economicdevelopment from Katherine O’Neill ofOneSpartanburg and city manager ChrisStory; downtown history from librarianBrad Steinecke; and changes to theNorthside from Tony Thomas of theNorthside Development Group.Kyla Stafford-Simmons, a seniormajoring in psychology, says the classmade her think about who affectsdecisions in a city. At a council meetingshe attended virtually, she noticed most8 UP Magazineof the people there in person wereretired or older. Because the meetingsare at 6 p.m., large groups of peoplecan’t be there, she says – people like herwith evening jobs, or working parentsrunning errands after they leave theoffice. That gives a minority of people anoutsized voice, she notes.“They’re telling the council their ideas ofwhat they want,” Stafford-Simmons says.“It’s majority rule for them, and it can’t bethat. You’re implementing ideas that arenot going to be fair for everyone else.”Stafford-Simmons’ observationunderscores the kind of discrepanciesKing wants his students to notice.“Every change that happens in a citybenefits some people and doesn’tbenefit others,” King says. “There’smultiple processes happening at once.”For Natasha McDaniel, a sociologymajor and Spartanburg native, the classgave her a chance to quiz leaders aboutredevelopment’s impact on residents.McDaniel, who grew up half her lifeon the Northside, and the other half inHighland, wanted to know what wasbeing done to ensure an adequatesupply of affordable housing in her oldneighborhoods.“My main concern is dislocation, andhow are they going to make sure theresidents of those communities still staythere,” she says.King says he was impressed tosee his students asking thoughtfulquestions that demonstrated a genuinedesire to see a city that lifts up all itsresidents. “They’re eager to help workon the changes they want to see in thecommunity,” he says.That’s certainly the case for McDaniel,who would like to eventually open a clinicthat provides a variety of support servicesto underserved residents, such asfinancial counseling and mental health.As McDaniel notes about the peopleshe met on the tours, “Everyone is reallyjust trying to make Spartanburg better.”Students in Colby King's urban sociology class,above, examined the dynamics that shape a cityand its residents during a series of walking tours ofSpartanburg. Below, Brad Steinecke, assistantdirector of local history at Spartanburg CountyPublic Libraries, leads the group on a history tour ofdowntown Spartanburg.

Audio Art Tour LaunchesMaking Their Voices HeardUSC Upstate student voting in the2020 presidential election increasednearly 10% over the previous election.More than 68% of eligible studentsparticipated in the election, comparedwith nearly 59% in 2016, accordingto a report from the National Studyof Learning, Voting and Engagement(NSLVE) at the Institute for Democracyand Higher Education at TuftsUniversity. That exceeded the nationalstudent average by 2.4%.Additionally, the campus registrationrate rose from 78% in 2016 to morethan 85% in 2020. The nationalregistration rate rose to 83% in 2020from 76% four years prior.“We saw a significant increase invoter registration and participationon Upstate’s campus between 2016and 2020,” said Allison Clark Ellis, aprofessor of political science and thecivic engagement coordinator at USCUpstate. “This indicates that studentsare learning the importance of beingengaged in the community aroundthem, which is part of the university’smission.”Ellis said that leading up to the2020 election, multiple groups oncampus worked together to try toreach students and give them as muchinformation as possible.“Giving students the opportunity toregister to vote, providing them withinformation about candidates andissues, helping them request absenteeballots — all these items lower the costof voting which increases the likelihoodof participation,” she said.NSLVE results were based onenrollment records submitted to theNational Student Clearinghouse andpublicly available voting files collectedby L2 Political, one of the nation’s mostwidely used campaign data vendors.Anyone wanting to learn more aboutthe sculptures around the campus nowhas a new guide.Students in Lex Lancaster’s 20thCentury art class have designed anaudio tour that can be accessed byscanning a QR code positioned in frontof each sculpture. Listeners learn aboutthe work, things the artist may have saidabout it, and details about how it cameto USC Upstate.The class actually completed thework in fall of 2019, and the audio hasbeen up online for more than a year, butthe pandemic and other issues delayedthe signs’ installation until recently,Lancaster says.The tour was a chance for students toexplore art beyond research papers,Lancaster says. “If there’s a way that Ican get my students to do somethingthat is unusual, or different, orsomething that allows them to engagewith things that are more immediate orrelevant, then that’s the ideal,” saysLancaster, who is also director of USCUpstate’s art galleries.Each student was allowed to pick thesculpture they wanted to focus on, sothere are currently 10 stops on the tour.Beyond giving students ownership inthe campus environment, the tour alsobenefits the university community atlarge, Lancaster notes.“It’s inviting the campus to not justengage with the visual art as a passivewallpaper, but to understand that it’s thisdynamic thing that has a history andconnects with our culture and our region.”Nursing Alums HonoredWhen the nursing resource websiteNurse.org honored SpartanburgMedical Center’s Pavilion 6 flooras Nursing Unit of the Month inSeptember, alumni from the MaryBlack School of Nursing were wellrepresented.Pavilion 6, a critical care respiratoryunit, has cared for many of the sickestCOVID patients. It includes alumniJo Ann Allison, Autumn Bridwell,Amy Bunch, Mindy Murray, PedenPack, Jessica Perez, Jazmine Smith,Elise Solis-Caron and Stacie “Alice”Whitlock, as well as two currentstudents – Gordon McKenzie and NiaRice.“They have stepped up to the plateto take care of those patients prior togoing to a ventilator-type situation,”Mary Jane Jennings, vice president andchief nursing officer for SpartanburgMedical, told the Spartanburg HeraldJournal. “The goal is to keep the patientoff the ventilator and our nurses workvery hard. They have a team effortand that is what this award is about.Collaboration.”uscupstate.edu/magazine Fall/Winter 2021-2022 9

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Student BodyFall 2021 Student BodyFall 20215,405Annual ApplicationsApplications Processed5,0404,949 - Undergraduate 456 - GraduateNew StudentEnrollmentFreshman Facts Average GPA 3.98Average SAT 1030 Palmetto Fellows 22 Life Scholars 218New Freshmen . 593New Transfer/Readmit . 820Dual Enrollment . 459Top CountiesSpartanburg GreenvilleYork Richland BerkeleyNew Graduate . 143New Non-DegreeGraduate . 325Total New Students . 2,080Top SCCountiesStudents Admitted3,859Top MajorsNursing. 817Applied Learning& Instruction . 313Psychology . 298Criminal Justice . 290Exercise &Sport Science . 254Biology . 238Management . 205GenderEthnicity69%30%FemaleMale1% Not reportedGeographic31 states15 countries46 of 46 counties in SC52% – White30% - Black/African American7% – Hispanic3% – Asian8% - Other/UnknownFinancial AidHigh Schools Boiling Springs High School Paul M. Dorman High School James F. Byrnes High School G.D. Broome High School Riverside High School12 UP MagazineTransfer Greenville Technical College Spartanburg Community College Spartanburg Methodist College Midlands Technical College Tri-County Technical College 53millionTop 10 Schools 53 million awarded annually 3.1 million InstitutionalScholarships Awarded 2,005 SC Scholars(Palmetto Fellows, Life, Hope)

Class of 2025Meet theLoucas L’ElieHometown: I was originallyborn in Fort Knox, Kentucky,but my dad was in the U.S.Army so I was constantlymoving. I came here fromCamden, South Carolina.Major: Political scienceHobbies and interests: Playing video games,watching movies, writing stories and working out. Iam interested in politics (U.S. and world), learningabout space and learning German.What excites you most about college? Meetingnew people and learning more about my major.What goals do you hope to achieve during yourtime at Upstate? My goals include obviously gettingmy degree, meeting lifelong friends, and gettingprofessional experience.What’s a tip you’ve learned in these first monthsof school that you would pass on to other newstudents? Don't change for anyone, stay true toyourself. Also, balance your friend time with study time,because studying is more important than you think.Jalen A. BreazealeHometown: Greenville, SouthCarolinaMajor: BusinessHobbies and interests:BasketballWhat excites you most aboutcollege? Meeting new people andgrowing into an adultWhat goals do you hope to achieve duringyour time at Upstate? Deans List, ConferenceChampionship, March MadnessWhat’s a tip you’ve learned in these first monthsof school that you would pass on to other newstudents? You’ll make mistakes, just learn from itand try not to make the same mistake over and over.Jeshurun OhanukaHometown: Greenville, SouthCarolinaMajor: Pre-med biologyHobbies and interests:Soccer, snowboarding, andworking outWhat excites you most aboutcollege? The ability to take studies into my ownhands, with more time and management freedoms.What goals do you hope to achieve during yourtime at Upstate? I hope to graduate from USC Upstatein three years and get admitted to medical school.What’s a tip you’ve learned in these first monthsof school that you would pass on to other newstudents? Go to classes and rewrite notes.Sanaa ListenbeeHometown: Loganville,GeorgiaMajor: BusinessmanagementHobbies and interests:Soccer, writing, music andphotography. In fact, I play soccer forthe university’s program.What excites you most about college? I am themost excited to see how much I develop as anindividual and continue to impact the people I meet.What goals do you hope to achieve during yourtime at Upstate? Some goals are bettering myselfas an individual, progressing as much as I can as aplayer and leaving a positive impact on everyone I’veencountered.What’s a tip you’ve learned in these first monthsof school that you would pass on to other newstudents? Remain focused on yourself and thethings that mean the most to you. If you don’t feelyou’re in the most beneficial environment for yourselfor surrounding yourself with people who make youbetter in every aspect of living, don’t be ashamedor fearful to make decisions for your well-being andprogress as a person. You should be your priority,and in doing so, tough decisions may be made.Follow through and support yourself.Maci GibsonHometown: Pacolet, SouthCarolinaMajor: Early childhoodeducationHobbies and interests:Journaling, spending timewith my family, and teaching at mychildhood dance studioWhat excites you most about college? All theendless opportunities that are offered here at USCUpstate. Getting to meet so many fellow Spartansdaily makes this journey so much better!What goals do you hope to achieve duringyour time at Upstate? To expand my network ofrelationships, including friends and potentially peoplewho will help me further my career in early childhoodeducation. To learn techniques and ways to providemy future students with

face years of loan payments rather than increasing their personal wealth proposition or starting a business. This may contribute to the fact that minorities are not broadly participating in the Upstate region's entrepreneurial growth. In Spartanburg County alone, the number of Black-owned nonemployer businesses is nearly 30 percent below the