Scholar profile: Stacy Bodette
Burlington, Vermont
Communications Studies major
Stacy Bodette wanted a change in her life.
A Vermont native, she attended the University of Vermont but had heard good things about North Carolina, the state’s weather and its people. Her brother moved to Raleigh, and a few months later she moved there, too.
Bodette took a year to work and prepare for her next steps in life. “I started calling North Carolina my home very quickly,” she says. “I was falling in love with the state.”
She eventually applied to several North Carolina colleges. A University of Vermont professor told her that Carolina was an excellent school and urged her to apply. She did.
“My professor told me that I was bright enough to attend Carolina, but I was dumbfounded when I got in. Then, I was in a state of shock to learn that the Covenant would allow me to attend college basically debt-free,” she remembers.
Being a transfer student presented new challenges. “I had to make new friends and learn a new campus. Gradually, as I talked with my peer mentor Joshua Wilkes and with Professor Fred Clark, I opened up to new things. I went to events on campus like the performing arts series and to gatherings for Covenant students.”
Then it was Bodette’s turn to create opportunities. She formed an organization – The Covenant Gives Back – to perform public service.
“We want to give back to the community because we’ve been given the opportunity to go to college and graduate. We want to show that we’re not taking the experience for granted. We want to help the community and people who are in need,” says the Communications Studies major.
“I worked hard throughout middle school and high school because I knew financial aid and scholarships were available. Although I’m not from a poverty stricken home, my family – like those of other Carolina Covenant Scholars – didn’t have the means to pay for a college education because it’s so expensive. The Covenant has made my experience so much easier because I don’t have to deal with loans. It’s been a breath of fresh air.”
