A brilliant lady named Tianna Shaw-Wakeman has made history as the first-ever black best-graduating student of the University of Southern Carolina, United States after she bagged a master’s degree with good grades.
Tianna obtained her master’s degree in Social entrepreneurship from the University of Southern Carolina’s Marshall School of Business in the United States. She graduated as the first-ever black valedictorian in the university’s history.
She initially bagged her bachelors degree in Psychology from the same University of Southern Carolina’s Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences before she proceeded to bag her masters.
Speaking during her gradation, Tianna said the achievement is a testament of how far she has come despite her color. “This revelation stands as a testament, albeit small, to both how far we’ve come as an institution, as a country … and how far we have to go,” she said.
“There weren’t a lot of people who were southerners; there weren’t a lot of people who were Black; there weren’t a lot of people who were low-income. So it really was just an overwhelming world for me,” she added while talking about her first day in the university.
While in the university, Tianna poured her efforts into issues like sustainability, joining the university’s Environmental Core during her freshman year and eventually organizing the 2019 climate strike.
Tianna also co-founded DivestSC, an organization committed to getting the university to invest in clean technologies and renewable energy instead of the fossil fuel industry. She also volunteered with Teach for Los Angeles, tutoring elementary school students in reading and writing.
“I only saw my role, working in sustainability and doing all the different things that I did, as trying to be a vessel for this energy and this vibrancy about how important sustainability is that was already there among the students,” she said.