A sophomore year of self-discovery
Plus: Top News of the Week — CMS approves new school boundaries — Sports gambling closer to becoming legal — 'Incremental progress' in economic mobility — NCDOT examines Providence Road
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First-generation college student Anisha Sunuwar, a Garinger High grad, hits the halfway mark through UNC Greensboro; ‘It feels like home now’
Anisha Sunuwar, who immigrated to the United States from Nepal when she was 10, is the first in her family to go to college. Her sophomore year has been a time of big shifts, from a change in major to a re-examination of friendships.
by Cristina Bolling
Summer is here, which means it’s time to check in with Anisha Sunuwar, a promising young college student from Charlotte whom we first wrote about in The Ledger in 2020 for a piece about the struggles of high-poverty Garinger High School during the pandemic.
Anisha was an honors student who immigrated with her family from Nepal when she was 10, and our article highlighted how she was juggling helping her mom who has a chronic illness with working part-time and attending high school virtually.
She said at the time that she consider dropping out but was inspired to go to college by the nurses she had seen caring for her mother. “I want to be able to provide for my mom and not worry so much about money,” she told us in 2020.
A generous Ledger reader saw her story and agreed to pay for her tuition and living expenses, and other readers offered money to ease her family’s financial burden. Anisha enrolled at UNC Greensboro and is the first in her family to go to college.
Anisha’s second year at UNC Greensboro has been a transformative one, during which she changed her major, navigated changing friendships and found ways to help her family in Charlotte while being able to stay in Greensboro and focus on her studies.
We talked to Anisha, 20, last week as she was settling into a summer job working second-shift in a Charlotte warehouse while taking online classes at UNC Greensboro during the day. Our conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Q: You’ve made it to the halfway point for your bachelor’s degree! Catch us up — what were some of the big things that happened in your sophomore year?
College has been a lot easier, and I now understand college a little bit more. One of my mentors was telling me that you don’t really understand college during your freshman year, and it’s true. It feels like home now.
I switched my major from nursing to public health this year. I was struggling a bit in anatomy, which has a lab and a lecture. It was always the lab part that was difficult for me to understand. I talked to my counselor, and I realized that if I knew I wasn’t doing well in the beginning, I would be struggling when I got into nursing (curriculum). My counselor told me there are other options where you can still be involved in the healthcare system, and public health sounded really nice to me. Some public health and nursing courses are really similar. After I made the switch, I did very well. Last semester, I had straight A’s.
Q: Any particular area of public health you think you’d like to work in?
I still have to talk to my counselor more. I might be looking into doing graduate school and getting my master’s degree. I’m just now learning more about public health. I had no idea that public health was not one specific job, but it has to do with the whole healthcare system. So that’s something I’m looking into.
Q: How has it been navigating college social life this year? I remember that during your freshman year, it was hard to adjust to campus and make friends at first, but then you developed close ties with people in the Nepali student organization. How’s it going this year?
Social life has been good. I’ve stayed active with the Nepali community. We did some volunteer work this year, and we got to do a lot of good activities. Something that was both the best thing for me and also a hard thing during my sophomore year was that I had to cut off some longtime friends from back home, because I realized I needed to let them go in order to grow.
That has helped me focus on myself more. The whole sophomore year was more focusing on me. I would go to the gym every day. It was like a self-discovery journey for me sophomore year.
Now, I have great friends that are a good fit for me. We have good conversations and we’re in the same major now, all doing public health, so that helps a lot for us to look at the big dream and figure out life as college students.
Q: How is your family doing? When we talked last year, your mom wasn’t too happy with you being in Greensboro, and you were making a lot of trips back and forth to help her with medical appointments and other tasks. Are you still feeling pulled in a couple directions?
My family is doing well. My mom is unemployed right now, but her health has gotten better. She’s taking medications, and I call her doctors for her. I try not to come back home that often during the school year so I can focus on schoolwork. I call her Ubers to take her to appointments. When she has to see doctors at the hospital, I tell her to use a translator service that they have in the hospital. She calls me and gives the phone to the receptionist, and I tell them that she needs a translator.
This summer, I’m living in Charlotte. I’m taking three UNCG summer classes online, and I’m working full-time in a warehouse. I just wanted to keep myself busy and help out my family financially, with my mom not working. I work from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. and do my classwork before that.
Q: That sounds like a busy summer. Is it hard to manage all that?
Working at a warehouse has opened my eyes to the fact that this is not the life that I want. The work is hard. The boxes are very heavy to carry and you get a lot of bruises. This is my second week of work, and it’s still hard. When I come back home my feet are so sore.
I see why my (older) sister and my family pressured me so much to focus on my education. Working at the warehouse, you feel a lot of history there. So many immigrants, when they have come to America, the first thing they’ve done was go to the warehouse to provide financially for their families. Working there in the first few weeks, I was like, “I don’t know how these people did it — eight hours a day, standing on your feet.” That’s when it hit me. This is why my sister wanted me to focus on school — I don’t want this life.
Q: What feelings do you have about going back to UNC Greensboro for your junior year and diving more into public health?
I'm really excited to go into it. My main goal for this coming semester will be to get an internship that’s related to public health. We need experience and internships, so I’m looking forward to that.
Cristina Bolling is The Ledger’s managing editor. Reach her at cristina@cltledger.com.
This week in Charlotte: Crystal Hill sworn in as superintendent; City council considers another Eastland proposal; Fire apartment determines SouthPark fire cause; Charlotte Ballet dancers retire; Queens University gets new logo
On Saturdays, The Ledger sifts through the local news of the week and links to the top articles — even if they appeared somewhere else. We’ll help you get caught up. That’s what Saturdays are for.
Education
CMS new boundary maps: (Ledger🔒, Ledger LIVE BLOG) After a year of drafts, public meetings and debate, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education adopted new boundaries for schools in south Charlotte in an effort to alleviate overcrowding and prepare for the opening of two new schools in the area. The two board members whose districts include the 27 affected schools voted against Superintendent Crystal Hill’s recommended plan in a 7-2 vote.
Crystal Hill sworn in: (WCNC) Crystal Hill, who had been serving as Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools’ interim superintendent since January, was formally sworn in as the new superintendent at Tuesday’s board meeting. CMS has had two interim superintendents since former superintendent Earnest Winston was fired in April 2022.
Politics
Sports betting on the verge of passing: (WRAL, Ledger) The N.C. House voted 67-42 to agree to changes to a sports betting bill passed by the N.C. Senate. The bill will go to Gov. Roy Cooper, who has indicated he will support the measure. It would allow mobile and in-person sports betting starting in the first half of 2024.
County passes budget: (WFAE) Mecklenburg County commissioners voted 7-2 to pass the county’s budget, which calls for a tax increase to help pay for the county’s growing needs such as schools and public health. They also indicated support for placing a $2.5B school bond on the November ballot.
Local news
Fire department report on SouthPark fire: (Observer) The Charlotte Fire Department said that a contractor violated the state fire code while constructing luxury apartments near SouthPark Mall prior to a massive fire that killed two workers.
Independence Park upgrades completed: (Axios Charlotte) Mecklenburg County has completed a $5.9M renovation of Independence Park in Elizabeth. Improvements include wider trails, upgraded playground equipment and permanent restrooms.
Business
A rough year for craft beer: (Ledger) The growth of breweries in Charlotte is showing signs of reaching a saturation point, as the city’s major brewers experienced a decline in production in 2022 and the craft beer market matures, leading to increased competition for limited grocery shelf space and making it more challenging for new breweries to enter the market and become regional or national brands.
New proposal for Eastland: (WSOC) The Charlotte City Council is considering a new proposal for the old Eastland Mall, while abandoning a proposal that would have turned part of the site into a tennis center. The new proposal would have 10 basketball courts, 20 volleyball courts and 40 pickleball courts, plus outdoor fields.
Sports
Messi mania: (Ledger) The reported signing of Lionel Messi with Major League Soccer's Inter Miami has created a buzz in the soccer world, with fans eagerly anticipating his potential appearance in Charlotte when Miami plays at Bank of America Stadium on Oct. 21, the final day of the regular season.
New job: (ESPN) Former Charlotte Hornets coach James Borrego is being hired by the New Orleans Pelicans as an assistant coach.
From the Ledger family of newsletters
Mostly empty uptown office towers: Uptown Charlotte is grappling with a significant number of mostly empty office towers, reflecting the challenges faced by the office market due to remote work arrangements and the preference for newer office spaces in other areas.
New outside faces join CMS leadership: Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools announced significant changes to its executive leadership team with the addition of new administrators from outside the district. The new staff come as new superintendent Crystal Hill assembles her new cabinet.
Wednesday (🔒)
Movie filmed in old Waxhaw Burger King: A new comedy film titled “Operation Taco Gary’s” is being shot in the Charlotte area, featuring actors Simon Rex and Tony Cavalero. The production has transformed an old Burger King in Waxhaw into a restaurant called “Taco Gary’s” for filming.
🎧 New Ledger podcast episode: Jennifer Szakaly of Charlotte-based Caregiving Corner offers tips for older adults and their loved ones and discusses the nuances of caregiving, the complexity of the healthcare system, and when someone should start thinking about long-term care.
Chicago developer buys another historic Charlotte building: Chicago-based Northpond Partners has purchased the Chadbourn Mill in the NoDa neighborhood for $12.5M, adding to the company’s expanding real estate portfolio in the city.
City to further study neighborhood duplexes/triplexes: The Charlotte City Council has decided to further study potential changes to the rules allowing duplexes and triplexes in neighborhoods, but any revisions are expected to be limited to parcels of five acres or more in areas zoned for neighborhood development, rather than a major overhaul of the rules.
Friday (🔒)
Charlotte’s economic mobility: In an interview with the Ledger’s Tony Mecia, Sherri Chisholm, executive director of Leading On Opportunity, explains the progress that Charlotte has made in improving economic mobility following a 2014 study that ranked Charlotte 50th out of the 50 largest metro areas in the United States in economic mobility. 🎧 Check out the interview as a podcast.
CMS board members explain their “no” votes: During a late-night decision on new school boundaries in south Charlotte, two board members, Summer Nunn and Lisa Cline, voted against the superintendent's boundary recommendations despite appearing to express initial support. In an interview with the Charlotte Observer, they explained the reasons for their no votes.
Queens University gets new logo: Queens University of Charlotte is launching a new logo and branding initiative for its athletics program as it enters its second year as a Division I competitor. The new logo features the Queens mascot, Rex the Lion, integrated into the letter Q, along with updated fonts and colors.
Final bows: Three veteran dancers at Charlotte Ballet, Sarah Hayes Harkins, Sarah Lapointe, and Amelia Sturt-Dilley, are set to retire at the end of June, while Christopher Stuart, the director of Charlotte Ballet II, is leaving to become the artistic director of Alabama Ballet, marking a month of farewells for the company.
Ways of Life (🔒)
Kathy McKee, a revered swim coach with a career spanning over 45 years, passed away unexpectedly at the age of 69, leaving behind a lasting legacy of mentorship, excellence and a positive impact on the lives of the athletes she coached.
NCDOT examines Providence Road: The N.C. Department of Transportation is in the early stages of examining a possible widening Providence Road and modifying its intersections to increase traffic flow, but any construction would be at least 10 years away. Meanwhile, the NCDOT has signed off on a new 10-year road-building plan that delays several major construction projects in the Charlotte area, citing high construction and land acquisition costs.
Behind-the-scenes: Take a look behind-the-scenes of a Charlotte FC game from the perspective of the press with videographer Kevin Young of The 5 and 2 Project. The video provides a unique glimpse into the atmosphere surrounding the game, including interactions with notable figures like TV analyst Lloyd Sam and team communications director Woody Wilder, giving fans a view they probably haven’t seen.
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Executive editor: Tony Mecia; Managing editor: Cristina Bolling; Staff writer: Lindsey Banks; Contributing editor: Tim Whitmire, CXN Advisory; Contributing photographer/videographer: Kevin Young, The 5 and 2 Project