Once an Eagle, always an Eagle. This past summer, Rachel Law, co-creator and director of the Eagle STEM Program, retired from her position to pursue other endeavors. But her legacy will never be forgotten.
Law obtained her chemical engineering degree from West Virginia University. She was also a part of several committees including the Industrial Advisory Committee for the Department of Chemical Engineering at WVU, the Board of Trustees for York Technical College, and many diversity advocacy organizations. She was a former executive of a chemistry company for decades before pursuing the Eagle STEM Program.
The Eagle STEM Program was developed in 2011 when granted funding from the National Institute of Health and Winthrop University.
Thus, Law was hired to create the program from the ground up and it has been growing ever since.
The program is used to help and mentor students from families with lower incomes, underrepresented groups, and first generation college students. Its goal is to help these selected students pursue graduate and doctoral degrees.
The program is also used to bring like-minded students together to support and help each other as they pursue their STEM degree to further their success.
“The results have really been traumatic. We are already seeing 60% [of the students] based on the first five cohorts… have already started graduate school,” said Dr. Pat Owens, chair of the chemistry department and co-creator of the Eagle STEM program. “The results are really impressive.”
Some of the students that have gone through the program are attending prestigious schools such as Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Notre Dame, and the University of California.
The impact Law has made on Winthrop will not be forgotten. “She made historical impact, there would be no Eagle STEM program without Rachel Law … in the sciences this has been the most important development at Winthrop in the last decade. It shows … you can achieve anything at Winthrop … She put Winthrop on the national map,” Owens said.
Since Law has stepped down from her position, Amanda Cavin, new director of the Eagle STEM Program, has taken over.
Cavin is an alumni of Winthrop and a Rock Hill native. She has a bachelor’s degree of science in early childhood education and two master’s degrees in literacy and special education.
Her goal as the new director is to, “support these students.”
“Our Eagle STEM scholars… have the smarts and the skills to succeed in a program like this. I want to be here to provide support,” Cavin said. “It’s solely our job in [our] office to make sure our … scholars have the skills they need to succeed.”
Cavin explains the legacy Law has left and what she hopes to do for the program, “Rachel Law has done an amazing job getting this program initially off the ground and managing it since 2011.”
“For nine years, she did an amazing job growing this program. I hope to continue that success Rachel has started,” she said.
In the future, Owens would like to see the program grow into an even bigger success, “We would long–term like to at least double the size of the program … [have] external funding for scholarships.”
“This is a national need and this is the only program in the Carolinas that does this … We would like to see people not in the program have similar opportunities,” he said.
