Winthrop Alumni Cody Clunan shared details about his time as a transfer student after transferring from Tri County Tech to Winthrop University.
“When I came to Winthrop, I was lucky enough to know people already there,” Clunan said.
During his time at Winthrop, Clunan was involved in clubs and in campus life, including both the Winthrop Outdoor Adventure Club and Paintball club.
“The Winthrop Outdoor Adventure Club was a lot of fun because we were able to plan a ski trip to the Boone area for a long weekend. Also, I got into the paintball club through several friends at the tail end of my Winthrop time,” Clunan said.
Aside from clubs, Clunan stayed busy on campus by attending sporting events and other social gatherings especially during election cycles on campus.
“The coliseum was packed for big games, and the atmosphere was fun,” Clunan said.
While reflecting on his time at Winthrop Clunan remembers a massive snowstorm that took place during his first week on campus.
“The campus quickly turned into a campus-wide snowball fight in front of Digs,” Clunan said. “The last good one I was in, we had some friends from UNCC come to Winthrop and ended up getting snowed in by southern standards. After we all woke up the next morning, we tried to venture out which then caused my roommates BMW to get stuck.”
Another fun memory Clunan has involved him and his friends smoking a pig during Homecoming weekend.
“My friend and I come from families who liked making BBQ. My friend’s dad owned a large livestock company and would give us a pig to cook. We did it one year on a whim and it took off after that,” Clunan said. “We did an open invitation for free so there’s honestly no telling how many people came because word spread fast. Pat Kelsey came to it the first year as head coach because our friend was a manager for the team.”
Clunan also shared that during his time at Winthrop, the Harlem Shake was popular on social media and campus, along with the Winthrop Worm Twitter page being well known.
“My roommate and one of his friends made the Harlem Shake video that’s on YouTube on Scholars Walk,” Clunan said.
In addition to the rise in social media and the epidemic of inchworms on campus that fell from the trees onto students passing by, the Winthrop worm Twitter page became popular among students.
“It used to rain worms basically,” Clunan said.
After graduating in December 2014 with a degree in sociology, Clunan moved to Charlotte for work where he lived with some friends. Now Clunan is a police officer in the Greenville area.
“My favorite part now is dealing with mental health issues and fraud cases. I have gotten to go to a week-long class that NAMI does for law enforcement called Crisis Intervention Training and another class called the Crisis/Hostage Negotiator Class. Those classes really open up a new way to talk to people in a crisis situation,” Clunan said.
Due to his work, Clunan has not had the opportunity to be as involved as an alumni as he would like. However, after getting a new job he hopes to become more involved.
In addition to working in law enforcement, Clunan is working towards earning his MBA.
“Knowing what I know now, I would not change anything because it set me on the path that I am on now,” Clunan said.
