Nov. 5, 2018

Wilfredo Anderson, a third-year finance and marketing student at the Darla Moore School of Business, has served as a State House page for the past three years – a role that led to his position as the director of the Legislative Action Network.

In this position, Anderson is able to bridge students' concerns regarding campus safety, alcohol and drug abuse and rising tuition to State House officials.

“It's been a very rewarding experience to begin building these relationships with South Carolina legislators,” Anderson said. “As the director of the Legislative Action Network, I'm playing a direct role in guiding our student body towards a stronger relationship with our legislators at the State House.”

Anderson and his team members research issues and concerns that University of South Carolina students have in order to present them to state legislators.

“My work has impacted my fellow students by making our state legislators more aware of the issues we face on our campus and how we can all work towards solutions with the elected officials throughout South Carolina,” he said.  

Anderson also serves as a Darla Moore School of Business ambassador, where he has developed meaningful relationships with school’s esteemed faculty and staff.

“It’s given me the opportunity to connect on a different level with my professors,” he said. “A lot of students might get frustrated if their professor is five minutes late to class, but they don’t realize that they’re scrambling to print out all of the documents, they’re staying late until 8 or 9 p.m. grading paperwork. … You do have a little bit more of an appreciation for what they do.”

In addition to his positions within the university and the State House, Anderson has also gained hands-on corporate experience through internships. In the summer of 2018, Anderson interned for Ernst & Young, a major public accounting firm.

“By being in a four-year program and having exposure to business classes from freshman year on, I feel like I had a more in-depth, general understanding of specifically what finance means to the real world,” Anderson said. “I had a deeper breadth of accounting; I had a deeper breadth of global supply chain because I already took those classes.”

But for Anderson, success isn’t just defined by what goes on within the classroom. His best advice to incoming students? “Get out there. … There’s so much to do around here, you have no excuse not to be involved.”

And for those nervous to go beyond their comfort zone – “the battle is always getting the courage to step into the room.

By Jenna Schiferl