Every homemaker knows the importance of the family table – the place we come together, share stories and connect with one another in meaningful ways. That is how we build family – and that is what makes a home a home.
And that’s why, at the College of Charleston, Lancie Affonso ’96 (M.S. ’08) has made sure everyone has a seat at the table.
“Pull up a chair,” he says, waving a student over to one of the high-top tables along the front window of the Liberty Street Fresh Food Company, where he and his first-year and first-generation students meet with student and alumni mentors twice a week to catch up, eat and share ideas. “Rather than have formal meetings, we have these informal mentoring cohorts, find out what each other is interested in, tell stories. That’s how we make connections.”
Affonso has been making connections around the College of Charleston’s cafeteria tables since 1992, when he first came to campus as an international student from Tanzania.
“The cafeteria is where I went to talk to people, to socialize and learn from people,” he says, likening both the cafeteria and the Cistern to the watering holes back home in Africa. “I tend to go to what I call ‘watering hole’ places, where people congregate and share news and experiences. There’s no better place on campus to connect than the cafeteria.”
Affonso has made connections all over campus – both between people and between academic areas. Not only does he teach in the computer science and the management and marketing departments, and the Honors College, he is also the director of the first-year Honors Entrepreneurship Living Learning Community (E-LLC) and serves on the Alumni Association Board of Directors. Then there are the 20-plus other roles he’s had at CofC.
To learn more about Honors alumnus and director of the Honors E-LLC Lancie Affonso, check out the full article by Alicia Lutz in The College Today.
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