One of the things the college experience affords is the opportunity to find out who you really are. And as a high school senior, Diane Glover definitely thought she knew what she wanted in a college.

“I have a personality that seems more [suited to a] big campus,” Glover says. Instead, she found that Oxford College’s small, diverse student body of 900 would actually prove to be the best place for her to begin her college journey.

Glover first learned about Emory and Oxford through SMILE (Student Mentoring in Life & Education), a program in her Valdosta, Georgia, high school that assists college-bound students with the application process.

So she included both campuses in her applications, among six different colleges to which she applied. Though she was admitted to all of them, “the only acceptance letter that made me cry was Oxford’s,” Glover says.

The tears were from joy, but she also worried about meeting the cost of a college education. A few days later, Glover discovered that she had been awarded scholarships that would make it possible.

Although Glover had not seen the Oxford campus prior to arriving for new-student orientation in the fall of 2014, stepping onto the campus for the first time, “I knew I was home," she recalls.

Record of service

Glover, who speaks both Tagalog and English, was born in the Philippines and lived there until moving to Washington state in 2009, then to Valdosta in 2011. During high school, she became active in Key Club, the student service organization of Kiwanis International. She was especially inspired by the Eliminate Project, a joint effort of Kiwanis and UNICEF for the worldwide elimination of maternal and neonatal tetanus.

“Oxford,” says Glover, “gave me more opportunities to build on that service experience.”

Study the résumé she has compiled in her two years at Oxford, and it’s apparent that Glover has done just that: 

• Member of the Pierce Service Corps, a selected group of 25 students matched with a local nonprofit for intensive community service;
• Coordinator for issues of homelessness and hunger for Volunteer Oxford;
• Freshman participant and selected sophomore leader in Leadership Oxford;
• Participant in every Alternative Spring Break and Alternative Fall Break offered during her two years at Oxford;
• Member of the welcome team for new-student orientation and the Sophomore Class Gift Committee.
• Volunteer at a local youth home for girls and a local nursing home through two theory-practice/service learning courses.

Completing the list, Glover was also selected as a member of the 2016 Oxford cohort for “Who’s Who in American Universities and Colleges,” and at a recent awards ceremony she received the Office of Campus Life’s Terry Elam Spirit Award.

“Diane embodies the Oxford ideal of service,” says Rhiannon Hubert 07OX 09C, Oxford's assistant dean for campus life. “She is active in so many things and gives it her all. She is one of the students our staff speak of and say, ‘What will we do when she graduates?’”

Plans for the future

Moving on to Emory's Atlanta campus this fall, Glover will major in psychology with a minor in sociology. After Emory, she sees herself serving others once again, perhaps in the Peace Corps, and eventually pursuing a graduate or law degree.

Reflecting on Oxford’s smaller campus experience, she says, “My friends who chose big schools are struck by the intimate experience I’ve had here — relationships not just with students, but also with administrators, faculty and staff.” 

With her talent for connecting with others and a deep commitment to service, Glover leaves a remarkable student legacy at Oxford. And there is every reason to believe her spirit of community engagement will continue.

She has been named a member of the Peer Review Board at Emory College for next fall, already finding ways to serve there, too.