By Jackie Todd, Office of Media Relations
Anjali Joseph has Clemson football season tickets. The Clemson faculty member regularly cheers on the Tigers alongside legions of fans from the upper levels of Memorial Stadium. But at the Oct. 15 game against NC State, the Tigers and their fans were cheering at her.
Joseph is a Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System Endowed Chair in Arch+ Health Design, Director for Health Facilities Design and Testing in the College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities. And now she joins those who have been selected as Clemson’s Professor of the Game.
“It was an incredible honor to be named Professor of the Game,” she said. “I am so glad to be able to share this with my family – my husband, Nitin, and kids, Manav, 16 and Arjun, 7. This was such a different perspective of the field and the game. We love cheering for Clemson and it was great to be out on the field and see the players up close.”
While Joseph and her family have been at Clemson for a short while—less two years—she has quickly grown to love what the university offers on and off the field.
“We love everything about Clemson – going to the games, attending shows at the Performing Arts Center, the botanical gardens, walking on campus and of course, the incredible staff, faculty and students,” she said.
The practice of honoring faculty and staff during Clemson football home games began last season. Those recognized sit with Jim Clements in the president’s box during the game and are honored in a ceremony during the event.
“My kids had a great time in the president’s box and probably ate more candy and ice cream than was good for them,” said Joseph. “But this was an experience they—and I—will always remember.”
Star Staffer of the Game
“I’m so honored by this recognition because I work with so many dedicated staff every day, and to be seen as a representative of my colleagues is incredibly humbling.”
That’s what Jessica Martin had to say when she was selected as Star Staffer of the Oct. 15 Clemson football game against North Carolina State University.
Martin has seen Clemson from a number of perspectives. She attended the university as a graduate student and earned her MA in English in 2009. She then worked at Clemson as a lecturer, an admissions counselor and currently as the director of the College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities Advising and Recruiting Center.
While Martin was thrilled at the recognition, she has never lost sight of what’s important. As the Star Staffer left Saturday’s game, a woman stopped to congratulate her on the well-deserved accolade. The woman was the mother of a Clemson graduate.
“She told me how much she and her daughter appreciated the good advising her daughter had received while attending Clemson and how important that was to the both of them,” said Martin “The recognition on the field was an amazing experience, but hearing those words from a parent is why I do what I do.”
