Senior Gracie Bellah started at the University of South Carolina with her plans mapped out. As a history and anthropology double major, her goal was to become a historian or archivist.
“I first got involved in archival research when I was in middle school doing a National History Day project,” Bellah says. “My parents brought me around to all the archives in the state, but the one that stayed with me was when I came to the South Caroliniana Library and got to hold an old Civil War diary.”
The experience of holding a piece of history in her hands made Bellah feel sure of her path – and that USC would be the best place to pursue it.
“I thought it was amazing that I was allowed to connect to history in that way, and I thought, ‘USC must be a place that encourages that,’” she says.
The South Carolina Honors College gave Bellah an abundance of opportunities to work hands-on with history. Her freshman year, she enrolled in an honors history course on the logging and wood products industry in Sumter, South Carolina. It was in that class that she met her mentor, history professor Jessica Elfenbein, who co-taught the course with Lynn Robertson of the McKissick Museum. Working in teams, students put together a museum exhibit featuring the archives of Sumter’s historic Williams Furniture Company as part of Elfenbein’s ongoing Wood Baskets of the World research.
“Gracie did an outstanding job as part of the student teams that undertook oral histories,” Elfenbein says. “She and a classmate interviewed Frank Edwards, a grandson of O.L. Williams, who was the namesake of Williams Furniture and the Williams-Brice Stadium.”
The quality of Bellah’s work stood out so much that Elfenbein hired her to stay on after the course as a student intern. Bellah designed the public-facing digital museum exhibit that her class created, and she worked with University Libraries to gather more oral histories from former wood products workers and their descendants from the Sumter community.
Now in her third year at USC, Bellah has worked on the project in a variety of roles ever since – serving as an outreach and marketing coordinator, anthology proofreader and, most recently, deep mapping fellow.
This year, the Wood Baskets of the World team was selected by the National Endowment for the Humanities Community Deep Mapping Institute to create an online interactive map of the Sumter area that was once home to the logging and furniture industry. As a deep mapping fellow, Bellah is geotagging photos, oral histories and other records so the public will be able to have their own “hands-on” experience with Sumter history: A 3D modeling specialist will use these geotags to recreate the Williams Furniture factory virtually.
“The end goal is for the public to be able to interact with these various layers of Sumter history and add their own input,” Bellah says.
“This approach is novel and very important,” Elfenbein says. “Gracie’s careful and exacting work is a critical aspect of the map, showing not only locales in and around Sumter, but also ties to national and international sites important to the flow of goods and people.”
Bellah took inspiration from her deep mapping work to create an original research project for her Honors College thesis. Having grown up in Murrells Inlet near Myrtle Beach, Bellah reached out to Brookgreen Gardens to create a smaller-scale version of a deep map for the historic grounds. She received support from USC’s South Carolina Internship Program to spend the summer working in the archives.
“My thesis is about how the actual landscape has changed over time,” she says. “For my project, people will be able to see side-by-side pictures of Brookgreen Gardens then and now using archival photos.”
When she graduates in 2026, Bellah will have produced and contributed to an array of public history research that would impress any graduate school admissions panel.
“And up until about a month ago, I thought I was going to go that route,” Bellah says. “I like working in history a lot, but I’ve evaluated my priorities, and although I loved working in the archives this summer, I realized that this work is not as people-facing as what I want to do for my career. I want to work with people on a day-to-day basis.”
She now plans on a career in student affairs and higher education. Bellah says her decision was influenced in part by her many experiences in student groups.
“I’ve done so many different things, and I feel like that’s integral to who I am and what I’ve learned at USC. That’s part of what helps you make the most of your education. If I hadn’t gone for all these different opportunities, I wouldn’t have come to where I am now.”
From her freshman year on, Bellah participated in Phi Alpha Theta, the national history honors society, rising to the role of president of USC’s chapter. She also worked with other students and faculty to reinvigorate USC’s Student Community for Archives, Libraries and Museums, becoming vice president of the group as well. Through those groups, Bellah became a mentor to other students and helped them find success at USC.
“It makes me feel very fulfilled to help others reach their potential and learn about all these opportunities on campus. You can see that in all of my roles in student organizations,” she says. “I want to keep helping students and to be the person I needed when I started here.”
The biggest influence, though, was her time serving as an ambassador for the McCausland College of Arts and Sciences.
“Over the past few years, being an ambassador has really given me a passion for sharing my love of USC. Talking to prospective students and donors is something I love,” she says. “I’ll miss doing history, but who’s to say I can’t do research on the side? But I am excited to keep helping students get involved in research and make the most of their time in college.”
As her mentor, Elfenbein says she is thrilled to see Bellah pursue her master’s in student affairs. “Her commitment to providing other students with high-quality collegiate experiences of the kind she had with this project is perhaps the highest compliment I have ever received from a student.”
Bellah has her sights set on attending USC’s program, where she knows she will get a wealth of experience to determine her track in the student affairs field. “I’ll go into graduate school with an open mind to see what is out there, try things out and, you know, find my right path,” she says.
She recommends other students take a similar approach: “I’ve done so many different things, and I feel like that’s integral to who I am and what I’ve learned at USC. That’s part of what helps you make the most of your education. If I hadn’t gone for all these different opportunities, I wouldn’t have come to where I am now.”