Each year, Guilford’s Enrollment team sets out to recruit a first year class to engage with more than 40 academic majors and 20 athletic teams, admitting a diverse and talented set of students who are going to enrich the College’s community.

Now that the newest Guilfordians are registered and settled into their dorms, here’s a look at the Class of 2028. 

Guilford enrolled 404 new students – 364 first-years and 40 transfers from 21 states, the District of Columbia, and eight countries. Among first-year students, 52 percent are men, 48 percent are women. North Carolinians make up 77 percent of the class; the rest of the top five states are South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and Virginia. There are eight international students in the class.

The group enhances the College’s already diverse student body. Of first years who chose to respond, 53 percent identify as students of color. 

Business Administration topped the list of first-years’ academic interests with 53 students declared, followed by Exercise & Sport Sciences (41), Sport Management (27), Psychology (25), Biology (22), Health Sciences (21) and Computer Technology & Information Systems (20).

Half of our first years are student athletes including 76 on the Quakers’ football team.

Meet six members of the Class of 2028:

The first time he stepped on campus was last fall as a high school senior. Like so many students before him, the lush trees and red-bricked buildings left an indelible impression on Ken Vasquez Alonzo ’28. More than anything else, however, it was the people that convinced him Guilford was more than a college. It was a home.

Ken was recruited to play soccer and met the team that day. “I fell in love with the program because all of the guys I talked with, I was meeting them for the first time, but it was like I knew them since I was 10 years old. A spark was already there.”

He plans on majoring in Exercise and Sport Sciences, the first step to a career in physical therapy or maybe kinesiology. He likes the College’s small classes and the personal time he can get with his professors. He says his high school back in Pittsboro, N.C. sometimes left him feeling more like a number than a student.

“There’s just a different vibe to Guilford,” he says. He felt that vibe last fall meeting the soccer players. That feeling of family was reinforced at orientation earlier this spring. “So many other (first-year) students were walking up to each other and talking and getting to know each other. They were trying to be just like me and not be scared to be themselves. This is a place where I can be me and not have to try and fit in. I like that.” 

Courtney Bradford ’28 of Clemmons, N.C., has always enjoyed biology and genetic research, but it wasn’t until her junior year in high school that she learned she could marry her two favorite subjects into a career as a genetic counselor. “The more research I did, the more I really got really hooked on it,” says Courtney.

And it wasn’t until her senior year when Courtney decided that Guilford was the place to prepare for that career. “I guess you can say I got hooked on Guilford, too,” she says, smiling.

Courtney says she’s shy. She was a member of her school’s National Junior Classical League, Latin Honor Society and Spanish Honor Society, but for the most part she kept to herself and a small circle of friends.

She wants to change that at Guilford. She heard about the College from a co-worker of her mother. “The more I looked into the school, the more I realized, ‘Absolutely this is the place I need to be.’ I thrive in smaller environments and Guilford seems so small and everyone seems so close. I’m not going to get lost.”

Growing up in Reidsville, N.C., Jala Blackwell ’28 took honors classes throughout her four years of high school. Knowing she wants to one day work as a physician’s assistant, she spent her senior year dual enrolled in a community college to earn her medical assisting certificate. “I wanted to be 100 percent ready for college,” she says.

With the hard work out of the way, all Jala had to do was pick a college. Turns out that was the easiest thing to do. 

“As soon as I stepped on campus I knew Guilford was the place for me,” she says. It wasn’t exactly the campus that pulled in her the way it does for so many others. She dropped by classrooms and was surprised how intimate the environment was.

“They were so small,” says Jala. “I’m looking at the students and they’re all getting the attention of the professors if they wanted it.”

Jala, who is diagnosed with ADHD, welcomes the attention. “I know I’m going to need all I can get so it’s nice to know if I need it, that attention’s going to be there for me.”

Sofia Mahoomad ’28 grew up watching true crime television shows. Her favorite was “Forensic Files.”

“You know, the one where people go around murdering people and try to make it look like an accident for the insurance policy and then the police use forensic science to prove it wasn't really an accidental death,” says Sofia. “That’s what I’ve always wanted to do.”

She’ll get that change at Guilford. Sofia, who will be part of the College’s Honors Program, is majoring in Forensic Biology. She hopes to land a job after Guilford as a crime scene investigator or a forensic medical examiner.

Sofia, whose family emigrated from Pakistan to High Point, N.C., when she was six months old, has always been driven. She’s the youngest certified Emergency Medical Responder in Guilford County and is training for certification as an Emergency Medical Technician. She’s part of the College’s Honors Program and is one of five Guilford first-year students selected for a National Science Foundation S-STEM Scholarship this year.

“I was already planning on attending Guilford so when they called to tell me I was getting the scholarship, I was even more excited,” says Sofia, the first in her family to attend college.

Viv Cavataio ’28 was visiting North Carolina last summer to compete in a volleyball camp in Charlotte and, later, to check out Wilmington, N.C., where her favorite television show, “One Tree Hill,” was filmed.

“I just love that show,” says Viv, who lives in Mechanicsburg, Pa. “I’ve seen every episode and have watched a lot of them again.”

Between volleyball and checking out the scenes in the fictional coastal town, Viv dropped by Guilford. It wasn’t exactly love at first sight. “People talk about how beautiful it is, but that didn’t do it for me,” she says.

What did persuade Viv to come to Guilford was talking to Emily Gann, then the team’s longtime volleyball coach. “She seemed so interested in me and my life. The way she treated me was not as a player but a person.”

Emily resigned after 18 years as coach earlier this summer, but Viv says she feels those same vibes with coach Kelsey Goodman as well as with Heather Hayton, the Robert K. Marshall Professor of English and Director of the College’s Honors Program, of which Viv is a member.

“I really like being a name and not a number at Guilford,” Viv says. “I didn’t really see that at first but I do now. A lot of my friends went to big state schools (in Pennsylvania), but there are just many opportunities for me at a small school like (Guilford). It’s where I want to be and I’m really excited.”

Soccer came late to Greensboro’s Alex Harrison ’28. He didn’t pick up the sport until he was a high school freshman. But what he lacked in experience, he more than made up with skill.

When he got the chance to attend a small liberal arts college like Guilford and play soccer, he jumped at the opportunity the College offered. “I’m excited about continuing my academics but a big goal of mine was playing soccer in college,” he says. “Now I get to do both.”

Alex isn’t sure what he wants to major in. He says his strengths are psychology and management, but he’s not in a rush. “One of the nice things about a small school like Guilford is if you’re not sure what you want to go for, there’s the chance to browse and test different classes and see what I enjoy the most.”

He loves movies and has a watch list of more than 400 movies on his phone that he wants to see. If that sounds daunting, consider this: The list was once 800. “I’ll never get to the end because I’ll always be adding to the list,” he says. 

Will the watch list interfere with academics? Alex laughs. “Nah, I love movies but I’m here to learn,” he says. “I can’t wait to get started.”