Leading and building with spirit

When she wasn’t studying in the clean, white, glassy studio spaces of Lee Hall during her time at Clemson, Meryl Henderson was a fixture at one of the most colorful Clemson traditions: Homecoming.

“The Homecoming float build is definitely my favorite Clemson tradition,” she said. “I got involved freshman year when one of my friends was leading it, and I just enjoyed all of the aspects, whether it was the actual building of the physical structure, or the design, or getting to lead a group of people and meet new people and make connections.”

By her senior year, Henderson had become Kappa Kappa Gamma’s float chair, heading a fast and fateful build that she and her friends rushed to complete before the destruction of Hurricane Helene.

“They were filming the documentary, which I am in, and crying a little bit because it’s emotional,” she explained. “I had worked on this for about 8 months or so, and it was kind of falling apart, but I have never seen a group work that hard that fast on the float.”

However, her leadership activities extended beyond the build on Bowman Field. She was the philanthropy director for Kappa Kappa Gamma, engaging with the City of Clemson Rotary Club to host book drives and other community initiatives, and she served as a College of Architecture, Art and Construction Student Ambassador. For her commitment to Greek Life on campus, she was inducted into the Order of Omega Honor Society. She also excelled academically as an Honors College student and member of the Dixon Fellows Program.

In April of 2025, the College of Architecture, Art and Construction honored her with the Blue Key Academic and Leadership Award, which recognizes students who distinguish themselves through campus leadership.

And, like many architecture students before her, she counts her semester at the Charles E. Daniel Center for Building Research and Urban Studies (informally known as “The Villa”) in Genoa, Italy, as the most memorable part of her Clemson Experience, noting that it solidified her passion for architecture and travel. Her next step is to pursue her Master of Architecture degree at Columbia University.

“It’s definitely a dream,” she said. “I never thought that I would be able to attend a school like this one, and I feel very lucky, and I owe a lot of that to Clemson.”