Clemson University senior Michaela Knox has been interested in law since middle school, after the shooting of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teen killed in 2012. Seven years later, the criminal justice and sociology major found herself in Washington D.C., interning for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee as one of the first participants in the Tyrone Gayle Scholars Program.
The program, which started in 2019, funds two Clemson University students from underrepresented minority backgrounds to intern in politics every summer. After students are accepted into internships – and go through an application and selection process for the scholars program – each student receives a $3,500 stipend to cover their summer expenses, plus access to a wide mentorship network. Afterward, the program hosts an event for the scholars to reflect and share their work with other students.
For Knox, the program has been “one of the best experiences” of her time in college.
“I wasn’t just scanning documents and that type of thing – it was real work,” she said. “I know that I would never have been able to actually explore that interest or afford to be able to do an internship had I not applied for this.”
She felt honored to carry on the legacy of Tyrone Gayle, who also once worked for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Gayle, the program’s namesake, served as the press secretary for Sen. Kamala Harris, now the Democratic vice presidential nominee, and as a spokesman for former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. A Clemson graduate and an advocate for student success, Gayle died in 2018 of colon cancer at the age of 30.
In a statement after his passing, Harris called him an “invaluable and beloved member of our team and our family,” and reportedly flew to New York City to be by his bedside right before he passed away.
