WU Alumna marries WU alumnus

By Shana Adams

Special to The Johnsonian

April Lovegrove ‘99The spring of 1999 was an exciting time for April Lovegrove. She was at the end of her journey as an undergraduate student at Winthrop University, obtaining her B.A. in Political Science. 

She would soon be trading her cap and gown for a veil and wedding dress. 

Lovegrove met her husband Lane while at Winthrop. 

“We were married in May of 1999, two weeks after I graduated from Winthrop,” Lovegrove said.

While her new love was blossoming, Lovegrove busied herself with organizations on campus. 

“I participated in the Model United Nations program and served as Student Coordinator in 1998, the International Club, Lutheran Campus Ministries, and Pi Sigma Alpha (PLSC National Honor Society).”

Working as one of the coordinators for the Model UN conference here taught me more about organization and professional communication than any other job. Lovegrove has come full circle and now works for Winthrop as assistant to the dean for the college of arts & sciences.

She feels that being at Winthrop has helped her develop in her current position. 

“ Knowing a lot of my colleagues from class before I came back to work here allowed for a much smoother transition from student to professional,” she said. 

Her position as one of the coordinators for the Model UN conference taught her more about organization and professional communication, skills she uses today.

Lovegrove’s position comes with a list of duties that requires her to utilize these skills. 

“I handle the college and departmental budgets, manage grants, assist in procurement, process temporary employee paperwork, serve as building coordinator for Kinard Hall and assist in scheduling classes each semester,” Lovegrove said.

Lovegrove’s position also requires that she has tolerance for differences.

“To do well in this job you have to be able to communicate effectively with dozens of different people and subsequently different personalities,” she said “We have to learn to work with those differences rather than constantly fighting against them.” 

Lovegrove has been successful maintaining the relationships that began at Winthrop 11 years ago. She still has friends from Model UN and her husband is close by, working on campus as the operations manager for the Social and Behavioral Research Lab.

Lovegrove offers this bit of advice for future alumni.

“Take advantage of every resource that Winthrop has to offer,” she said. “You have to do your part and go out in search of some things but you will find that that effort is easily rewarded.”