Class of ’26 | Kaitlyn Facemire

Kaitlyn Facemire | Mebane, North Carolina

When she was in kindergarten, Kaitlyn Facemire latched on to a book called, “When I Grow Up, I Want to be a Doctor.” Thirteen years later, she’s ready to write her own story.

“I’ve always liked the good that comes from being a doctor,” she says. “My end goal right now is to be a pediatrician — I’ve just always had this connection with kids, and I’d love to be a part of caring for them and making this world a better place.”

Facemire will study biology with a pre-med track at Campbell, a school with a strong service mentality that fits well with her goals in the next four years. In high school, she worked with the Appalachia Service Project, a nonprofit that addresses substandard housing in North Carolina and surrounding states.

“It was a humbling experience that made me thankful for what I have,” she says. “I want to continue to give back, and I feel like I’m in the right place to do that.”

These stories are only the beginning. For this edition of Campbell Magazine, they’re an introduction to 12 students —chosen randomly during the third of four summer orientations hosted on the main campus this year — and a documentation of expectations heading into a four-year college journey.

All 12 agreed to give us more than just the 20 minutes it took to talk and take a few photos back in June. They’re allowing us to check in over the next four years to help chronicle their Campbell experience. And they’ve all agreed to sit down with us again in May 2026 to share their updated stories (and take a few more photos). In order to tell a story of growth and maturation, it’s best to start at the very beginning.

These interviews revealed a heightened sense of hope for a group whose high school careers were defined and marred by a global pandemic. Online classes became the norm, and many of their gatherings and social events were masked or socially distanced. Proms, athletic events and milestone ceremonies were either canceled, altered or virtual.

“Man is, by nature, a social animal,” Aristotle once wrote. Second to earning a degree and starting a career, this class is eager to connect socially with their peers and become part of an “experience” and a community that they mostly missed out on in high school.

It’s our hope that all 12 of these students join us again in four years to tell us all about their Campbell experience. We’re confident that those who do will return older, wiser, more confident and ready to take on the world.

We’re excited to tell these stories. See you in 2026.