Campus Treasure

Talking to Devon Hanahan ’87 feels a lot like talking to your big sister – like you’re not in an office on the first floor of the J.C. Long Building, but down the hall from your own childhood bedroom, getting a little sisterly advice about whatever worries, wishes or wonders are on your mind.

Because she cares.

“I genuinely enjoy meeting students and learning about them,” she says. “I feel a real connection with all of them. I care for each and every one of them.”

The senior instructor of Hispanic studies’ door is always open to “any student who needs guidance, whether it concerns a grammar concept or a decision on what to do after graduating and anything in between.”

That open-door policy and Hanahan’s personalized, compassionate approach is why, more times than not, there is a line of students outside of her office, waiting their turn to be heard.

“Everyone needs advice at some point,” says Hanahan, who received the College’s 2024 Distinguished Advising Award and a 2024 Outstanding Advising Award Certificate of Merit from NACADA, the Global Community for Academic Advising. “Sometimes all they want is to be heard by someone who cares about them beyond the classroom.”

Hanahan has been caring for students in and outside the classroom since she joined the faculty in 1995 – and she has not just the students’ thank-you notes, but also their accolades to show just how much she is appreciated: In 2015, 2016 and 2017, students voted her the top professor in the country on the popular website RateMyProfessors.com, which also ranked her second place two other years and in the top 10 in several additional years.

Yet she’s unfazed by the praise.

“I am not teaching to be popular,” she says. “Teaching is what I’m all about, but I don’t live in a vacuum. I’m part of a community, and advising is so beyond important. I do love teaching, but I also love being a mentor to my students and to adjuncts in our department.”

That’s right: As basic Spanish language coordinator, Hanahan also guides and advises adjunct professors and instructors. She also serves as a guide to language departments at other universities.

“It makes me feel good to be a resource, but I learn from them, too,” she says. “It’s stimulating for me.”

A big reason for her love for all things CofC: She and her siblings grew up with the campus as their playground. Their mother, Rosanne Wray, was a secondary education professor at the College from 1977 to 1987. Then, years after she and her two sisters, Kieran Wray Kramer ’85 (M.F.A. ’18) and Kristin Wray Wilda ’82, graduated, the next generation – Devon’s son Will Hanahan ’18 and Kieran’s son Jack Kramer ’20 – followed suit.

“The College has been so much a part of my life that it’s hard to imagine life without it,” says Hanahan, adding that the College also has significance on her husband’s side: Two of his ancestors, Charles Pinckney and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, were founders.

“It is truly a family affair.” – Alicia Lutz ’98