Debbie Sturman with her son, Sam, and her husband, John
Debbie Sturman ‘78 loves helping Clemson students succeed. As a member of the Friends of the Libraries Board of Directors, she has donated to the Libraries’ student assistants fund to help the Libraries hire more student assistants. She also shares her talent and experience as a volunteer with the Clemson Center for Career and Professional Development, helping students practice their interviewing skills and writing their resumes.
Growing up in Greenwood, Sturman said everyone in her high school class was either going to Clemson or the University of South Carolina. More of her friends were choosing Clemson, so that’s where she decided to go.
“It was the best decision I’ve ever made,” she said. “The people that I met here and the relationships that I built have followed me through my career and my life.”
She also met her husband John ‘77 at Clemson. They love Clemson so much that they moved back when they retired eight years ago. They wanted to live right in the heart of downtown.
“We’re so close to campus, we can walk just about anywhere. We can hear the football games and soccer games from our yard, we can hear the bells at Tillman. It’s like we’re back in school,” said Sturman. “There’s a lot of energy living in a college town.”
Sturman during her time as Tiger Band’s featured twirler
Sturman was a big part of Clemson’s school spirit while she was in school, as she served as the featured twirler with Tiger Band through her student career. She said it was a great experience, though it took a lot of time. She said she still keeps a baton in her home office.
Sturman majored in psychology with a minor in zoology and originally thought about applying to medical school. But she wasn’t quite sure what she wanted to do, so as she approached graduation, she started applying for jobs.
“I got the Atlanta Yellow Pages, and I sent resumes to about 100 companies, and I actually got a call back from UpJohn, which was a pharmaceutical company,” she said. “I went for an interview, even though I had no idea what a pharmaceutical sales rep did, and I got the job.”
She spent the next 42 years in pharmaceutical sales, working her way up into district and regional management positions. After she retired and moved to Clemson, she thought she might be able to put her experience as both a sales rep and a hiring manager to use by helping Clemson students with their career searches. She said it is rewarding to see the students she works with get interviews and job offers, and that many students have stayed in touch with her even after graduating.
Sturman also gives back to the Libraries, as a volunteer on the Friends of the Libraries board and as a donor to the fund that benefits student assistants. She has fond memories of the Libraries from her time as a student.
“You always felt welcomed at the library,” she said. “I work hard and spent a lot of time studying, and I always had my favorite spot in the library. You would start to see some of the same people every week and would form a camaraderie with those people.”
She said she prefers to donate to the student assistants fund because she knows how valuable student workers are to the library and how valuable the experience is for them.
Sturman is also a member of Fort Hill Presbyterian Church and the Clemson University’s Woman’s Club. She and John have a son, Sam, who graduated from Clemson in 2019 with a degree in electrical engineering and now works as a patent attorney.