CHARLESTON, S.C. (courtesy charlestonsouthern.edu) — Charleston Southern University is partnering with GradGuard to offer students and their families peace of mind when the unexpected happens. During the pandemic, students worldwide were faced with financial risks—and universities like CSU sought to offer insurance and assurance for those worried about investing in their education and future during a turbulent time in human history. Tuition insurance protects that investment.

GradGuard provides reimbursement when a student is unable to complete a semester due to unforeseen circumstances such as an accident, injury, illness, or other covered reason. Eligible covered expenses include tuition, room and board, and other fees.

As an added benefit, GradGuard provides 24-hour assistance to students and parents in emergency situations that includes travel arrangements for the student or family members.

The cost of insurance is about 1.8% of the student’s tuition. New and existing students are eligible for insurance until the drop/add date each semester and can sign up any term. Beginning Aug. 1, 2022, the GradGuard offer will be available on CashNet when logging in to make a payment.

ANDERSON, S.C. (courtesy andersonuniversity.edu) — The new Center for the Study of African American Preaching will be launched by Anderson University’s Clamp Divinity School, according to an announcement at a national conference for African American church leaders.

The announcement was made by Dr. Michael Duduit, Dean of the Clamp Divinity School, and Dr. Dante Wright, assistant professor of preaching and pastoral ministry and director of the new center. News of the center’s launch was presented at the E.K. Bailey Preaching Conference in Dallas, an annual event attended by more than a thousand African American pastors and ministry leaders.

The Center for the Study of African American Preaching will have two missions: developing significant new scholarship regarding the use of preaching in the Black church, and creating a publicly available online library of audio recordings of well-known African American preachers.

Speaking to the gathering of church leaders, Dr. Duduit explained that “we face the possibility of losing the voices of many of the great preachers of past generations because the physical recordings of their sermons and lectures are in danger of being scattered and ultimately disintegrated as they age.” The center will gather such audio recordings and digitize them, then make them available to listeners online.

The Center for the Study of African American Preaching is being launched in conjunction with a new Ph.D. in Preaching degree program that will be offered by Clamp Divinity School beginning in August. Dr. Wright, who will direct the new center, will be one of the faculty members who will be teaching in the Ph.D. program; he also serves as pastor of the Sweet Home Baptist Church in Round Rock, Texas, in addition to his work with Clamp Divinity School.

Dr. Wright shared with the pastor’s group ways that they can be involved with supporting the new center, including assisting in gathering strategic recordings to be added to the library, and providing financial support which will help offset the cost of digitizing several thousand sermon recordings and making them available to an international audience. The website for the center can be found at AAPreaching.com.

In addition to the new Ph.D. in Preaching and the Center for the Study of African American Preaching, Clamp Divinity School sponsors a variety of tools and resources in the area of preaching, including publication of Preaching magazine, production of Preaching Now, a weekly newsletter read by more than 12,000 church leaders, and sponsorship of the annual National Conference on Preaching.

Established in 2009, Clamp Divinity School offers a variety of masters and doctoral degree programs for ministers and church leaders. The School has grown to more than 200 students who represent several denominations and multiple states. African American pastors make up more than 50 percent of the divinity school’s enrollment.

“We believe this center will be a major academic benefit for Anderson University and will be a tremendous blessing to the church today and in the future,” Dr. Duduit said. “The African American pulpit represents some of the finest biblical proclamation in our nation’s history, and this program will allow us to better understand its nature and impact as well as to share these important voices with new generations.”

Details about The Center for the Study of African American Preaching can be found at auministry.com/center-for-the-study-of-african-american-preaching.

SPARTANBURG, S.C. (courtesy wofford.edu) — Blake Batten (Wofford ’23) is using her Wofford coursework to support research, presentations and giving back to the Spartanburg community.

The sociology and anthropology and art history major from Anderson, South Carolina used her sustainability seminar course with Dr. Alysa Handelsman, assistant professor of sociology and anthropology, and museums study course with Dr. Youmi Efurd, museum curator, to come up with a project that makes a difference in the Spartanburg community through art.

Batten’s research project was selected to receive SCICU funding support in early 2022. Batten will present project research findings at the February 16, 2022 SCICU Undergraduate Student/Faculty Research Symposium at Milliken & Company headquarters in Spartanburg.

Batten and Efurd attended the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries annual conference to present the research and potential impact of their summer art camps for fifth graders at local Boys and Girls Clubs.

The theme of this year’s conference was “Sustainability Now!” Batten was the only undergraduate student selected to present at the conference, which took place June 15-17 at Utah State University.

“I honestly just told stories because I didn’t have a lot of concrete data to share yet,” Batten said. “I talked about how we started building the program and how it came to be. I also talked about how my research questions have evolved…I started too broad, and I will admit that.”

Through the camp, Batten has realized the importance of ideas such as social pressure and self-perspective on a child’s interaction with art.

The camps started with fifth graders at elementary schools in Spartanburg County School Districts 2 and 7. Batten chose fifth grade as her target audience because of how transitional of a year it can be for those students as they soon advance to middle school.

The project’s purpose is to increase literacy among the students while also introducing them to creative outlets and various art forms. She explains that much of the camp’s material is creative artwork accompanied by a writing component, exercising, and developing both artistic and literary stills.

“The sustainability aspect of this project is that I was able to expand it from Mary H. Wright Elementary School to Cleveland Academy of Leadership and the homework club at Spartanburg Housing,” Batten said. “This camp will be taken over next by someone in the new sustainability cohort.”

“Almost all of this was preliminary and it’s just building one on top of each other,” Batten said. “I do most of the research because it’s my own responsibility, and Efurd advises. She supports me all the way through.”

The presentation in Utah was a proposal for how the club can become a sustainable part of the Spartanburg community. The two have been working on this for over a year, so they are using the conference as a way of presenting the working proposal.

“I am a one-person department with students coming in and out, and the ultimate goal is that a Wofford art summer camp can become sustainable and can expand beyond the Boys and Girls Clubs,” Efurd said.

Efurd and Batten recognize this as one step in a larger project at work, and Handelsman is in full agreement.

Handelsman’s sustainability seminar course requires a project that itself is sustainable in how it can continue long after it is first initiated, which is something that Batten’s project achieves on many levels.

“I see the art club as something that will continue growing,” Handelsman said. “I see it as a really great model for the other programming in our course to become summer camps as well.”

Batten’s project is the first one that had a summer camp component, and it led to many schools reaching out to Handelsman regarding a potential summer camp for many of the other students’ projects as well.

“When I started this class, I had these dream students,” Handelsman said. “And Batten is one of those dream students.”

COLUMBIA, S.C. (courtesy benedict.edu and news.clemson.edu) — SCICU member institutions Benedict College and Claflin University are participating in a Clemson-led statewide effort to prepare students as medical reserve corps volunteers. The Clemson University School of Nursing received an award of more than $2.7 million to develop a network of diverse undergraduate students who can organize locally to assist communities during disasters and other emergencies. The grant provides for multi-institutional collaboration that includes Clemson, Benedict College, Claflin University, Coastal Carolina University, and Francis Marion University.

Each participating school will engage 100 students to join the corps during the two-year grant period through this initiative. The grant will provide students opportunities to learn about volunteering in the medical, behavioral health, and non-medical communities during emergency situations. Participants will complete a workforce development program that will introduce them to the professional field of emergency response and preparedness.

The students will be prepared to join the South Carolina Public Health Reserve Corps, which provides opportunities for medical, behavioral health and non-medical volunteers to assist communities during public health emergencies.

A primary goal of the initiative is to help address the emergency response worker shortage, a problem that the COVID-19 pandemic revealed.

“Benedict College is proud to partner with Clemson University and our peer institutions to provide our students with an invaluable opportunity to receive workforce development that will support the community during critical times,” said Dr. Roslyn Clark Artis, Benedict president and CEO. “Benedict College has been a strong community collaborator with the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control throughout the pandemic and will continue to support their efforts through the student medical reserve corps volunteers’ program.”

“SCICU member colleges and universities are leaders in their communities throughout South Carolina,” said SCICU President and CEO Jeff Perez. “Participating in the student medical corps is an excellent combination of the health sciences programs at Benedict and Claflin and their existing community service efforts.”

Clemson School of Nursing Director Kathleen Valentine said it is important for higher education institutions to build the capacity for volunteers committed to community well-being and emergency response to respond to the increasing number of emergency situations in South Carolina and nationally. “We also aim to inspire other institutions through our efforts with our academic colleagues to grow this capacity within their communities,” Valentine said. “Working together, and with the support of the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SC DHEC) and the CDC, will make a difference in our response to high-level emergencies.”

Henry Counts, the Benedict College project director, noted, “The Health, Physical Education, and Recreation Department and the Public Health major are delighted to be a part of this collaborative healthcare movement. Our students will be able to gain valuable experience in Public Health and Emergency Preparedness suitable to volunteer for emergency and public health response within local, state, and global communities.”

The South Carolina Public Health Reserve Corps comprises 1,287 non-licensed and 641 licensed health and social science professionals. The grant seeks to expand the workforce, provide students with discipline-specific clinical experiences, and outreach with a focus on health equity and public health emergency management education. The grant is sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control.

Students began training in Spring 2022 and will complete all training during the two-year project. Training modules include contact tracing certification, program management, behavioral health self-care, social determinants of health, human caring and care of marginalized populations, and global/transcultural health.

Shirley Timmons, project director and Clemson University School of Nursing professor, notes that the project aims to help address health disparities that currently impact too many lower-resourced communities.

“Public health spans the gamut of impacting our lives – from health equity to emergency and disaster management,” said Timmons. “There is a critical role for all to play-from students to non-students. Those gaps in health care resources that were and continue to be exposed during the current pandemic highlight the need for a broader, more diverse, prepared workforce working together to serve the needs of local and global communities. Our project is designed for that end.”

Valentine agrees, noting that the project builds on the Clemson School of Nursing’s focus on outreach to vulnerable populations through the Center for Research in Health Disparities, whose board will work with students. “Students will be able to see national leaders address issues of social determinants of health-related to vulnerable populations, and the board members will lend their expertise and support opportunities to explore collaborative education and practice research,” Valentine said. “These students from diverse disciplines and backgrounds will be important advocates within their communities.”

The project is also an example of how collaboration can bring about meaningful work that improves lives and shapes communities, says Leslie Hossfeld, dean of the Clemson University College of Behavioral, Social and Health Sciences, which is home to the School of Nursing.

“The project brings together students from different universities and people with various areas of expertise for a common goal of helping individuals and communities when they need it the most,” Hossfeld said. “It is a shining example of how our college focuses on building people and communities through partnership and shared vision. I am delighted that students from Clemson and across the state will be able to assist their neighbors as a result of this program.”

CHARLESTON, S.C. (courtesy charlestonsouthern.edu) — For two consecutive years, the Charleston Southern University Rivers Library team has shown up and out in a friendly Operation Christmas Child competition among faculty and staff departments on campus. Team members credit library ladies Christine Petty and Marla Bunn for leading the way to reaching 34 boxes per person in 2020 and a grand total of 1,045 shoeboxes in 2021 (that’s 116 boxes per person).

How did this small team pack so many boxes? “Each month we try to focus on getting certain items,” Petty said. For example, the team buys school supplies in July and August when they are on sale.

Some items are not the typical wow toy, but rather something more unique and useful like sewing kits from a dollar store or homemade fishing kits (old prescription bottles with no labels, fishing line, weights, cork, and nail clippers to snip the line). Older children can use items like the kits, a hammer, a screwdriver, or a laundry line and pins to do jobs and make money.

Bunn and Petty have a combined 28 years of box packing experience under their belts. Bunn shared the memory of her very first shoebox. “We watched an OCC video where the children received their boxes. The excitement was contagious, plus the opportunity for the children to learn about Jesus Christ was a game changer for me.”

Her most recent shoebox packed was “just as special” as the first—filled with items for an older boy thousands of miles away.

Both credit the ministry as life-changing, for both the recipients and the givers.

“I think I have become a more giving person,” Petty said. “It’s so exciting seeing videos of children from all over the world opening their boxes with smiles on their faces. It feels good to be a small part of that.”

When Bunn goes shopping and fills her cart with school supplies or large amounts of toys and hygiene items, she uses it as a ministry opportunity. “In the checkout lines, I tell people about Operation Christmas Child. Some have never heard about it,” she shared. Many times, she is thanked and inspires others to do the same. “I think that we are ambassadors for HIM! My small part of OCC helps to accomplish the goal—to help spread the word of Jesus.”

Petty agreed that shoebox prep is contagious. “When family members and friends see how excited I am about packing the boxes each year, they want to help. They are often encouraged to do their own boxes or donate in some way to help the children as well.”

The legacy continues on. Petty’s son, Noah, started out packing two boxes with his mom at age two. It became a family tradition. Noah is now a student at CSU and started doing his own shoeboxes toward CSU’s big goal.

HARTSVILLE, S.C. (courtesy coker.edu) — Coker University was recently awarded a federal TRIO Upward Bound (UB) grant for the 2022-2023 academic year, and the grant will be supported for up to five years. Coker’s UB program will serve 60 students at four local South Carolina high schools in Darlington, Dillon, Hartsville, and Marion. Students who complete Coker University’s TRIO Upward Bound program will be granted automatic admission to the university.

The Upward Bound program is one of eight federal TRIO programs designed to identify and provide services to students with the goal of ​increasing the rate at which participants complete high school and enroll in and graduate from college.

Coker University also has a TRIO Student Support Services grant, which provides academic support to 140 Coker students.

Coker University’s ambitious Upward Bound program provides a comprehensive approach to supporting students during a time of increased trauma following COVID and civil uncertainty. Coker will provide academic, social, emotional, and career support including weekly tutoring, academic advising, assistance with college admissions requirements, ACT/SAT preparation, and career development events and resources.

Included is a six week summer program where students will not only receive academic instruction but also participate in a signature experience with Cypress Adventures (CA), a local community organization that offers leadership training to students in middle school and high school. Cypress Adventures has developed a special leadership program for Upward Bound participants that is evidence-based and grounded in trauma-informed practices. This initial week-long learning experience prepares students for a productive five weeks of more traditional academic pursuits in the UB summer program and provides students with invaluable life lessons that will follow them through high school and beyond. Students can expect this program to begin in the next academic year.

“We are excited to receive a competitive TRIO Upward Bound grant that will allow us to increase programming that supports high school academic performance, retention, and graduation as well as college enrollment and completion,” said Dr. Susan Henderson, Converse University provost. “We look forward to our collaboration with Darlington, Dillon, Hartsville, and Marion High Schools.”

For more information about the TRIO programs at Coker University, please contact Coker University Provost Dr. Susan Henderson at shenderson@coker.edu.