Indian Land teen wins $5,000 scholarship

News & Announcements / 2 minutes of reading /

An Indi­an Land high school stu­dent won $5,000 in an audio pod­cast schol­ar­ship com­pe­ti­tion spon­sored by South Car­oli­na’s elec­tric coop­er­a­tives. Felix Gon­za­lez of Indi­an Land (York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive) joined Leah Gard­ner of Ben­nettsville (Lynch­es Riv­er Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive), Rosh­ni Nand­wani of Myr­tle Beach (Hor­ry Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive) and Pey­ton Rollins of Woodruff (Lau­rens Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive) in cre­at­ing the win­ning pod­cast. Each com­pe­ti­tion win­ner receives $5,000.

Felix Gonzalez
Pic­tured with Felix (left) is Chris Sin­gle­ton, one of many local lead­ers who pre­sent­ed to the stu­dents dur­ing the Vir­tu­al Youth Expe­ri­ence.”

Sev­en­ty-four high school stu­dents from across South Car­oli­na com­pet­ed in the com­pe­ti­tion. All were par­tic­i­pants in the Vir­tu­al Youth Expe­ri­ence ear­li­er this sum­mer.

Dur­ing the vir­tu­al expe­ri­ence, the stu­dents heard from state lead­ers includ­ing Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, R‑S.C., U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, D‑S.C., Sens. Lind­sey Gra­ham, R‑S.C., and Tim Scott, R‑S.C., S.C. State Epi­demi­ol­o­gist Lin­da Bell and Chris Sin­gle­ton, whose moth­er, Sharon­da Cole­man-Sin­gle­ton, was one of nine killed in 2015’s Emanuel AME Church shoot­ing. Using inter­views from those lead­ers, the stu­dents then worked in groups to cre­ate audio pod­casts that that com­plet­ed the sen­tence: This is my coun­try…

Virtual Youth ExperienceThe win­ning group was select­ed by a pan­el of jour­nal­ists that includ­ed Cin­di Scoppe of The Post and Couri­er news­pa­per, Ken­neth Moton of ABC News, Dawndy Mer­cer Plank of WIS News, Ben Hoover of WSPA and Lucas McFad­den of CN2 News.

In addi­tion to the $5,000 win­ners, eight oth­er stu­dents from across the state are each receiv­ing $500 as final­ists in the com­pe­ti­tion. The eight $500 win­ners are:

  1. Amy Crum­ley of Pinop­o­lis (Berke­ley Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive)
  2. Carsen Grice of Aiken (Aiken Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive)
  3. Aanem Has­nie of Greer (Lau­rens Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive)
  4. Tay­lor Hol­lis of Winns­boro (Fair­field Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive)
  5. Mag­gie Nolen of Pied­mont (Blue Ridge Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive)
  6. Ayoola Oladime­ji of Goose Creek (Berke­ley Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive)
  7. Josh Sharpe of Sumter (Black Riv­er Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive)
  8. John Sumter of Myr­tle Beach (Hor­ry Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive)

Five stu­dents won $250 after receiv­ing hon­or­able men­tion. The five $250 win­ners are:

  1. Laney Brown of Con­way (Hor­ry Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive)
  2. Rori Mae Con­don of Goose Creek (Berke­ley Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive)
  3. Adri­an Hay­den of Sum­merville (Berke­ley Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive)
  4. Asheton Hold­en of Inman (Lau­rens Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive)
  5. Kather­ine Mor­ton of Sum­merville (Berke­ley Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive)

The announce­ment of the win­ners can be viewed here

Pho­tos of the win­ning stu­dents are avail­able here

All of the stu­dents’ pod­casts are avail­able here

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