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Education

Citizen Shapers

World Citizen Showcase will be an inspirational, one-time, competitive arts-based event involving eighth-grade students from one school from each of Charleston, Berkeley, and Dorchester counties. The project seeks to increase student engagement and foster their creative thinking, self-expression, goal setting, and career aspirations at a critical transition point between middle and high school.

Civil Rights Road Trip Project

The Civil Rights Road Trip Project is grounded in a desire to find a home for an existing collection of invaluable South Carolina civil rights history resources that will:

College Bound Kids

Saving for college is a difficult task for any parent or student, and often parents and students give up before even trying because they assume it is simply an unachievable goal. 529 savings plans, which were created pursuant to Section 529 of the Internal Revenue Code, are investment accounts that can help parents or students save money over time for the high cost of education. These accounts are sponsored by individual states and provide tax advantages when funds are used for qualified education expenses.

College and Career for Cougars

College and Careers for Cougars (C&C)
A Collaborative to Support NCHS Seniors

Developed by Team Two of the 2015 Lowcountry Program
Furman University’s Riley Institute’s Diversity Leaders Initiative

In her October 2015 letter to the community, Natrese Dorsey, North Charleston High School (NCHS) Senior Class President, invited the community to “peel back the stigma and tear into the hope” within the members of NCHS’s senior class. It is our team’s goal to take Natrese up on her invitation.

Come Yuh

Placing special emphasis on the growing Hispanic community in the Lowcountry, members of the Come Yuh team focused on ensuring healthcare to all people by overcoming language barriers. Group members presented information about the disproportionately high percentage of the minority population, and Hispanics in particular, who live below the federal poverty line and are uninsured. The team surveyed local health care providers to assess the need for interpreters and to examine existing barriers to providing primary health care to Hispanics with limited English proficiency.

Complex Molecules

The Complex Molecules group members focused on analysis of the local CARTA mass transit system in the Lowcountry. After reviewing information on the demographics of riders, the organization and diversity of CARTA employees, and the route system, group members concluded that several changes must be made in order to promote mass transit in the Lowcountry.

Con-Nection

Con-Nection team members aimed to address the issue of reintegration for ex-convicts into the community in the Central Savannah Region Area. After the recent closing of the Aiken Community Outreach Ministry, many of these citizens stopped receiving help from the community and as such, struggled to gain employment and to meet basic living needs.  The Con-Nection team members interviewed ex-convicts who were willing to share their struggles with the media.

COPA Champions

COPA Champions is a program originally created from the mind of Anthony Esquivel, owner of COPA Indoor Soccer. Mr. Esquivel noticed that a large number of Hispanic youth from the local Berea neighborhood were coming to COPA to play soccer at his facility. Based on numerous conversations with the high school aged youth, he discovered that many of the bright and determined soccer enthusiast had no plans for life beyond high school despite their many academic and social achievements.

COPA Design: Building Communities

Rationale: A legacy Community Impact Program aligned with Furman University’s Diversity Leadership Institute in the Riley Institute.

Project Description:

From the beginning, the group intentionally focused on the desire to make a direct impact on whatever project we took on. The group was in complete alignment and quickly gravitated towards what we internally called a legacy project. Members of the group had conversations with DLI graduates resulting in strong relationships and idea sharing which led to the COPA II project. Initially created in the Spring 2018 cohort, COPA Champions began to take form.

CORE: Creating Opportunities and Recognizing Excellence

C.O.R.E. desires to recognize high school students who inspire others because they have overcome obstacles in their lives.  To accomplish this, the group has partnered with Carolina and Greenville High Schools in Greenville, South Carolina.  Based on criteria established by the group, each school will select two students from their schools—one male and one female—to receive the “DLI   C.O.R.E.