From left to right: Cleotilde Perdew, Jadon Reed, Rejoice Anaele and Princess Tisdale
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Four students from S.C. State University’s Dr. Emily England Clyburn Honors College have each earned a $1,000 cash prize in the Pay it Forward competition sponsored by South Carolina’s electric cooperatives. The competition challenges students to search for solutions to pressing social and economic problems in the state’s rural areas.
Rejoice Anaele of Springdale, Maryland, Princess Tisdale of Summerville, Jadon Reed of Orangeburg and Cleotilde Perdew of Ridgely, West Virginia won for their proposal to create a rural entrepreneurship and education pipeline in Orangeburg, St. Matthews and Ehrhardt, S.C.
Dr. Harriet Roland, dean of the Dr. Emily England Clyburn Honors College at S.C. State, advised the winning students on their project. For her work, Dr. Roland also receives $1,000.
“We’ve seen some really creative and thought-provoking ideas from the students in this year’s competition,” said Mike Couick, president and CEO of The Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina. “By highlighting these solutions to rural problems, we hope to inspire the students to take the next step and put their plans into action.”
The four S.C. State students will now compete with winning teams from the honors colleges at Clemson University and the University of South Carolina for a grand prize of $5,000 which will be announced by March 8.
To view Anaele, Tisdale, Reed and Perdew’s winning proposal, click here: https://tinyurl.com/2rsvw7ya
To view their winning video, click here: https://tinyurl.com/362k5dpj
