Serving Barnwell County and it's neighbors since 1852
Allendale-Fairfax High School seniors Lokeya Robinson, Zion Jones and Kaden Wesley pose at the Meeting Street Scholarship Fund announcement on December 8.
Allendale County superintendent speaks to an audience of students, parents and teachers at the Meeting Street Scholarship Fund announcement.
For a typical American high school senior, a college education can only be made possible by crushing debt or a generous scholarship. For a high school senior in a rural area, a college education can only be made possible by crushing debt or a generous scholarship and long commutes. For an Allendale high school senior, a post-secondary education can seem like more of a dream than a reality.
Following national trends, the cost of education in South Carolina at both public, private and community colleges has exploded. Concurrently, South Carolina has become the fifth-highest state in the country for student loan burdens, with the average student borrower in South Carolina owing $38,360, according to higher education research group Degree Choices. Rural communities like Allendale have been hit hardest by the costs of higher education; Only 10.8% of the county’s residents have a bachelor’s degree, which is three times lower than the national average of 34.3%, according to the United States Census.
Despite a lack of action by governments and academic administrators to lower the cost of postsecondary education for young people, local changes are being made to increase access for Allendale’s young people.
Post-secondary education in Allendale
Among Allendale’s high school students and community leaders, a frequently raised concern is a lack of opportunities within Allendale for high school graduates. The doctors, public school teachers, engineers and public defenders that are key to strengthening rural communities require a college education. However, many skilled blue-collar careers that do not require a four year college education instead require a certificate or two years of college.
For new Allendale County School District superintendent Vallarie Cave, increasing access and opportunities for the Allendale-Fairfax high school’s young people is a top priority.
“We are beginning to train more of our students and get them [into the] certification process for college and career jobs so that when industry comes they will be ready to take those positions,” Cave said. “My job is to make sure that I have expanded opportunities here at school. I need to be able to create that opportunity. And they need to be successful in it.”
In rural South Carolina, these job openings are increasing in quantity, particularly in renewable energy industries. As renewable energy manufacturing and installation takes off in the rural United States, spurred by the Inflation Reduction Act, the need for workforce development has expanded.
In Allendale, Vietnamese company Tin Tanh Group is beginning development of a tire factory that it claims will bring 1,031 jobs. However, the amount of these jobs that will be from Allendale is unclear, further increasing the demand for local workforce development.
For Cave, this has meant working with the South Carolina Department of Education’s Career Technical Education Director Maria Swygert to increase collaboration between Denmark Technical College and Allendale-Fairfax High School. This collaboration, Cave said, is to expand STEM opportunities for students.
USC Salkehatchie and dual enrollment
Although some states like New Mexico and New York offer tuition-free public college, public colleges and universities in many states like South Carolina remain expensive. For a South Carolina resident, one semester at University of South Carolina Salkehatchie costs $3,579.
In addition to widely available federal financial student aid and institutional financial aid, USC Salkehatchie is expanding to offer dual enrollment to Allendale High School students.
Dual enrollment allows for high school students to take college courses and earn college credits while still working towards finishing their high school course load.
“Our intent is to attract local students, educate them here and our hope is to keep them here,” said USC Salkehatchie Dean April Cone at a September 21 Allendale County Council meeting.
When asked if larger changes need to take place within the education system so college in South Carolina is not expensive in the first place, Ellen Weaver, state superintendent of education, said the state is currently working on increasing dual enrollment programs.
“I would say that yes, in general, we really do have to focus on college affordability,” Weaver said. “One of the ways that we’re doing that under the K-12 system is through ideas like dual enrollment that allow college credit to be hard to have at the high school level. So there are a lot of things that we could do to expand affordability for students who need that opportunity.”
Meeting Street Scholarship
The Meeting Street Scholarship, a South Carolina scholarship that pays for up to $10,000 for all four years at a South Carolina school, recently expanded into Allendale County. In order to be eligible, students have to complete an SC LIFE scholarship, complete their FAFSA and receive a Pell Grant.
The eligible colleges for the scholarship are Anderson University, Bob Jones University, Claflin University, Clemson University, College of Charleston, Columbia College, Columbia International University, Converse University, Furman University, Newberry College, North Greenville University, Presbyterian College, Southern Wesleyan University, The Citadel, University of South Carolina Columbia, Wofford College and Winthrop University.
Currently, the Meeting Street Scholarship operates in 11 counties and plans to expand to the entire state of South Carolina according to the scholarship’s director, Josh Bell. Although the scholarship is open to all students that qualify, the scholarship expects to fund the scholarship for two students in Allendale at the cost of $200,000, according to Meeting Street Scholarship Data; There are 54 students in Allendale High School’s 2023–24 class.
“We have helped open paths to college without crushing student loan debt that really is a burden for too many,” said Bell, who did not respond to requests for comment regarding how many Allendale high school students the scholarship anticipates to pay for.
The scholarship is funded by Charleston billionaire Ben Navarro.
For Lokeya Robinson, a senior at Allendale-Fairfax High School who wants to be a sports journalist, knowing that pursuing her career would burden her with debt was one of the things that held her back; She was considering joining the military to not have to go into debt. She now hopes to go straight out of high school and into college.
“The education here [in Allendale] is pretty good,” Robinson said. “[But] my biggest fear was getting in debt and having to pay all that down the line.”
