The Landrum High School Students In Action team received the highest honor given in the Upstate Celebration of Service, winning the Jefferson Awards Gold Banner and being named the #1 high school in the Upstate for service projects impacting the school and community. Landrum students competed against four other upstate high schools for this honor.

Each South Carolina Jefferson Awards region (Pee Dee, Lowcountry, Grand Strand, and Midlands) will announce their regional winners, from which their written applications are reevaluated and scored by a new panel of judges. Those scores are combined with the presentation scores and the South Carolina state winner is expected to be announced next week. The state winner will go on to compete at the national competition held in Washington, D.C. in June 2018.  

Since 1972, the Jefferson Awards Foundation has recognized national leaders and local heroes for their outstanding contributions to our country. Nationally, the Jefferson Award is the country’s highest honor for service and volunteerism. With the goal of cultivating the next generation of leaders throughout the country, the Jefferson Awards Foundation began a youth development initiative called Students In Action. Students In Action serves as the foundation’s flagship youth service leadership program and is active in over 400 high schools across the country, more than 40 of which are located here in South Carolina.

Pictured: (Back, Left to Right) Lewis Hightower, Grayson Bateman, Grayson Smith, Grayson Lee, Jackson Stokes, Madalin Baker, and Bricen Ghent; (Front, Left to Right) Patrick Clark, Abbi Cartee, Brooke Murray, and Elizabeth Pressley; Not Pictured: Debra Giles (Teacher), Jennifer Johnson (Teacher)