• Travonte Gadson, who attended Richland One’s Heyward Career and Technology Center, won a silver medal for his expertise in construction in the SkillsUSA National Championship in June. Travonte, a graduate of Lower Richland High School, was one of 11 students from South Carolina to receive a medal. The championship included more than 6,400 students nationwide.

• Columbia High School Air Force JROTC cadets were big winners at the Cadet Leadership Course held at The Citadel in the summer. The cadets won 39 awards for excellence in competitive sports, physical fitness and leadership skills.

• Kira Simmons, a rising fifth-grader at Burton-Pack Elementary School, was crowned the 2019 Miss South Carolina Junior Pre-Teen. Kira’s motto is “you’re not a quitter; your strong is beautiful.”

• Places of Freedom, a collection of poems, essays, photos and media art created by Lower Richland High School students in the StoryLab project, will be on display at the Columbia Museum of Art through September 15. Lower Richland StoryLab was an in-school media program that focused on the issues faced by rural communities in and around Lower Richland in the 21st Century. With the instruction of artist-in-residence and Lower Richland native Mahkia Greene, over 60 Lower Richland High School students created new works of media art that examined their community’s past, told its stories, challenged misconceptions, explored challenges identified by residents, and presented a vision for the future of Lower Richland County.

• Five Richland One theatre students won top awards at the International Thespian Festival in Lincoln, Nebraska this summer. Cameron Vipperman of A.C. Flora High School and Dreher High School students Arrington Jones, Tyler Wesley, Ella Dubard and Sofie Jones captured National Superior Titles in Performance awards. High school students from the United States, the Northern Mariana Islands, China, the United Arab Emirates and other countries attended the festival. 

• Niani Feelings, a 2013 graduate of Dreher High School, was selected to be a member of the cast of the hit Broadway musical Mean Girls, which kicks off its national tour on September 21 in Buffalo, New York. After Buffalo, Niani and other cast members will go on to play stops including Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, Orlando, Denver, Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

• The David A. Tepper Charitable Foundation, John M. Belk Endowment, US Foods, Classroom Central and Carolina Panthers Charities partnered to provide more than 15,000 backpacks with school supplies to students in Richland One, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, and the Wake County (N.C.) Public School System. Each district received 5,000 backpacks with school supplies. The two-state distribution kicked off with a high energy “encouragement rally” for 500 students at Richland One’s Forest Heights Elementary School on August 22. Twelve other selected Richland One schools will receive backpacks with school supplies through the program.

updated 08/28/2019