District Five school named Jefferson Awards winner for South Carolina

Spring Hill High School’s Students In Action (SIA) team received the news during a surprise announcement at the school on May 1. The District Five all-magnet high school started its SIA this year, and was named the Jefferson Awards’ Most Outstanding Students In Action Team for the Midlands region on April 13. The team also was awarded the 2015 Gold Service Leadership School Award during the Regional Midlands Celebration of Service event, which was held this year at Spring Hill High School.

“We were very impressed by this group,” said Jefferson Awards State Director Heather Love, who showed up at the school with balloons to surprise the group. “Their written survey was very detailed and they were able to give very detailed and tangible examples of what they had done. And then with their oral presentation, they were just very polished, very well-versed and very confident. So, those were the things that put them ahead of other groups to earn the state award.”

The Jefferson Awards for Public Service was founded in 1972 by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Sen. Robert Taft, Jr., and Sam Beard as the Nobel Prize for public service and volunteerism. Officials say the mission of the Jefferson Awards is to honor Americans who have performed outstanding public service and to inspire others to follow their examples.

Thirty South Carolina schools participated in the application process, and five regional winners were named this year, Love said. Members of the Spring Hill High School SIA include; Maggie Todd, Chloe Tate, Sydney Thompson, Caroline Denise, Sara Margaret Williams, Kaela Bernecky, Coribeth Cook, Kaili Dewitt, Brianna Kennedy, Zach Lindler, Ashley Lucas, Cassidy Mattingly, Isabel Mistratta, Heather Mulholland, Melissa Nisbet, Kristian Perkins, Zoe Pournaras, and Michael Smalls. The Jefferson Awards’ National Ceremony and Gala will be held June 17-19.

“We’re very proud of our Spring Hill High School Students In Action team,” said Dr. Michael Lofton, principal of the school. “This great group of students has worked hard to serve our school and community, and they will do a great job of representing our school, the district and the state of South Carolina at the national competition in Washington, D.C. What makes this even more astounding is that this is their first year as a team and the first year they have entered the competition. I am truly grateful to be their principal. These students amaze me every day.”

An initiative active in more than 320 high schools nationwide, Students In Action is a high school service and leadership program that “trains student leaders to think big, become the driving force for effective service and create meaningful impact.” At Spring Hill High School, students have organized fundraising events and school activities. SIA members at the school led an in-school Special Olympics Young Athletes Expo in February, the first of its kind to be held in a school.

SIA members like Maggie Todd say starting a team at the school has given students a way to make a difference. “Definitely one of the rewards of being in SIA is learning to be a leader and how to get the whole school involved. I think we saw that students in the school want to serve, and SIA gave them a way to do that.”

Sherry Stone, sponsor of the school’s SIA and a Leadership II teacher at Spring Hill High School, added: “These students have worked so hard and diligently. They take everything to the next level…They will try to win the national award. Average just isn’t in their vocabulary.