BLOG A Year in Review: 2023 Campus Updates
“USC Union is on the up and up and I hope you all are ready,” said Athletic Director Zach Simmons when speaking about the growth of our sports teams earlier this semester. This is certainly true for the rest of our campus as well. Another year has passed at USC Union and we have some exciting updates to share!
This Fall, we reached record enrollment numbers with 1,353 students, and our early Spring enrollment numbers are trending ahead of where they were at this time last year. In partnership with Laurens County School District 56, we opened a new facility for the USC Union Lauren’s Location at the historic Bell Street School in Clinton.
The SC Commission on Higher Education’s most recent data in their 2022 Statistical Abstract revealed that for First-Time, Full-Time Freshmen entering Fall 2018, our 150% Program Time Success Rate went up from last year, to 73.3%. This is the second highest in the state among all 4 Palmetto College campuses and 16 SC Technical Colleges. Success Rate includes those students who graduated, transferred, or were still enrolled.
Students: This June, 8 students from Dr. Emily Schafer’s Multi-Cultural Psychology class participated in a 10-day study abroad trip to Guatemala. This study abroad course applied multi-cultural psychology theory and cultural skills studies to gain intercultural exposure and understanding, increase awareness of issues facing the world, and develop relevant skills in becoming a more effective and engaged world citizen.
Our student events this year included the Miss USC Union Pageant, where Bianca Monteith was crowned Miss USC Union, and the first ever Mr. USC Union Contest, where Tim Groenenberg was crowned Mr. USC Union. All proceeds from these events went to the Grace Revels and Mia Stokes Memorial Scholarship. On Sept. 6, we hosted Fresh Check Day, a suicide prevention and mental health awareness event which brings together campus and community resources to encourage a dialogue about mental health among students. For the first time since 2019, we hosted the Upcountry Literary Festival live in the USC Union auditorium, where local authors and writers from across the Southeast shared their work. First Generation Day, a celebration for first generation college students featuring a lunch, an exposition of college courses and campus services, and a campus scavenger hunt, was held on Nov. 8.
Students Za’Kyah Jeter-Walton and Emily Winstead will be featured in the upcoming Fall issue of USC Columbia’s Carolina’s Futures magazine. They will be recognized for receiving the From Family Scholarships at USC Union this year. This semester, we revived our student newspaper, the Bantam Gazette. We produced two monthly print newspapers with articles and poetry by students and launched a new website.
Athletics: Our Bantam athletic teams have achieved great things this year! The USC Union Men’s Soccer team had their best season to date, with 7 wins, 3 ties, and only 4 losses. They also brought home a record number of region awards. Mila Mzamane, a freshman from Johannesburg, South Africa, was named the NJCAA Region 10 Player of the Year and made the Division I All America Team (3rd team). Mzamane is the second consecutive Player of the Year for Bantam Soccer, as sophomore Nico Steinweg was the 2022 winner. Head Coach Marc Curlee was awarded Coach of the Year. An additional four players were named NJCAA Region 10 All Region players – Ben Roder (1st team), Adrian Williams (2nd team), Bryan Garcia (2nd team), and Jay Brunson (2nd team) joining Maximus Moriarty (3rd team, 2022). Goalie Donovan Cobb received an Honorable Mention.
Both our soccer and softball teams were named 2022-2023 Academic Teams of the Year in the NJCAA national rankings, with softball achieving the highest GPA for Region 10 at 3.78 and soccer achieving a GPA of 3.6. The softball team celebrated a record season, bringing home the most wins out of any team on campus and breaking most of their hitting and pitching records. Our baseball team tied their record for most wins, winning three games against the #3 ranked team in the nation, and won their very first region tournament games.
New to USC Union this year is our Bantam Golf Team, led by Coach Gil Moss. The seven players have been splitting their time between the Lakeside Country Club and their driving range and indoor golf simulator at the Lauren’s Location. They are currently a Club team but will begin competing at NJCAA level during their exhibition season in Fall 2024. The Bantam Anglers have had several big wins this year. On Oct. 27, USC Union Anglers Jacob Butts and Mark Kershaw won 2nd place in the Major League Fishing National College Event as one of 250 teams from different colleges around the country. The two anglers also qualified for the MLF College National Championship this spring at Lake Toho in Florida. On Saturday, Sept. 30, USC Union Anglers Isaac Greene and Bryson Holderness won the Clemson Bass Fishing Trail “Lake Keowee” event. It was their first collegiate win and only the third tournament of the year. Several other USC Union Anglers have placed in tournaments during the fall semester.
Nursing: The very first USC Union nursing cohort graduated with the Class of 2023. All six graduates passed the NCLEX (Nursing Council Licensure Examination) and are now working as nurses in Union or in the surrounding area. Lynn Edwards, Nurse Administrator at USC Union, reports that 66% of USC Union nursing graduates have gone on to work in their hometowns, with many serving as “key healthcare team members” at Union Medical Center.
Development: In January, two new Palmetto College iCarolina Learning Labs were also opened in the Clinton and Laurens branches of the Laurens County Public Library. These spaces, along with the existing iCarolina Lab in the Union County Carnegie Library, will provide the surrounding communities with access to iMacs, Macbooks, iPads, and reliable high-speed broadband internet.
We are in the process of renovating several of our spaces on campus. The second level of the Whitener Central Building was given a full remodel, which included new energy efficient LED lighting, new carpet and paint, and up-to-date ADA restrooms. The final phase of the remodel, which will include the first-floor entryway and IT hallway began during Thanksgiving break. Truluck Gym has been fitted with new ADA and single person restrooms. The next phase of renovations, which included fresh exterior paint and a new roof, will be complete before the start of the spring semester. The updated wet lab space in the Nursing Simulation Lab building is near completion. Preparations for the remodel of the Main Building, which will include new carpet and paint, updates to the HVAC system and elevator, and up-to-date ADA restrooms, are currently in progress.
In addition to various donations from friends and family of USC Union towards established and one-time scholarships, we have established several new endowed scholarships this year. These include the Linda Cassels Memorial Endowed Scholarship, the Debbie Howell Littlejohn Endowed Scholarship, and four Dr. Bobby Gene and Barbara Harter Rippy Endowed Scholarships. The Marshall and Juanita Comer Memorial Endowed Scholarship was also transferred to the Union campus specifically for students from Union. There are two types of scholarships on campus: a one-time scholarship and an endowed scholarship. A one-time funded scholarship is awarded once for that specific semester to deplete the funding. An endowed scholarship is the complete opposite because it is a scholarship that keeps giving year after year. USC Union’s endowed level begins at $5,000, those funds are invested by the Educational Foundation at USC (Columbia), and we award scholarships based on the interest that is accrued. We also received a grant from the C.H. and Anna E. Lutz Foundation for the purchase of the MATT Auscultation Task Trainer for the nursing department.
In January, we will kick-off our USC Union Alumni Association. If you have any questions or are interested in joining, please email uscualumni@mailbox.sc.edu.
