“It was an exciting day for USC Union at Laurens,” said Cameron Coone, director of the USC Laurens Location, now operating at the historic Bell Street School in Clinton.
“The halls were alive and filled with new students and the parking lot was full.”
The new facility held the first day of classes on Thursday, Aug. 24. This semester the Laurens Location, formerly located at the Oaks Shopping Center in Laurens, will be fully operating in its new home in partnership with Laurens County School District 56. “The Superintendent (Dr. David O’Shields) and his office have been very generous and extremely easy to work with so everything was able to come together for the start of the Fall 2023 semester,” said Brad Greer, USC Union’s Director of Enrollment. “We expect nothing but growth.”
Coone describes the transformation of the facility as “unreal.” The new location houses several exciting features that will provide new opportunities for our students in academics and athletics. The facility includes beaming classrooms and science labs and will also serve as the home of two Bantams sports teams. There will be an indoor golf simulator, a Par 3 practice course, and a driving range for the new golf team. The gym will serve as a dry dock for the USC Union Anglers bass fishing team. Coone says that many schools do not have their own boat storage facility for their fishing teams, so this new space will be a huge recruitment advantage. He has already had anglers from states as far as West Virginia, Ohio, Virginia, Connecticut, and Alabama reach out to schedule campus tours.
“With the new set up, we have already had new students enrolling,” said Athletic Director Zachary Simmons. “We can see it growing exponentially.”
The new location will host 25 traditional students, 100 dual enrollment students from Clinton High School, and 10 students from Thornwell Charter School. “Just from talking with local residents and students, having athletics available here will be one of the driving points for future growth,” said Coone. “The advantage of this new campus is that we have room to grow and expand here, as well as giving local students full access to affordable higher education.”
