SUMTER, S.C. — Six high school seniors in Sumter County are getting ready to go to college completely for free. The Harmon Scholarship pays for tuition and fees, on-campus housing, meal plans, a laptop and an annual stipend for books and supplies.
“It’s just like a weight lifted off you,” Sumter High School Senior Jada Collins explains about her reaction to hearing she had won the scholarship. “You just feel just relieved. I feel like I can relax more knowing that everything's paid for.”
Collins is one of the six seniors in Sumter School District to receive the scholarship, funded by Fred Harmon and awarded through the Central Carolina Community Foundation (CCCF). It’s given to students who display extraordinary character, determination, and leadership and exemplify the potential of the “American dream.” Collins is headed to Clemson University with plans to study health sciences in an effort to become a dentist. She’s beginning her next journey alongside classmate and fellow recipient Olin Towery.
“My whole family is…they’re big Clemson fans,” Towery said. “I think I’m the 20th Towery to go to Clemson.”
Towery says having all expenses paid for through the scholarship is helpful.
“Of course, I'm excited. It’s the start of a new brand new adventure,” Towery explained. “But I'm also incredibly nervous. You know, I've never really stepped out of Sumter and I don't know what the future has for me, ‘cuz this is the opportunity of a lifetime.”
“It's very, very impactful,” Sumter High Senior Aiden Kim added.
Like Towery, Kim will be studying biological sciences at Clemson's Honors College. Kim says after watching his family members go through cancer, he’s hoping to pursue a career in cancer research or treatment. Similarly, Alana Garrick is using her own medical diagnosis as inspiration to go into the medical field.
“I have Turner Syndrome, so that's why I’m kind of short, because instead of having two X chromosomes, I have one or like one and a half. And so I’ve always been like from a baby, like always been with doctors and hospitals,” Garrick detailed. “So I’ve always been interested in medicine from a really young age. And at first, I wanted to go to medical school, but then I changed my mind to go to dental school. I like science and also like doing stuff, like hands-on building stuff and creating stuff and dentistry is kind of like the best of both worlds.”
Now, Garrick is heading to the University of South Carolina (USC), where she will study health sciences.
“[The scholarship} will impact me because I feel like it will take a lot of stress off of me from, like, figuring out how to pay for undergrad and also dental school now I only have to worry about dental school really,” Garrick said. “And my family, they don't really have to stress about tuition, little fees here and there, housing, meal plans for me, then plus helping me pay for dental school.”
Erin Lin, who is also headed to USC to study international business, agrees.
“I do believe that it's going to allow me to fully focus on my educational career without having to worry about like oh can my parents afford this, do I need to get another job and stuff,” Lin shared. “And being, like, kind of financially free in college, it’s a really big deal for my parents too.”
Lin says her career path is inspired both by watching her parents operate their small businesses and by her time growing up moving around the world. Originally born in New York, Lin says she spent five years living in China before moving to Alabama, then Georgia and finally settling in Sumter as a freshman in high school.
“[My parents] had a lot of sacrifices for me to go to college and go to high school here,” Lin explained. “So I felt really grateful too for this scholarship.”
Sumter High Principal Anamaria Sandor says watching five students in her school earn the scholarship is inspiring.
“I’m super happy for the kids and also super excited that the future for them is bright,” Sandor shared. “To be a principal at this big school and have so many students in your school is like you live their stories, you live their life and when they leave and do great things, what is very, very nice is they are coming back.”
One other student, Crestwood High School Senior Reymart Velasco, also was awarded the scholarship. It was established by Fred Harmon in 2014. A representative from CCCF says initially, one student was selected annually as a recipient. Then, last year, the scholarship grew to include three recipients. This year, the number has doubled to six.
In an email to News 19, CCCF says Harmon “created the scholarship to promote the American Dream.”
"When I grew up, I was told that America was the land of opportunity,” Harmon said in a statement. “If you got an education, worked hard, and strived to be productive, you could accomplish great things. Now, we're told that America is no longer the land of opportunity. We need to change that perception.”
According to CCCF, the scholarship is awarded to students who display “extraordinary character, determination, leadership and who exemplify the potential of the American Dream.”
“You work towards this, but I think it's also a representation of, like, the fulfillment that you get from the American dream. It's a space for your family to enjoy themselves. And it's just a place for you to relax after a lifetime of working towards the success,” Towery said about the essay prompt, asking applicants to write about the American Dream. “I think it'll also help push me through graduate school, and even hopefully a doctorate so I can pursue..I have been looking at pulmonology or cardiology as a potential career. So I know this scholarship really helped me to achieve [that].”
For Kim, it’s also about serving the collective good.
“The American dream to me is like the opportunity to kind of seek whatever goals you want, while also giving back to the community,” Kim said. “To me, it's very essential that any person in society can pursue any goal that they're looking forward to, but also, while they also do that, and like pursue their personal goals and dreams, can you know, give back to the greater community and just improve the world as a whole.”
To be eligible for the scholarship, applicants need a minimum 3.0 GPA and must be graduating seniors from a public high school in Sumter County, South Carolina. Recipients also must attend Clemson University or the USC Columbia campus full-time and pursue a degree in accounting, business administration, computer science, education, engineering, math or other traditional sciences.