COLLEGE NOTES

Elgin’s Bookman Road Elementary SIC receives Riley Award

The School Improvement Council (SIC) of Elgin’s Bookman Road Elementary School has been named the recipient of the Dick and Tunky Riley School Improvement Award for 2008. The award was presented Saturday afternoon at the S.C. School Improvement Council’s Annual Conference in Columbia.

The annual Dick and Tunky Riley School Improvement Award was created in 2002 to recognize the significant contributions made to public education by the more than 15,000 School Improvement Council (SIC) members who volunteer in every public school in the state. Located at the University of South Carolina’s College of Education in Columbia, the SC-SIC provides training, resources and technical assistance to parent, community, staff, and student members of legislatively-mandated SICs in each of South Carolina’s nearly 1,200 public schools.

The Riley Award is named in honor of former South Carolina Governor and U.S. Education Secretary Richard Riley and his late wife, Tunky, and recognizes the couple’s longstanding commitment to quality public education.

Honorable mention went to Camden Elementary School of the Creative Arts, Laurel Hill Primary School of Mount Pleasant, Columbia’s Meadowfield Elementary School, and West Columbia’s Pineview Elementary School.

Dance Program chosen to perform at National College Dance Festival

Only three years since it began its dance degree program, the University of South Carolina has been chosen to have students perform at the National College Dance Festival to be held June 4 – 6 in New York City. University dance students competed for the opportunity earlier this month at the American College Dance Festival Southeast Regional Conference.

Under the direction of dance instructor Stacey Calvert, the students performed the ballet “Twist,” choreographed by the legendary Alan Hineline. Only three college dance programs were invited to perform at the national festival. The USC Dance recently performed “Twist” at its "Evening of Dance Masterpieces" concert. For more about the National College Dance Festival visit the Web site: www.acdfa.org.