China Grove’s Tara Scheidt named Outstanding Woman of the Year

Tara Scheidt, a junior from China Grove, N.C., majoring in international business and economics, has been named the University of South Carolina’s Outstanding Woman of the Year for 2008.

University officials honored Scheidt and four finalists. The award is given annually to an undergraduate who demonstrates exemplary academic achievement, service and leadership and who is actively in involved in campus and community activities.

This year’s finalists were Devon Berry, a senior South Carolina Honors College student from Charlotte majoring in mechanical engineering; Angela Bingham, a fourth-year McNair scholar from Forest City, N.C., majoring in pharmacy; Amanda Kay Seals, a senior McNair scholar and Rotary scholar from Clinton, Tenn., whose interdisciplinary major includes studying poverty and development; and Melisa Selin Tanverdi, a junior South Carolina Honors College student from Columbia majoring in biology.

Scheidt, a student in the South Carolina Honors College, is the daughter of Mel Melton and Renee Scheidt of China Grove. She holds a Cooper scholarship, one of the highest undergraduate scholarships awarded by the university. To be awarded a Cooper scholarship, a freshman student must have a minimum 1350 SAT. Cooper scholars receive $4,000 annually for four years of study.

A dual major in international business and economics in the Moore School of Business, Scheidt is the president of the Global Business Council, a student research group of the Palmetto Institute, an economic research firm aimed at increasing South Carolina inhabitants’ per-capita income. She plans to work in international finance after she graduates in May 2009.

Scheidt is a member of the USAV women’s club volleyball team at the university, Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Alpha Lambda Delta honor society. She was twice selected an emerging leader by the Moore School.