High schoolers at Pair Education Center participated in a service learning project with their University of South Carolina mentors, cleaning up the Julius Felder Community Garden in Cayce to get it ready for vegetable planting.
The community garden is a place where local residents can grow and tend their own fresh vegetables. It’s also been used in the past as a way to teach young children about where food comes from and learn more about vegetable varieties.
“Service learning projects not only allow students to work on specific needs in the community but to discover their role as a member of the community,” said CR Hall, principal at Pair Education Center. “Our hope is that our students can transfer these skills to adulthood and continue to give back to the community.”
The recent service learning project, along with a tour of USC, closed out the semester of mentoring for Pair students. Some program activities are funded by a Colonial Life Strong Schools grant.
“The USC mentoring project has given our students a venue to talk with others who were teenagers transitioning to young adulthood,” Hall said. “The project has helped our students understand who they are as people and helped them to develop a plan to help them reach their life goals.”