P.U.L.S.E. Initiative to Quicken Hartsville's Push for Excellence at all levels of education

Harris DeLoach announces that Sonoco will invest $5 million in an initiative to put Hartsville area schools in competition for best in the state and maybe even the nation.




Caption -- Dr. Robert Wyatt announces a cooperative effort between the Yale Comer Project and Coker College to help make significant strides in elementary schools in the Hartsville area.




Caption -- People from many areas of the Hartsville community were on hand at Thornwell Elementary School on Monday (Feb. 20) to hear the major announcement of the PULSE initiative.



Sonoco announced this morning a major investment in an initiative called PULSE whose aim is to expand opportunities for excellence in the Hartsville area schools. This initiative is a major five million dollar investment and a combined effort of the Darlington County School District, Sonoco, Coker College, the Governor's School of South Carolina and the Comer Project of Yale University. It is an exciting innovation for Hartsville whose aim is to put Hartsville on the map when it comes to excellent schools in the State and in the nation.

The following news release comes from Coker College but you will also find a release from Sonoco that discusses their $5 million, five-year investment in this major program to push for Excellence in the Hartsville Schools.

Public-Private Partnership to Implement Comprehensive Scholastic Excellence Program in Hartsville, S.C., Public Schools

Darlington County School District, S.C. Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics,
Coker College and Sonoco Join Forces to Launch New PULSE Program

Yale University’s Child Study Center to Join Initiative with Pilot School Development Program in
Four Hartsville Elementary Schools

Sonoco to Support Programs with $5 Million Grant

Hartsville, S.C. – An unparalleled public-private partnership has been formed to implement a comprehensive scholastic excellence program in Hartsville public schools that will expand curriculum opportunities and further improve student achievement through collaborative academic and social development initiatives.

The PULSE (Partners for Unparalleled Local Scholastic Excellence) Program is a first-of-its-kind public-private partnership involving the Darlington County School District, the South Carolina Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics (GSSM), Coker College and Sonoco. Sonoco will fund the initiative through a $5 million grant that will be paid over five years.
“The P.U.L.S.E. program will set the standard for public school education in South Carolina. Through the opportunities and promise of this new initiative, the Darlington County School District can and will be
counted among the very best school districts our state has to offer,” said Dr. Rainey Knight, superintendent of education, Darlington County School District.


Yale’s Child Study Center to Help Create Pilot Elementary Student Development Program
A key component of the Hartsville PULSE initiative will be the implementation of a pilot School Development Program (SDP) at four Hartsville elementary schools that is focused on improving academic achievement and personal development. The program will be created with the assistance of Yale University’s Child Study Center Comer School Development Program, which was founded in 1968 by Dr. James P. Comer, Maurice Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry and associate dean of the Yale School of Medicine. The nationally recognized Comer SDP model has been successfully implemented in hundreds of schools in more than 20 states, the District of Columbia, Trinidad and Tobago, South Africa, England and Ireland. The pilot program will begin in the 2011-2012 school year in Hartsville’s Thornwell School for the Arts, Washington Street Elementary, West Hartsville Elementary and the Southside Early Childhood Center.

In future years, professional development programs for educators and multiple service-learning activities offered at Coker College via the growing Yale-Coker partnership will play a vital role in the continuing process of improvement in Hartsville.

“Development and learning are inextricably linked, but traditionally development is not intentionally addressed,” said Dr. Comer. “The School Development Program enables educators, parents and families, and community partners to support development, integrate learning, and as a result, improve academic and behavioral outcomes.”

Governor’s School, Coker College to Provide Curriculum Excellence Program
The second PULSE initiative is focused on expanding scholastic learning opportunities for eligible students in Hartsville’s secondary and high schools through collaborative teaching programs from the Hartsville-based GSSM and Coker College.

As an example, GSSM instructors will provide qualified Hartsville public school students with enhanced science, math and language classes, such as organic chemistry, advanced physics and Mandarin Chinese.

Coker College, a leading liberal arts private college also based in Hartsville, will provide college credit courses to eligible high school students in such programs as art, design, music, theater and dance.

“GSSM is a statewide residential high school for academically talented students that just happens to be located in Hartsville. As a result, there is no place we would rather make a positive educational impact than right here in our own backyard,” says Dr. Murray Brockman, GSSM president. “As a national leader in science and math education, we are excited beyond words to help implement a program that will advance the students of Hartsville in a way that exposes them to new opportunities and inspires them to reach their full potential.”

Brockman adds, “PULSE will be available to every student who meets the academic requirements, regardless of financial means, and it complements both local and statewide outreach programs already under way. Hartsville schools and our community’s commitment to education will look dramatically different in the next five years thanks to PULSE.”

“Students who aspire to scholarship at the highest levels can look forward to participating in intellectually enriching experiences in the fine arts under the mentorship of Coker’s distinguished faculty and in our unparalleled facilities, including the Elizabeth Boatwright Coker Performing Arts Center, a jewel of Hartsville named for South Carolina’s ‘First Lady of Letters,’” said Coker College President Robert Wyatt.

“And, as pleased as we are to welcome our community’s young women and men into Coker’s classrooms, we are humbled by the knowledge that working with Hartsville’s brightest young minds and with one of our nation’s strongest corporations will inspire us to strive for greater achievement as well,” he said.


Sonoco’s Targeting Education Improvement in its Hometown
Primary funding for the PULSE programs will come from a $5 million grant made over five years from Sonoco, one of the largest diversified global packaging companies. Founded in Hartsville in 1899, Sonoco employs nearly 1,800 workers and has more than 750 retirees and their families living in the Hartsville area.

“We have always had a strong commitment to improving education in communities where we operate, particularly in our hometown,” said Harris DeLoach, Sonoco chairman and chief executive officer. “We believe we must continue to work with our public schools, as well as other centers for learning, to improve local educational excellence to ensure we have the workers we need to be competitive over the next century.

“In addition, we must do all we can to make Hartsville attractive to the others recruited to build our company and other businesses in the area. South Carolina, Hartsville and area businesses will not be able to grow without continued investment in education and economic development. That is why we are making this commitment to our public schools. Together we will all prosper.”

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About Coker College
Coker College readies undergraduates for personal and professional success through a distinctive four-year program that emphasizes a practical application of the liberal arts as well as hands-on and discussion-based learning within and beyond the classroom. Coker is ranked among the “Best Colleges” in the South by U.S. News & World Report as well as The Princeton Review. Located in Hartsville, S.C., Coker is within two hours of the cultural, financial and recreational resources of Charlotte, Columbia, Charleston and Myrtle Beach. For more information, visit www.coker.edu. For more information, contact Barb Steadman, Media Relations Director: bsteadman@coker.edu or (814) 397-9959

New Carolina (Tm) Opens for Business

There is a multi-page advertisement in today's STATE Newspaper that provides an introduction to an organization called the S. C. Council on Competitiveness and their economic development campaign they are calling NEW CAROLINA.

From a community building and community thinking perspective, this NEW CAROLINA campaign is both exciting and interesting. One of the major reasons for excitement is the composition of the board of this council. There are surprises. Some of the surprises come from the diverse backgrounds of the movers and shakers that have signed on to be part of this New Carolina movement. One of the surprises is the theme of this movement -- NEW CAROLINA. One thing that is not very popular in South Carolina is significant change and the organization is calling for a significant new perspective on our State.

Several years ago, 2004 or 2005, I had the opportunity of being interviewed by one of the graduate students working with Michael Porter of Harvard University on the study of South Carolina's competitiveness. The unveiling in the STATE today lays out some of the key strategy that has been developed from that study. The points coming from Michael Porter's study are exciting, especially if those in the leadership positions can begin to make this cluster concept take hold in the minds and actions of South Carolinians. I know there was a meeting of economic development directors from around the S. C. in Greenville this past weekend. I wonder if they were briefed on the unveiling of the NEW CAROLINA program? They are among the people who can help craft new attitudes because many of them are already part of public/private partnerships with clear missions.

Here is some of what the website says about the mission of this new organization:
South Carolina must re-learn to compete. We must become a New Carolina.

South Carolina's Council on Competitiveness is a public-private partnership working with partners to increase per capita income and drive the movement towards a New Carolina – a South Carolina with a brighter future and a competitive, winning economy.

We have a clear, measurable definition of success. Steadily raise the average income of South Carolinians, which is now just 82% of the national average. Our focus is on Harvard Professor Michael Porter’s strategy to:

* Play to the strengths of our core industries: find, birth, build and celebrate clusters
* Change the economic environment through innovation in business and education
* Connect the dots across efforts and start conversations around positive change

There are some key players from the Pee Dee who have been ground-floor leaders in this new initiative and they include Harris DeLoach, President of Sonoco, and Darla Moore, who has been very active the past few years working to make South Carolina more competitive. It is Moore's name that graces the entrance ways of the University of South Carolina award-winning business school.

Community thinkers and community builders in South Carolina need to pay some close attention to how they might get on board this NEW CAROLINA movement.

Harris DeLoach Presented GSSM Townes Award

The South Carolina Governor's School for Science and Math annually presents the Townes Award, named in honor of Charles Townes, a Greenville native and Nobel Laureate. This is a prestigious honor that has been presented to people ranging from General Charles Bolden to Senator Fritz Hollings. Harris DeLoach, chairman and president of Sonoco, one of Hartsville's most effective leaders was presented this honor in Columbia on Wednesday, March 12 at what was the most well-attended Townes Award event in the 17-year history of the Award. There were well over 320 people from across the state in attendance. In addition, Dr. Townes flew in from California for this dinner. The evening was a festive occasion as it also celebrated the 20-year existence of the Governor's School in South Carolina.

There was talk during this event about how many people did not believe a statewide school based in a small city like Hartsville would make it. History has proven the naysayers wrong and the GSSM campus continues to expand in Hartsville. Here is a small piece of video of Charles Coker, another Townes recipient, and one of the co-developers of the GSSM concept introducing Harris to the packed house.




the event is put on by the Governor's School Foundation and anyone who was there will tell you it was a great event for both GSSM and for Hartsville.

Harris DeLoach - Business Leader of Year

The South Carolina Chamber of Commerce recently delivered their November 2008 SOUTH CAROLINA BUSINESS magazine. The magazine is crammed with business statistics and business news and stories on people making a difference in South Carolina.

Harris DeLoach has been named the South Carolina 2008 Business Leader of the Year and there is a great portrait (page 52) by photographer Pat Crawford and interesting, readable article about Harris' career. We came to Hartsville very close to the same time back in the early 1970s and I got to know Harris when he was city attorney and I was covering the City news as a reporter for THE HARTSVILLE MESSENGER. My career moved to Sonoco in 1979 and Harris joined the company in a full-time capacity in 1986. He had been doing the legal work for the company since he arrived in Hartsville. He moved from being the lawyer to being a business operator. I worked for Harris when he had a couple of his Sonoco positions and always enjoyed the work. And, he was a major factor in my joining The Byerly Foundation.(disclaimers over)So, from pretty much first-hand knowledge, I can attest that the current chairman and CEO of Sonoco has been involved in a wide variety of activities in the community as well as making a significant difference in the operations he headed at Sonoco. The Business Leader of the Year is well deserved and it would be great if there were a line of people like Harris who were lining up to do work affecting the public good. I don't see enough of those people on the horizon.
The philosophy that I have watched Harris live is embodied in the quote from his commencement speech to Lander University's Class of 2008,which is quoted in the story: "You came to Lander as seekers of knowledge...If you haven't already done so, find a cause you are passionate about. Make a pledge to devote your own personal resources to service projects. Infuse your time, money and energy into building communities and doing good works."

Harris is one of those Leaders (community builders)who understands how much can be accomplished when it does not matter who gets the credit. He understands the need for collaboration, cooperation and commitment. He has been a catalytic force in Hartsville, at Sonoco, in the South Carolina and within industry to push for solutions through those three Cs. He not only understands leadership, he is a leader and the Hartsville community has been better because he chose to move here in back in the early 70s.

I think you will enjoy the story by Stefanie Caraviello if you can find a copy of South Carolina Business pages 52, 54, 55 and 56.