News Releases

Fans of Lander University, Clemson University and the University of South Carolina will have the opportunity to show their school spirit while enjoying some creative topiaries at the South Carolina Festival of Flowers’ Topiary & College Team Fan Day.

Lander University graduate Cassie Biron of Greenwood did a lot of traveling as a member of a military family, and she will soon be on the road again to a new destination as a Peace Corps volunteer. Biron is headed for the Kingdom of Lesotho, a landlocked enclave tucked within the borders of South Africa. It is a poor nation whose per capita income is below the international poverty level. Its inhabitants have a life expectancy of 40 years with an HIV/AIDS rate of more than 23 percent.

Will Smith, a fourth-grader at Westwood Elementary in Abbeville and ball boy for the Lander University men’s basketball team, hasn’t let a difficult start in life slow him down. He became ball boy last August, after participating in his second “Shoot for the Stars” basketball camp of the summer, where he won the “Hustle Award” two times.

Five students were honored recently when Lander University's William Preston Turner Department of Nursing held its annual Nursing Recognition Ceremony as a prelude to the university's May graduation.

In 2008, then Lander nursing major Meghan Diane Hawley of Orangeburg was diagnosed with cancer and would have to undergo treatment. As medical expenses began to mount, Hawley's classmates and faculty members at Lander rallied to her aid, raising thousands of dollars and even supplying her with a hospital survival kit filled with snacks, drinks and other essentials for recovery.

The Lander Magazine is a publication distributed primarily to alumni, donors and friends of the university to inform them of recent Lander activities and the accomplishments of faculty, staff, students and alumni. Started in 1972, the magazine is produced with diligent consideration by the Office of University Relations two times each year, with issues in spring and fall.

An army major, a recognized hospice care expert and the manager of Lander’s newest athletic facility are the 2011 recipients of the Lander Alumni Association’s top awards. The honorees are Major Cory Plowden, a 17-year South Carolina National Guard and U.S. Army veteran; Nancy Boyter Corley, chief executive officer of HospiceCare of the Piedmont in Greenwood; and Steve Grogan, Lander’s assistant athletic director and manager of the Jeff May Complex.

Lander University President Dr. Daniel Ball, center, congratulates the recipients of the university's 11th annual staff excellence awards: Jeff Beaver, left, Lander physical plant director; and Tom Covar, Lander’s budget director and controller.

This semester nine Lander University students and two faculty members attended the South Carolina Council for Exceptional Children Conference in Myrtle Beach. Students held fundraisers to collect money to cover hotel costs and expenses related to the conference. During the conference several of these students and some Lander teaching education alumni made presentations, and received awards and scholarships.

Margaret Young Bennett, a 1997 graduate of Lander University, has won a WYFF-TV Golden Apple Award for excellence in teaching. The television segment that aired in January shows Bennett working with 8-year-old Macy Storm, a special education student assigned to Bennett’s second-grade class at Lake Forest Elementary School in Greenville. Bennett was nominated by Macy’s parents, who appreciated her efforts to reach Macy and make her feel a part of the class.