Presbyterian College students volunteer at Benjamin E. Mays preservation site

Presbyterian College students volunteer at Benjamin E. Mays preservation site

Presbyterian College students volunteer at Benjamin E. Mays preservation site

From left: Hayley Potter, Erika Gotfredson, Kate Green, Svenja Walschburger, Martie Hiott, Devron Glenn, Chris Parnell

On Saturday, April 16, students from both the history club and Sigma Kappa Alpha, Presbyterian College’s academic honor society, volunteered at the Benjamin E. Mays preservation site in Greenwood, S.C.

Dr. Stefan Wiecki, associate professor of history, is heavily involved with the site, especially with its attempt to procure the funds for a statue of Mays, and helped to facilitate the service project. During the project, students not only worked in the cotton fields located on-site but also had the opportunity to tour the site and share lunch with the site’s curator.

Benjamin E. Mays was an activist and a Baptist minister who lived from 1894-1984. He grew up in Epworth, SC. Mays had a huge impact on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. while he served as the president of Morehouse College in Atlanta, and he came to be an inspiration for the Civil Rights movement.

“Volunteering at the Benjamin E. Mays site was an eye-opening experience. I did not realize how important and influential Mays was to Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement,” said Hayley Potter, a senior history major. “By volunteering we not only had the chance to learn about the life and work of Mays but also to live out PC motto, ‘While We Live, We Serve.’”

About his involvement with the historic site, Wiecki said, “I greatly enjoyed taking PC students to the Benjamin E. Mays historic site in Greenwood so that they could learn about the amazing life of Dr. Mays who rose from the son of formerly enslaved parents to become the President of Morehouse College.”

“By working in the cotton fields near the house that Dr. Mays grew up in, the students experienced how African-American sharecroppers used to live in South Carolina,” Wiecki added. “I could not think of a more engaging service project that fits the mission of PC so perfectly.”

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Presbyterian College is located on a striking 240-acre campus in Clinton, between Columbia and Greenville, S.C. Offering challenging academics and a culture of honor, ethics, and service that prepares students to be leaders in communities, PC offers its students the benefit of engaging with an exceptional faculty who take individual interest in their students’ well-being, both personally and in the classroom. The Presbyterian College School of Pharmacy opened in 2010, and is dedicated to the ideals of leadership, honor to the profession, and service to the community. For more information about Presbyterian College, visit www.presby.edu.

Written by Erika Gotfredson, a senior English major from Berkeley Lake, Ga.