My two years, during 11th and 12th grade, at Thornwell Home and School for Children (now just Thornwell Home for Children) had a huge impact on my life. Much of why I’m the kind of person I am now is due to Thornwell. Thornwell is a private, church-operated (Presbyterian Church USA aka PCUSA) children’s home in Clinton, SC.

Children from North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida call Thornwell home. During my time there, we had our own K-12 private school. Children living at the “home”, as we called it, attended the school free of charge. Families in the surrounding communities would pay tuition for their children to attend Thornwell.

Looking back, one of the great things about Thornwell was its small size. My senior class only had 24 students, and the rest of the grades were similar in size. Because of the small size, not only did we get personal attention, but many of us also were able to be on sports teams and/or participate in other school organizations and clubs.

I played clarinet in the band, had private clarinet, piano, and voice lessons, was on the track team (briefly), was a two sport letterman as a varsity cheerleader and basketball player, and was in the Key Club as well as on the quiz bowl team. Most of those activities would not have been possible had I not been at Thornwell, and in a large public school instead.

And, because there was a PCUSA college, Presbyterian College, across the street from us (founded 5 years after Thornwell, by William Plumer Jacobs, the same man who founded Thornwell) – I was exposed to college up close and personal, as well as cultural events like a reading by Nikki Giovani.

Thornwell students were welcome on the campus of PC, and were included in some of the college’s student activities. I auditioned for a role in one of the 8 one act plays that senior theater majors were directing as finals projects, and was cast in a major role! PC was a school with a lot of engaged students, and so many of them would turn out to audition for the plays that the auditions were known as Slugfest!

That was a fantastic experience that I will never forget. That was in 1989… I still have my I Survived Slugfest / One-Act Plays 1989 t-shirt. I don’t come anywhere near fitting it anymore, but I keep it as a keepsake, LOL. Presbyterian College was, and still is, a competitive college to get into. Upon my graduation from high school, I didn’t have the GPA or the SAT score to be accepted, but I applied for my sophomore year of college and was accepted. The price tag scared me off and I didn’t go, though.

Thornwell has a very special place in my heart. In another post I’ll detail ways that anyone reading this can support Thornwell and its children.