Thousands of dollars in scholarships awarded to South Carolina HBCUs

SANTEE, S.C. (WCSC) - Dozens of students at the eight Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the state will receive tens of thousands of dollars in scholarship money as part of Congressman Jim E. Clyburn’s efforts to make sure everyone in the state has access to an education.

University officials and supporters gave praise to the congressman at the Emily E. Clyburn Memorial Brunch in Santee, named in honor of Clyburn’s late wife. Claflin University, Benedict College and South Carolina State all announced they would give a two to one match for every scholarship recipient, with Clemson University giving out a six to one match.

Clyburn says every student will also receive a laptop and software package from Microsoft on top of the money.

“A lot of students these days find it a little difficult to get that required laptop for their studies,” Clyburn said.

When asked how he feels about the Supreme Court’s recent decision on blocking President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness program, Clyburn says there’s four or five of those programs going. The Supreme Court only blocked one of them.

“When you start looking at what the Supreme Court did, you should not ascribe that to everything because we still have other programs going,” Clyburn said. “And the president has found a workaround.”

On Monday, Clyburn will visit Claflin University to present a check for over $17.4 million from the U.S. Department of Commerce and the National Institute of Standards and Technology to build an Innovation Center for Computer Science and Biotechnology.

This will be the first HBCU to receive support from the NIST construction fund. That event will begin at 11:30 a.m. at the Tingley Memorial Hall.

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