Dominion Energy & SCDE Accepting Entries for Student Essay Contest

Junior and senior high school students in South Carolina are invited to participate in Dominion Energy and the South Carolina Department of Education’s (SCDE) fifth annual Strong Men & Women in S.C. History essay contest. Winners will receive an Apple MacBook Air and $1,000 for their school or home-schooling association. The program builds on SCDE’s longstanding South Carolina African American History Calendar, which honors prominent African Americans in the state who have made noteworthy contributions. 
 
About The Contest:

• Deadline for entries is March 27. 
• Judging will take place April 1 – April 19. 
• Winners will be notified in late April. 

Entrants must be a high school junior or senior at a public or private high school in South Carolina. Home-schoolers with an active, dues-paying membership to a home-schooling association are also eligible. The $1,000 school award can be applied to a home-schooling association. Learn more and enter the essay contest by visiting the South Carolina African American History Calendar website.

Dominion Energy employee volunteers and a panel of teachers will serve as judges and choose a winning essay from each of South Carolina’s five regions: Midlands, Upstate, Lowcountry, Pee Dee, and Central Savannah River Area (CSRA).
 
This Year’s Theme: 
This year’s essay is inspired by the legacy of African American Revolutionary War patriots such as Oscar Marion, Thomas Carney, Gideon Gibson, Antigua Meet, Andrew Ferguson, and Jim Capers, as well as influential South Carolinians including Robert Smalls, Septima Poinsette Clark, Esau Jenkins, Henry McNeal Turner, Mary McLeod Bethune, and Benjamin Mays.
 
Their courage, leadership, and commitment to education and freedom have shaped the course of history in South Carolina and beyond. Students are asked to write about an African American person from South Carolina who has positively impacted their educational journey while emphasizing one or several of the six key purposes as written in the Preamble of the Constitution: form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty.
 
Winning students will have the opportunity to participate in the 2027 African American History Calendar unveiling ceremony. Their essays will also be showcased on the Dominion Energy and South Carolina African American History Calendar websites.
 
What They’re Saying: 
“The South Carolina Department of Education is thrilled to continue our partnership with Dominion Energy in this initiative,” said State Superintendent of Education Ellen Weaver. “These remarkable South Carolinians—Revolutionary War patriots and modern leaders alike—changed our nation for the better. We look forward to reading the stories of those who keep their legacies alive by inspiring, challenging, and guiding our young writers.”
 
“Each year, our partnership with the South Carolina Department of Education gives voice to a new generation of student leaders as they honor the spirit of our state’s most celebrated visionaries from generations past,” said Dominion Energy South Carolina President Keller Kissam. “We commemorate the heroic resolve of these historic icons as we look forward to a brighter future for our students and our great state.”
 
About the South Carolina African American History Calendar: 
For nearly four decades, the South Carolina Department of Education and its statewide partners have produced the South Carolina African American History Calendar. Created to bolster the state’s K-12 African American history curriculum, the calendar profiles individuals who have had positive, compelling impacts on South Carolina and, often, our entire nation.
 
About Dominion Energy: 
Dominion Energy (NYSE: D), headquartered in Richmond, Va., provides regulated electricity service to 3.6 million homes and businesses in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, and regulated natural gas service to 500,000 customers in South Carolina. The company is one of the nation’s leading developers and operators of regulated offshore wind and solar power and the largest producer of carbon-free electricity in New England. The company’s mission is to provide the reliable, affordable, and increasingly clean energy that powers its customers every day. Please visit DominionEnergy.com to learn more.