A high school student and two organizations were honored by the University of South Carolina and the state’s library community Tuesday, Sept. 13, for their work to improve literacy in South Carolina.

The fifth annual presentation of Annual Literacy Leaders (ALL) Awards was hosted by USC’s School of Library and Information Science and Time Warner at the S.C. State Library, with USC alumna Darci Strickland as emcee.

This year’s recipients are the Spartanburg County Public Libraries' Children's Department for its "Real Mommies Read" program, Junior Achievement of Central S.C. and 17 year-old Sarah Katherine DeVenny of Lancaster.

The Spartanburg County Public Libraries' program encourages teen mothers to develop their informational literacy as well as the literacy of their babies. It is funded by the Mary Black Foundation.

Junior Achievement was hailed for its work teaching students about financial literacy, work readiness and entrepreneurship.

DeVenny was honored for having developed and implemented a sustainable literacy project with community organizations in Lancaster. Her efforts included the launch of a family reading night and a book fair. She also worked with organizations to build bookcases, which were placed in a school, a food bank, a homeless shelter and literacy cooperative.

 Excerpts from the Awards Ceremony

University Provost Michael Amiridis and Dean Charles Bierbauer spoke at the ceremony, and introduced Dr. Michelle Martin, USC’s inaugural Augusta Baker Chair in Childhood Literacy, who joined the university’s faculty this fall.

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