National Endowment of the Arts - The Big Read

Benedict College

Benedict College
1600 Harden Street
Columbia, SC 29204
Tel: 803/705-4653
Fax: 803/705-6648
www.benedict.edu

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Organizational Description: Benedict College, located in downtown Columbia, South Carolina, serves more than 2,700 students and is tangential to congressional districts 6 and 2 with access to populations in Calhoun, Aiken, Lexington, and Barnwell counties. Benedict is the fourth largest private HBCU (Historically Black College or University) in the United States and has produced over 15,000 graduates. The College is one of the top producers of African American physics majors in the country, as reported by the Education and Employment Statistic Division of the American Institute of Physics.

Program Description: The School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences and The School of Education at Benedict College are working in partnership with its Benjamin Payton Library and Resource Center, the Office of Senator Lindsey O. Graham, designated public schools, Columbia Museum of Art, Richland County Public Library, the Reserved Officers Training Corps, First Nazareth Baptist Church, and local media to launch the city's first Big Read. Using Ernest Gaines' A Lesson Before Dying as its center for engagement, the Benedict Big Read project will launch a citywide essay contest, panel analysis, dramatization, and other interdisciplinary activities to encourage community reading, discussion, and interaction.