Thirty educators gathered in the Santee Electric Conference Center on Thursday, July 25, 2019 to learn about educational opportunities offered by the co-op. The group represented eighteen schools, all grade levels and each of the four counties in the SEC service territory. This event was the first gathering to give schools the chance to learn about the programs accessible to teachers and students.

“This was so great,” said Adrian Filyaw of Johnsonville Elementary School.  “I was not aware of several of these opportunities and definitely plan to take advantage of them. We’ll also pass on the information we gained today to administration and teachers in other grade levels.”

The teachers and school officials learned of scholarship programs, grant programs and art programs. There was discussion of a graduate course for teachers and free trips for students. Santee Electric, along with all co-ops in the state, sponsor a website full of energy lesson plans and bags of personal items for homeless students. Employees of the cooperative visit classrooms to talk about careers, work experiences and equipment, such as, digger derricks and bucket trucks. Unfortunately, the co-op programs are not always taken advantage of and deserving students have missed out on scholarships and educational experiences. It is the goal of SEC to make certain to spread the word about these programs, so students can benefit as much as possible.        

Santee Electric President and CEO, Rob Ardis replied, “Ensuring that tomorrow's workforce is well educated is critical - for the future employees of Santee Electric Cooperative, specifically, and for the economic development and prosperity of the communities we serve, in general.  For these reasons, we remain committed to our schools - educators, counselors, and students.”

Santee Electric is a cooperative and operates by the 7 Cooperative Principals. Principal # 5 is Education, Training and Information and #7 is Concern for Community. It is this need to educate and concern for community that prompted the co-op to host such an event.