Columbia, SC— Dreher High School senior Joseph Duffield represented Richland County at the 2013 Conservation Districts Youth Workshop held at Lander University in June and was awarded a $500 college scholarship by the SC Soil and Water Conservation Society for his outstanding performance on workshop assessments.
Joseph is passionate about issues involving food access, social justice, and environmental reform. “Environmental issues have always been a part of the background for my generation, but they didn’t sink deeply until I took AP Biology with an awesome teacher [Ms. Judi Ray, Dreher High School],” Joseph says. A voracious reader, he points to the wisdom of the conservation message in Pearl S. Buck’s The Good Earth: “people can’t get too far away from their food source, from the land, without losing something,” he says.
Joseph loves music and plays several instruments, enjoys writing, and participates in the Latin Club and Mock Trial at Dreher. He looks forward to competing in the Envirothon next spring and is eager to pursue a broad course of study in college, combining his interests in the humanities and the sciences by double-majoring. He also plans to pursue a law degree.
The SC Conservation Districts Youth Workshop is a cooperative project of the 46 Conservation Districts of SC, the SC Association of Conservation Districts, Lander University, the SC Conservation Districts Foundation, and the SC Department of Natural Resources. Since its inception in 1967, over $80,000 in college scholarships have been awarded during camp week. Students interested in participating in the 2014 Youth Workshop should contact their local Conservation District for sponsorship.
For more information, contact Chanda Cooper at cooperc@rcgov.us or (803) 576-2080.
# # #
Conservation districts are political subdivisions of state government under the local direction of five-member Boards of Commissioners. The Richland Soil and Water Conservation District promotes the wise use and care of natural resources for the benefit of the citizens of Richland County.