Teacher Clavis Anderson shows her gifted and talented students at Joseph Keels Elementary School in Columbia that growing up poor, black and fatherless-as she did-need not prevent them from reaching their dreams. She created the Joseph Keels Saturday Academy, a 14-week intensive program for at-risk fourth- and fifth-graders, incorporating reading, writing, physical education, drama, dance and service learning. She also originated the Keels Players Drama Club, which helps students develop self-discipline and oral communication skills as they stage two dramatic productions each year. Mrs. Anderson is the chairperson of the Richland School District Two Teacher Forum, and is on the conference committee of the South Carolina Alliance of Black School Educators.
1984 Francis Marion University, B.A.
