SC Whitmore School Names Christine Featherstone 2023 Staff Member of the Year

Press Release

Columbia, SC – SC Whitmore School (SCWS), a statewide online public charter high school, has named Attendance Specialist, Christine Featherstone as its 2023 Staff Member of the Year. 

Featherstone’s desire to help others started in high school. “I’ve always had a passion for helping others. I played “school” quite a bit as a child and spent my free time in high school helping out at my old elementary school, our schools were all one large building, which made it easier,” said Featherstone.

She attended Indiana University and Midlands Technical College. “In college, I realized that teaching wasn’t exactly what I wanted to do, but I think I’ve found the perfect fit in school office work, said Featherstone. “I love data and record keeping but my job also gives me a good balance of working with our students and families. It’s the best of both worlds.”

Featherstone joined the SCWS staff in August of 2022, after taking ten years to stay home and raise her daughters.

“Christine has taken on the weight of one of the most challenging aspects of our school and she continues to do a phenomenal job,” said Eboné Adams, SC Whitmore School Principal. “She quickly developed positive relationships with faculty, staff and students and their families which is extremely important. Christine has so much compassion for our students in difficult circumstances and she makes it her goal to ensure students have the resources and support to make progress and achieve success.”

“I am very detail-oriented, sometimes to a fault,” said Featherstone. “I try very hard to reply to every email, phone call, and text that comes my way. There is nothing worse than never knowing if someone got your message, so I believe taking that extra few seconds to send a quick reply is very important.”

In a virtual school, building relationships can bring its own set of challenges, but Featherstone makes an intentional effort to connect with the SCWS community. “What you see is what you get with me, said Featherstone. “I enjoy being candid with our families and just offering a shoulder or an ear. Sometimes that is all someone needs: just knowing someone else cares, even if it’s only for a few minutes.”

The SC Whitmore School Staff of the Year Award was a nice surprise and brings Featherstone great joy. “I truly, truly LOVE what I do at SC Whitmore School, said Featherstone. “I tell our students all the time that I will be front and center on Graduation Day, cheering them on. It takes a village, and I am so blessed to be even a tiny part of some of these villages. Thank YOU for letting me be a part of that!”

Christine Featherstone has been an incredible addition to our team,” said Kim Dunbar, SC Whitmore School Executive Director. “Her positive attitude and problem solving mentality has been not only a support to students but to faculty and staff as well. She truly wants each student to be successful and is an amazing support to help them reach their goals. She is a pleasure to work with and absolutely deserves this recognition.”

Featherstone’s advice to all people is, Just keep swimming! Everyone has hard days, that’s life. Take your morning or evening and mope or cry or do whatever, but then you splash some cold water on your face and get to work. YOU CAN DO HARD THINGS!

If you are interested in learning more about the SC Whitmore School, please visit us online at scwhitmoreschool.org.

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