An abundance of blessings: Meet Abigail McGillis, the 2023 SCICU’s student of the year
Trinity Adams, Staff Writer
Imagine checking your student account statement and finding a scholarship that you never knew was yours. Senior elementary education major Abigail McGillis experienced just this at the beginning of the school year.
McGillis is the recipient of the 2023 McLean-Smith South Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities (SCICU) Student of the Year Award. She was shocked to find out that she received the award because the previous winners of the awards were mainly S.T.E.M. and business majors.
She said, “I researched the award further and saw that many of the previous applicants were more neuroscience majors–more to the stem type things. I did my best. I wasn’t really expecting to get it. I was honored to be nominated, but I wasn’t expecting to win.”
The SCICU organization partners with the 21 private colleges in South Carolina to provide scholarships for the schools and students.
Their mission statement is “to strengthen South Carolina’s independent colleges and universities through collaboration, governmental advocacy, fundraising and public engagement.”
In order to become a nominee, a student from each department at a specific school is chosen. Then the student is required to gather references, write an essay and complete an application. Once these items are turned in, a student is to represent their school and a winner will be chosen.
McGillis was first made aware of the award when she received an email from Melissa Cruver, education chair of NGU, saying she was the education department’s nominee this year. Two weeks later, Director of the Institute for Transformational Leadership Nathan Finn informed her that she was NGU’s representative for the award.
McGillis’ father was in the Air Force and lived mainly around the Southeast. The McGillis family moved to Columbia, South Carolina, when she was 16, much to her dismay.
“I was really mad about it at first. I really didn’t want to move, but there were so many opportunities in South Carolina that I never would have received elsewhere so it was really cool to see God’s providence,” she said.
McGillis might not have realized that this move would be the catalyst for her future and all she wanted to accomplish for the Lord. Looking back she was in awe of the things that the Lord had done that had brought her to this time in her life.
She is very grateful and excited to be representing NGU at the SCICU’s Board of Trustees meeting, where she will be physically given the Student of the Year Award.
McGillis has been student teaching for third and fourth grade during her teaching placement this year. After graduating in the spring, she wishes to stay in the upstate. She wants to eventually obtain a masters in educational leadership and a doctorate in classical education.
McGillis’s end goal is to open a private school for classical education so she can continue to give back to the community and the state of South Carolina.
