COASTAL OBSERVER

Ten students at Andrews High School are enrolled in an agricultural science class this semester.

But it’s not an ordinary class. It is the start of the Black River Educational Initiative, a program that uses outdoor, non-traditional curriculum to introduce students to careers in parks, agriculture, sustainability and eco-tourism.

“We’re really excited about it,” principal Toshawnka Mahone said. “The feedback and the excitement from it has been excellent.”

The initiative grew out of focus groups the town of Andrews put together to work on master planning for downtown. 

Another focus group was given the question “If money were no object, what would you do?”

The Open Space Institute is a partner in the initiative, along with the Black River Cypress Preserve, the state Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, and the Rebecca C. Parsons Foundation.

Erin Pate, development and outreach manager for the Open Space Institute, said Mahone was the driving force behind getting the initiative started.

“That’s how the idea was born,” Pate said. “It was Miss Mahone that had the spark. Maybe she had already thought about it.”

“I gave them what I would like to see happen,” Mahone said.

Mahone didn’t want more than 10 students in this semester’s class.

“We kept it small intentionally so we can see how it goes,” she said.

Along with classroom time, field trips are planned to the Black River Cypress Preserve and Brookgreen Gardens.

The initiative is expected to tie in with Black River Water Trail and Park Network and a new state park that will connect seven existing and five new parks in Georgetown and Williamsburg counties. It is the first state park created in nearly 20 years and is expected to have close to 150,000 visitors each year by 2030.

Pate and Mahone both said the director of state parks and the director of education for the state parks system support the initiative.

Mahone thinks the state park can provide jobs for her students while they’re still in high school.

“They need someplace to work during the summer,” she said.

Superintendent Bethany Giles sees the initiative as a way to provide pathways for students to thrive beyond high school.

“Natural resources are abundant in our community, and students develop a passion for those resources at early ages,” Giles said. “This initiative taps into that passion by providing an avenue for students to be equipped with knowledge skills, and experiences that will help them to be college and/or career ready.”

The next step for Mahone is to ask the school board for money to hire another teacher for the next school year to expand the program. If that happens, she will look into adding fishing and clay shooting to the school’s sports lineup. 

Those two activities would be would be “perfect” for her students, Mahone said.

“A lot of our kids are already fishers and hunters,” she added.

Mahone would like to see the initiative eventually become a “flagship” program for the district.

“My hope is it evolves and attracts kids from all over the county,” she said.

Although she would welcome an influx of students from outside of Andrews, “my heart is always on my Andrews babies,” Mahone said.