Jadin Beek selected as the 2019 Rotary “Service above Self” Scholar

The Rotary Club of Greenville announces that Jadin Gail Beek, a senior at Greenville Technical Charter High School (GTCHS), is the 2019 Rotary “Service Above Self” Scholar. Jadin will graduate from Greenville Technical Charter High School in May. Because of a dual enrollment program, she will receive an Associate of Arts degree from Greenville Technical Honors College as well. At Greenville Technical College, Jadin is a member of Phi Theta Kappa Honors Society.

Jadin’s mentor at Greenville Tech Charter School states that since August 2018, Jadin has completed over 290 hours of community service and 90 hours of service to her church while maintaining a 5.0 average and earning 68 college credits.

The youngest daughter of a Jamaican immigrant and a South Carolina native, Jadin says that she has “had the privilege of experiencing what life is like in seeming similar but inherently different cultures.” She continues, “More than anything my upbringing and personal convictions have guided me into a life of service.”

At Greenville Technical Charter High School, Jadin was founder and president of HOSA: Health Occupations Student Association, 2017-2019. She served as vice-president of the National Honor Society and was a member of the BETA club, where she engaged in Tech with Teens, an initiative to pair teens with the elderly to assist with technical issues such as accessing apps on cell phones and tablets to managing folders on laptops and working with digital cameras.

Other service includes coordinating and chairing a Relay for Life event through the American Heart Association, organizing hurricane relief drives, hosting blood drives for the Blood Connection, assisting with school-wide CPR training, and participating in the Duck Derby for the Rotary Club of Reedy River Greenville.

As a member of the Students in Action Team at GTCHS, the Career Connect Conference was their major project for the year. Attending the conference were over 150 students from marginalized populations and from families for whom they would be first-generation college students. Jadin wrote grants and raised $3000 in funding to bring this three-part career development event to fruition.

During 2018-2019, Jadin interned at the Phoenix Center in Greenville, whose mission is the prevention, treatment, and recovery from substance abuse disorders. As an intern, Jadin helped set up “town halls” for students and planned a community-wide event focusing on the crossroads of mental health and drug addiction. She addressed this initiative to Greenville County City Council and through an opinion editorial with Haley Schmidt in the Greenville News entitled “Student’s event offers ‘Dose of Reality.’” The experience at Phoenix Center helped solidify Jadin’s desire to major in psychology in college.

Jadin says, “My life-long passion for serving others along with a desire to comprehend the inner workings of humanity has cultivated within me a growing desire to further explore a career in the healthcare field. I have found myself particularly interested in psychiatry which would provide me the opportunity to advocate for others in a manner which would be both challenging and rewarding.”

In the fall, Jadin will be joining OneLife, an innovative year of service and learning offered by Southern Wesleyan University. Following that year, she will continue her education at High Point University where she will pursue a degree in Forensic Psychiatry and continue various outlets for community service.

Jadin says service is an “intricate part of who I am, and I have always known that my community service efforts will remain an important part of my life.”

According to the Rotary Club of Greenville Scholarship Committee, Jadin was selected from among the most competitive applications ever reviewed for the Rotary “Service above Self” Scholarship! Congratulations to Jadin Beek who is the 2019 Rotary “Service above Self” Scholar from the Rotary Club of Greenville!