25-04-2025
Exchange Club of Columbia County awards 6 seniors with scholarships
COLUMBIA COUNTY, Ga (WJBF)- Several local high school seniors rewarded for their hard work by the Exchange Club of Columbia County Thursday. The organization awarded scholarships at its annual breakfast.
'Anything that we can do to help these students go and further their education. When you hear these students and see them, they are amazing and the things that they are going to do in our community are just incredible. And so we want to support them in every way that we can,' said Phyllis Salazar, President of the Exchange Club of Columbia County.
Every year the Exchange Club of Columbia County gives scholarships to 6 seniors.
Salazar added that she's always impressed by the applicants and their achievements.
'These kids excel in their educational pursuits. I mean, these are top students, and yet they're also volunteering. They are giving so much back to the community. They're just involved in so many things. And it's just incredible.'
One senior from each Columbia County high school is awarded a Career, Technical, and Agriculture Education (CTAE) scholarship towards their next steps.
This year's winners include Thomas Murilla-Bivins from Evans High School, Adelyn Swogger from Greenbrier, Kashiya Moore from Grovetown high, Claire Duffie from Harlem and Campbell Harison from Lakeside.
One student is awarded the 'Accepting the Challenge of Excellence' scholarship for overcoming major hardships. This year, the award went to Ella Cassedy from Harlem High School, who battled and beat cancer.
'It was after seven months of waking up in the middle night with tremendous jaw pain that medicine couldn't help. We ended up going– after going to like dentist to dentist, we went to the Dental College of Georgia, and they ended up biopsying the area and sent us back over to the Children's Hospital where we then found out that it was leukemia,' she said.
Cassedy spent most of her freshman year at harlem homebound, completing her schoolwork while going through chemo treatments. Despite losing her hair and weakness from treatment she went back to school, even making the cheer team. She said the support she received from her classmates meant everything.
'I experienced a lot of support, which I was just shocked from the amount of people I didn't even know coming up in support of me, whether it be like through a meal train or giving gift cards or money. It was just crazy, you know, support that I had.'
Cassedy will attend Augusta University after graduation and major in Biology. Then she hopes to move on the the Dental College of Georgia and work towards becoming a dentist. It's a dream inspired by her journey fighting cancer.
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