Community Leader Extends the Gift of Inspiration to Generations of Change Agents
A unique scholarship program at the College of Charleston is helping a group of high-achieving young women develop leadership skills and to advocate for important community causes and social issues.
A unique scholarship program at the College of Charleston is helping a group of high-achieving young women develop leadership skills and to advocate for important community causes and social issues.
Established by businesswoman, community leader and philanthropist Linda Ketner, the Ketner Emerging Leaders Scholarships provide financial assistance to students interested in women’s and gender studies as well as social justice, public service and civil leadership.
Ketner hopes to inspire students to become agents of change through public service and community engagement, just as she has done throughout her career. Ketner, president of KSI Corporation and a Democratic candidate for Congress in 2008, has served as board president of the Coastal Community Foundation and One-Eighty Place (formerly Crisis Ministries). In addition to serving as founder and chair of the Mayor’s Council on Homelessness and Affordable Housing and the S.C. Housing Trust Fund, she is a co-founder of S.C. Citizens for Housing and founder and past president of the Alliance for Full Acceptance and the S.C. Equality Coalition. Ketner is a former member of the College’s women’s and gender studies program advisory board and currently serves on the President’s Community Advisory Board.
“Good ideas really are a dime a dozen. Much more rare and of value are individuals who take action to implement good ideas. My hope is that the scholarships reward and encourage students who think deeply, think long-term, think inclusively and then take action on behalf of a better community, state and world.”
- Linda Ketne
“I hope the Ketner Scholars will not simply volunteer, but be change agents,” Ketner says. “Good ideas really are a dime a dozen. Much more rare and of value are individuals who take action to implement good ideas. My hope is that the scholarships reward and encourage students who think deeply, think long-term, think inclusively and then take action on behalf of a better community, state and world.”
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