Mount Pleasant Magazine Fall 2011

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2010 National Secondary School
Principal of the Year, Lucy Beckham
has served as principal at Wando
High School since 1998.
| | www.MountPleasantNei 42
In education,
bigger isn’t always better.
Under different circum-
stances, South Carolina’s
largest secondary school
could have posed a fright-
ening and unenlightening
experience for some students and a
bureaucratic nightmare for admin-
istrators, teachers and guidance coun-
selors seeking to nurture the dreams
and aspirations of more than 3,400
individuals, each with unique plans
for life after Wando High School.
Under the leadership of longtime
Principal Lucy Beckham, Wando
has instead garnered statewide and
national attention for academic
excellence, athletic achievement, a
wide range of extracurricular activi-
ties and challenging course work
in diversified subjects ranging from
architecture to hospitality manage-
ment to aerospace engineering, all
aimed at preparing each student to
thrive in an ever-changing world.
Beckham, who took the reins
of the school in 1998 when it was
located on Mathis Ferry Road and
now supervises the sprawling cam-
Meetthe PrIncIPals
ofWando hIgh school,
carIo MIddle school &
WhItesIdes
eleMentary
Back
schoolto
with photography by Brian Sherman and Joel Cardwell
stories by
Brian Sherman
leading from thetop
Wando hIgh school
photo by Joel Cardwell