Denmark Tech nursing students serve Blackville residents at Healthy Me Healthy SC event

Blackville residents who came to the Blackville-Hilda High School Gym on Atkins Circle found more than a community gathering. They received fresh produce boxes and direct help from Denmark Technical College nursing students at the Healthy Me Healthy SC event, a small but practical example of health access reaching beyond campus walls.

Healthy Me Healthy SC organizers said the event included 100 FoodShare Bamberg fresh produce boxes for distribution, giving families a concrete food resource alongside the presence of future nurses. Denmark Technical College students were there to aid citizens, putting the college’s School of Nursing in front of the public in a setting where basic health information and community support matter as much as classroom training.

Tia Wright-Richards highlighted the college’s involvement, and the appearance fit a mission Denmark Tech says is central to its health sciences work. The college says its Health Science Department is focused on addressing health and wellness needs in surrounding communities and reducing health disparities. Its practical nursing program is built to prepare professional practical nurses who can meet the healthcare needs of their community, and the School of Nursing is designed to train students for community health settings across the region.

That regional focus matters in Blackville and in the nearby counties Denmark Tech already serves through its Workforce Development Division, including Allendale, Bamberg and Barnwell. For residents who do not always have easy access to routine care, events like this can be one of the few times they connect face-to-face with health trainees and community organizers in a familiar place.

The program behind those students is structured for that kind of work. Denmark Tech’s Practical Nursing Diploma Program is a three-term, cohort-based program, and students are admitted once a year in the fall semester. The college, a historically Black two-year technical college in Bamberg County, was authorized by the South Carolina General Assembly in 1947 and began operation on March 1, 1948.

The Blackville appearance also comes as the college points to recent nursing outcomes. Denmark Tech said all 12 members of its 2024 graduating practical nursing cohort passed the PN-NCLEX licensure exam. The college also said 13 nursing students graduated at its 2024 pinning ceremony, followed by 20 graduates in 2025. In Blackville, that training was not just measured in classroom success but in who showed up, what they handed out and how the college connected its nursing pipeline to a real local need.