Denmark Tech Students Named Strada Scholars, Attend National Leadership Summit in Dallas

Anthony Muldrow and Darius Jenkins traveled to Dallas last week as students from a rural two-year college serving Bamberg County. They returned as national Strada Scholars, having spent an intensive weekend alongside hundreds of peers from Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Predominantly Black Institutions across the country.

The Strada Education Foundation selected both Denmark Technical College students for the honor through its HBCU Leadership Initiative, a program that pairs scholarship support with immersive leadership training, mentorship, and direct employer engagement. The initiative is structured specifically to bridge the gap between degree completion and employment, a gap that small rural colleges like Denmark Tech face in sharper relief than larger urban institutions with established corporate recruiting pipelines.

President Eric Brown said the program "gives students access to meaningful leadership development and industry engagement," framing the recognition as proof of the talent already inside Denmark Tech's classrooms. Dr. Hadi Hamid, the college's vice president for workforce development and continuing education, also pointed to the initiative's job-readiness function as central to the award's value for students preparing to enter the regional workforce.

Both scholars described a summit that pushed them beyond the academic routine. Muldrow said being selected "gave me the opportunity to grow as a leader and connect with other students who are driven to succeed." Jenkins said the experience "pushed me to think differently about my goals and how to achieve them," and that he left Dallas with practical skills and greater confidence for leadership roles.

That confidence, and those connections, are precisely what Denmark Tech needs its graduates to carry into Bamberg County's labor market. The college serves more than 1,000 learners through workforce-focused programs tied to regional employers, and its ability to document outcomes matters both to prospective students weighing enrollment and to funders deciding where to invest. Denmark Tech has not yet released figures on how many students have previously earned Strada recognition, what the scholarship's dollar value is, or which specific local employers stand to benefit from graduates who complete the program. Those numbers would sharpen the picture considerably and allow the community to hold the partnership accountable as it continues.

What is already clear is that Muldrow and Jenkins reached a national stage that most students from communities this size never access. Whether that exposure translates into careers rooted in Bamberg County, or draws new employer relationships back to Denmark Tech, is the long-term measure of what the Strada initiative is worth here.