The AMHS Foundation and Partners in Education (or P.I.E) are launching their 2016 Thanks4Giving campaign. It is through their campaign that they will reach out to their Magnet families and ask them to partner with them in an effort to raise money for our school and its programs.

P.I.E. is a parent-teacher-student association at AMHS. The nonprofit is governed by a budget, by-laws, and board of directors. They are partnered with the AMHS Foundation, which seeks to deliver a rigorous curriculum, state-of-the-art facilities and an engaging, committed faculty to foster love of scholarship, leadership and social responsibility. Together they aim to provide intermediate and long-term financial and support needs.

One of the foundation’s most impressive contributions to Academic Magnet is the Philosophy Class taught by Professor Todd Grantham from the College of Charleston. The class will be offered for college credit 2nd semester.
I recently sat down with two of the seniors who were original members of the Philosophy club, to talk with them about the only High school Philosophy class in the state.

I sat down first with Haywood White, one of philosophy’s biggest enthusiasts. When asked what prompted him to bring a philosophy class to Magnet, Haywood replied with, “I wanted to force people to address the important questions of life that they are rarely confronted with in the standard curriculum.” He claims that the focus of the class this year will be “to acquire stronger foundations in the fundamentals of philosophy and find interest in new fields.”

Then I interviewed the lovely, Olive Gardner. Olive claims that “Haywood’s philosophy class (that started as a club) got me interested in this area of study.” According to her, the philosophy class not only prides itself on the basis of expanding intellectual thought, but it also gives students an outlet to explore ideas from all angles and perspectives.
Haywood and Olive plan to major in economics and public policy, respectively.

Both Haywood and Olive credited the class’s success to Professor Grantham from the College of Charleston, and most importantly, the AMHS Foundation and P.I.E. Without the hard work from them, this opportunity for students like Olive and Haywood, who are passionate about Philosophy would not have been possible.