The Staff of the South Carolina Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy invites you to the

2008 Summer Institute

Moving Mountains:
Creating Change through Leadership and Innovation

June 17-20, 2008

Hyatt Regency Greenville
220 North Main Street
Greenville, SC 29601

View the complete conference brochure (pdf)
Online Registration is now available.

Closing Keynote Speaker: Victoria Rowell

The South Carolina Campaign is pleased to announce that Victoria Rowell will close the 2008 Summer Institute! Victoria Rowell has achieved success on television in The Young and the Restless and Diagnosis Murder, and in films such as Eve's Bayou. Raised in foster care, she credits her success to the foster families that instilled in her the confidence and drive to succeed.

Rowell is also a classically trained ballet dancer who believes in the influence artistic expression has on children. Passionately involved in many charities, she remains true to her most important cause of advocating for foster children and issuing tribute to those who support the foster care system. Determined to help foster children who would otherwise not have a chance to reach their full potential, Rowell founded The Foster Children's Positive Plan, a scholarship fund helping foster children thrive through fine arts classes, sports camps, and cultural enrichment. Embracing her role as a national spokesperson for the Annie E. Casey Foundation's direct service arm, Casey Family Services, she is also dedicated to fostering the future for all children.

With focus and passion, Rowell works to change the perceptions about foster care and draws attention to the plight of foster children. As a foster care success story, she offers a message of hope to both children and adults, encouraging them to succeed no matter how trying the journey along the way.

Rowell has written a book and developed a documentary dedicated to the role models in her life. Both her book, The Women Who Raised Me, and her documentary, The Mentor, talk about the important people in her life who have helped her achieve her successes.

Keynote Speaker: Laura Sessions Stepp

Laura Sessions Stepp is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist specializing in the coverage of young people and sexuality for The Washington Post. She has written about children and families for more than 15 years and is a frequent public speaker around the country. Her work has appeared in publications such as Parent, Child, Working Mother, Reader's Digest, Cosmopolitan and Nieman Reports of Harvard University. She also has appeared on numerous TV shows including The Today Show and Nightline. She served as a member of the U.S. Surgeon General's Healthy People 2000 Panel on Adolescence and sits on the board of advisors of the Casey Journalism Center for Children and Families at the University of Maryland. From 1996-98 and 2002-2004, Ms. Stepp was a visiting scholar at the Board on Children, Youth and Families, a program of the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. She is author of UNHOOKED: How Young Women Pursue Sex, Delay Love, and Lose at Both. She is married and has three grown children.

Keynote Speaker: Leonard Pitts, Jr.

Leonard Pitts, Jr. joined The Miami Herald in 1991 as its pop music critic. He is one of the most emotionally engaging columnists writing today. The Washington, D.C.-based columnist speaks to America with an uncommonly rich and resonant voice. He offers candid opinions on culture, race, families, relationships and the politics of the human condition. His most recent book, Becoming Dad: Black Men and the Journey to Fatherhood, was released in May, 1999.

Mr. Pitts lives in Bowie, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D. C., with his wife and five children.

Keynote Speaker: Coach Ken Carter

Coach, Author, Educator and Inspiration for the Film Coach Carter. Average is Just Not Good Enough, PERIOD!

When famed high school basketball coach Ken Carter literally locked his undefeated, state play- off bound team out of the gym and forced them to hit the books and stop counting on athletic potential as the only ticket out of a tough, inner city life, he sent a powerful message. The film, Coach Carter, based on the lock-out and starring Samuel L. Jackson as the Coach, is just one more testimony to the strength of his convictions. At the podium, Coach Carter scores with hard-hitting advice about accountability, integrity, teamwork and leadership to succeed both on and off the basketball court.

A successful businessman when he accepted the head basketball coach position at Richmond High School (Richmond, CA) in 1997, Carter had a monumental task at hand. The students were failing academically at an alarming rate, and the athletic programs were in a pathetic state. Within two years, he had virtually single-handedly turned around the school, physically cleaning up (trash, graffiti, drug dealers), and also mentally cleaning house as well. A contract which each player and his parents signed spelled out crucial rules of conduct: treat others with respect; shun drugs and alcohol; sit in the front of class and participate; wear suit and tie on game day; and maintain a minimum of a 2.3 GPA. And when not all of the players lived up to these obligations, the play-off bound, undefeated Richmond Oilers (13-0)--including Carter's own son, Damien--were locked out of the gym and pulled from any basketball-related activities to learn how to "...rise as a team." Academically solid players tutored weaker ones, and the whole team improved their GPAs. Most importantly, these inner city students ultimately returned not just to the court, but to a new standard of winning, one which transcended the hoop dreams of high school, to college educations and futures they might never have imagined for themselves.

In addition to coaching SlamBall's champion team, The Rumble, Carter is owner/operator of Prime Time Publishing, Prime Time Sports, and is an author. He is also founder and chairman of the Coach Ken Carter Foundation, a non profit organization which develops, promotes and provides education, training and mentoring programs for minority youths. In 2002, he was selected to carry the Olympic torch for the San Francisco Bay Area/Richmond California.

Entertainment: Lemira Percussion Ensemble

Back by Popular Demand!!

The Lemira Percussion Ensemble was founded in 1999. This group of first through fifth grade students has performed at a variety of locations in Sumter, SC for the State Board of Education, for the Governor's Conference on Children and Youth, for the South Carolina Education Association, at Clemson University, and at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention. The Lemira Percussion Ensemble has been designated as winner for the state of South Carolina in the Oscar Mayer School House Jam Talent Search. Each school year, the percussion ensemble invests over 600 hours in rehearsing, traveling, and performing.