In keeping with its mission to cultivate awareness throughout the academic and surrounding communities of the importance of ethics in day-to-day lives, the Jackson Family Center for Ethics and Values sponsors annually an ethics program for Horry and Georgetown County public middle school students.  The program is offered as a response to the myriad of ethical challenges faced by young people and seeks to help selected students, known as the Jackson Junior Scholars, to understand the ethics of such principles as honesty, fairness, compassion and leadership.  Thus far, the program has been conducted either in the form of a summer ethics academy or an after-school ethics academy.

      For both programs, fifth grade public school teachers, in collaboration with the schools’ principals, nominate rising sixth-grade students who display leadership among their classmates for participation in the Academy.  The Jackson Junior Scholar program is a gift to the community from the Jackson Center, as there is no charge to the participating schools or students. Both the summer ethics academy and the after-school ethics academy are conducted on Coastal Carolina University's campus. All students are awarded certificates of achievement and unique Jackson Junior Scholar tee-shirts upon completion of the program.

      Summer ethics academies were conducted in the summers of 2005 through 2008.  Two four-day sessions were held each year in July with 27-33 students from 15 area schools in attendance for each session. The Academy was co-directed by Renee Smith and Julinna Oxley, who are faculty members of the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Coastal Carolina University, while the Jackson Scholars acted as academy counselors to the Junior Scholars.

     View pictures from Summer Ethics Academy.

      The Center sponsored the very first after-school ethics academy in the spring of 2009, which was directed by Caroline Evans, a graduate of Coastal Carolina University where she was a Philosophy/English major and former Jackson Scholar. The present class of scholars acted as mentors and counselors to the Junior Scholars.