Davidson and his colleagues made sure that thousands of Pickens County students could continue their education online in spring 2020.
Courtesy photo
CENTRAL — At this year’s Warrior Homecoming, Saturday Oct. 9, 2021, the Southern Wesleyan University Alumni Association presented their annual awards during a special brunch that started a day full of activities. Garrett Davidson was honored at the brunch with the Professional Excellence Award for the College of Arts and Sciences.
In the spring of 2020 when S.C. Governor, Henry McMaster, and School Superintendent, Dr. Molly Spearman, were calling for schools across the state to go fully online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Davidson and his colleagues made sure that thousands of Pickens County students could continue their education online.
Davidson instructed teachers on how to use Webex, a videoconferencing platform used by the school district, to transition their instruction online. At the time there were about 1,100 students with no access to Internet at their home. Davidson drew from his experience as a Computer Science major at SWU to write a program necessary to set up wireless hotspot devices the district already had through a AT&T grant.
“We purchased SIM cards and had to assign them to the devices,” Davidson said, adding that the program he wrote assisted his department by saving many hours that would have been required if they had to program each hotspot individually.
The awardees were introduced by Alumni Board president, Janene Bryson, and greeted by Alumni Director Heath Mullikin and Interim President Dr. Bill Crothers.
Following the brunch, the award winners served as the Grand Marshals for the annual Homecoming Parade.