Clemson University will host a Professional Advancement Through History Summer Teaching Institute on the university’s historic properties from July 6 – 10, 2025. K-12 teachers will participate, receiving professional development in standards alignment, field trip preparation, inclusive strategies, and research using Clemson’s archives. SC Humanities supported this institute with a Major Grant.
The PATH: Clemson Historic Properties Summer Teacher Institute offers a unique opportunity to explore the rich history of South Carolina through Clemson University’s Historic Properties. Along with the Institute leaders, participating teachers will work collaboratively to create standards-based lesson plans for pre, onsite, and post-field trip activities connected to Clemson Historic Properties. The resulting lesson plans will be published online for the public in late 2025 or early 2026, and thousands of South Carolina students will benefit from them.
Historic properties at Clemson University include the Fort Hill National Historic Landmark, the antebellum plantation of John C. Calhoun; Hanover House, built in 1716 in Berkeley County and moved to Clemson in the 1940s; and Hopewell, the surviving, circa 1815 home of South Carolina Governor Andrew Pickens, Jr.
Participating teachers earn continuing education credits and a certificate of completion to enhance their professional credentials.
The Project Director said, “This institute will create outcomes that support greater engagement with school groups and teachers from across the state, as they can use the created materials to plan a field trip to Clemson’s Historic Properties or adapt them to meet their needs in whichever part of the state they reside. Finally, this institute will provide much-needed professional development opportunities for South Carolina teachers and historic properties staff.”
More information about the teaching institute can be found here: https://www.clemson.edu/about/history/properties/path.html.
The primary mission of Clemson University’s Department of Historic Properties is the management of Fort Hill, preserving the history of all who lived there. In addition to Fort Hill, the group maintains the Hanover House, located in the South Carolina Botanical Garden, as an historic house museum. The Historic Properties has been an advocate of campus-wide historic preservation, and the director serves as a University liaison to the State Historic Preservation Office. An Historic Properties Alumni Advisory Committee (HPAC) supports the goals of the department, including preservation planning for Hopewell, family home site of General Andrew Pickens, known as the Cherry Farm house.
The mission of SC Humanities is to enrich the cultural and intellectual lives of all South Carolinians. Established in 1973, this 501(c)3 organization is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors comprised of community leaders from throughout the state. It presents and supports literary initiatives, lectures, exhibits, festivals, publications, oral history projects, videos, and other humanities-based experiences that directly or indirectly reach more than 250,000 citizens annually. South Carolina Humanities receives funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities as well as corporate, foundation and individual donors. The National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom.
