Jack S. Graybill Carolina Scholar 
Homeschooled 
Lowrys, South Carolina 
Economics; Business Management (Entrepreneurship) 

 Always seek real productivity. Grow crops, make furniture, play an instrument, inspire laughter. 

Impactful experience: 
Researching my senior thesis on the economic evolution of textile mill towns in South Carolina has impacted me more so than any other experience. It has tied together the foreign experiences I have witnessed – the evolving agriculture of Thailand, the remote mountains of Iceland, the hamlets of Scotland – and my passion for economics. I now understand a key reason for the economic hopelessness I saw growing up in Chester County. 

Enjoy most as a TS: 
Iron sharpens iron, and spending four years in a community of hardworking, incredibly intelligent men and women has similarly helped to hone my academic drive and personal integrity. Being in such a motivated group, with the advice and wisdom of incredible staff members, is truly a rare and precious blessing. 

Story: 
In August of 2019, being a Top Scholar put me in mortal danger. The financial aid and flexibility afforded me the chance to travel abroad for the first time, and the academic distinction added to an already-dangerous hubris. I am thus absolved of blame. Three days into a biking trip through the windswept plains of Iceland, I had been out of water for ten hours, and found myself climbing through a lava field in the middle of the wilderness towards a lake, increasingly dehydrated and clumsy. Somewhat delirious, I seemed to see a radiant gamecock beckoning me onwards, and, suddenly filled with the vigor of Thomas Sumter, I summited a final boulder and found life-giving water. And somewhere, Jan Smoak breathed a sigh of relief. 

Post-graduate plans: 
Jeremy will attend Georgia Tech in the fall, where he will pursue a master's degree in City and Regional Planning on the Frank S. Wilkinson Fellowship. He will also work as a graduate research assistant. His focus will be on economic development for small towns and rural areas in the South.  

Career goals/professional aspirations: 
Growing up in three Southern states, I have seen firsthand the varied and often bitter effects of a swiftly modernizing and globalizing economy. I plan to pursue an academic and then professional career in economic development, working primarily with small towns and rural regions to help provide opportunities and advancement. Economic malaise on a local level is causing our societal unrest, and I want to help administer the antidote.”