[EdTalks] ScanSource Steps Up for Schools

How can a company truly make a difference in its community? It's a question many businesses ask, but few find a model that creates deep, lasting change. This episode unveils a powerful blueprint for a successful corporate-school partnership that goes far beyond a simple donation. We're joined by Wendy Thacker, VP of Philanthropy and Community Engagement at ScanSource, who shares the inspiring inside story of how her technology company forged a groundbreaking, holistic partnership with Thomas E. Kerns Elementary, an under-resourced school in Greenville, SC.

In this deep-dive conversation with Catherine Schumacher of Public Education Partners, Wendy Thacker breaks down the "Impact 360" program - a comprehensive model designed to provide holistic support for students and teachers. Discover how ScanSource identified a school in need, built trust with leadership, and developed a strategy that addresses everything from food insecurity and mental well-being to classroom resources and family engagement. This discussion provides a clear roadmap for  how to support local public schools  effectively, particularly those without the fundraising power of a PTA. We explore the nuts and bolts of their  community engagement in education , which combines a six-figure financial investment with over 1,500 employee volunteer hours, proving that a  corporate-school partnership  thrives on both treasure and talent.

Learn how this initiative provides critical  corporate support for Title I schools , transforming the school's culture and providing teachers with much-needed appreciation and resources. Wendy also reveals how they are packaging their learnings into the  ScanSource community playbook , a step-by-step guide for other businesses and organizations to replicate this successful model in their own communities. If your company is looking for a meaningful way to invest in public education, this episode offers the strategy, inspiration, and actionable advice you need to get started.

Introduction

Catherine Schumacher: With back-to-school season upon us, how can we make sure that all students and teachers in Greenville County schools are supported? I'm Catherine Schumacher with Public Education Partners, and on today's episode of Simple Civics Ed Talks, we meet Wendy Thacker, Vice President of Philanthropy and Community Engagement at ScanSource, a Greenville-based company that has gone big in support of our local public schools.

We'll talk with Wendy about ScanSource's groundbreaking partnership with Thomas E. Kerns Elementary and how the company plans to use what it has learned to help other communities and corporations better use their time, talent, and treasure to support students, families, and teachers. I'm excited to be joined today by Wendy Thacker from ScanSource and a good friend of Public Education Partners and public education in general. And we're very excited to talk about what ScanSource is up to in the community, particularly around our public schools. Wendy, thank you for joining us today.

Wendy Thacker: Thanks for having me, Catherine. We love to talk about doing good in the community and the path that we have taken and hopefully others will take as well.

Catherine Schumacher: Awesome. That's great. Let's start. Why don't you tell us a little bit about ScanSource and your role with the company?

Wendy Thacker: ScanSource is a Greenville homegrown company, but we are across the United States, Canada, and also in Brazil, a technology distributor at its core. My role at the company is to be responsible for our community engagement and philanthropy efforts across our footprint, not only in Greenville, but in other areas where we have populations of people or offices. I've been with the company for almost 30 years.

Catherine Schumacher: Wow.

Wendy Thacker: A long time and very excited to have stepped into this role, which has a totally different meaning and fulfillment for the career.

Forging a Groundbreaking Corporate-School Partnership

Catherine Schumacher: That's so fun. What an exciting and interesting job to have. We came together around this particular intention to really dive deep with a school in Greenville. Why don't you tell us a little bit about the spark behind that idea and behind this project that we're going to spend some time talking about today?

Wendy Thacker: ScanSource has always given back to the communities in which we work and live, and that's always been in our DNA. We've always focused, if you look back at different projects that we've done over the years, on the underrepresented child. As we started talking about different things that we can do, I started talking to our CEO about education. And what could we do to support a whole child? And how did we go find a need that wasn't being fulfilled or met within the community?

As we started to look at that, we quickly settled on, let's go look at a school. Let's go look at the west side of town, because we didn't believe that those resources were funneling that way. Let's look for opportunities where we can not only use our resources, but we can use the time and talents of our employees. It was interesting how it came to be. You were one of my first calls and meetings after talking to Katy Smith from Greater Good Greenville and said, hey, who do I need to know? And I ended up knowing you.

I feel like between the partnership with PEP and then hooking us up with the school district very quickly to really identify what school needs to help, what school is accepting of the health, and where can we make the greatest impact. Being able to go through that process and identify Thomas E. Kerns Elementary was really special to watch and then meeting with that principal and helping her understand what we wanted to accomplish and what we wanted to help her accomplish with her staff, students, and families.

Catherine Schumacher: This idea of how the partnership happened and the different stages, it's such a testament to the way Greenville can work well when it works. You reached out to Katy Smith, Greater Good Greenville, and Katy said, you need to talk to Catherine Schumacher over at PEP because they can help. And then I said, you need to talk to Anne Lee Buck-O'Brien at Greenville County Schools. It was that idea of everybody bringing their knowledge of the system to play. I will always remember that first meeting at Thomas E. Kerns Elementary. Talk a little bit about that menu of opportunities that you brought to Ronda Simmons, the principal at Thomas E. Kerns Elementary, and what that meeting looked like and felt like.

Wendy Thacker: We had a pretty extensive list. Occasionally we'll have some crazy ideas. We had some crazy ideas around things that we could accomplish. We probably took a list of 35 different activities that we felt...

Catherine Schumacher: It was a Christmas wish list. It was amazing.

Wendy Thacker: We felt we could execute. We said, hey, which of these looks interesting to you? The principal turned around and said, we'll take all of them.

Catherine Schumacher: Which isn't really realistic.

Wendy Thacker: Which is not realistic. At the time, I can't blame her. She's looking to do more for her students and families. We went through and prioritized that list and settled on some things that we knew that we could execute and execute well. We did a fall festival for them, stood that up for the first time they had done a fall festival. It was completely free to the families that attended.

We planned it right in the middle of Hurricane Helene. If you'll remember, I was worried that the school wouldn't have power back in time. We were able to do that. I remember Ms. Simmons saying there'll be no more than 350. And over 700 students and families showed up. We knew then that we had started something special.

Everything from the fall festival to classroom takeovers to staff appreciation which has been just phenomenal to watch that staff have someone love on them and appreciate them and help them understand that what they do is important what they do is special has been tremendous. Then watching the attendance numbers grow for different activities that we've done throughout the year, and then bringing in all of our partners. Not just us, but calling on Mill Village Ministries, calling on the Greenville Triumph, calling on Public Education Partners to come walk that journey with us and see how we can bring more resources to those families.

Impact 360: A Holistic Approach to Supporting Students and Teachers

Catherine Schumacher: Part of the why behind Thomas E. Kerns Elementary, which it is a Title I school, which means it has a high number of pupils in poverty. It does not have a PTA. And I think that's something that at PEP, we think a lot about the schools and centers in Greenville that don't have a PTA, because those wraparound supports for students, for families, for teachers does a lot to support learning outcomes, to support school culture, to work on teacher retention, which is something that's hugely important here in Greenville. I think that is just really exciting, the way that ScanSource has viewed this holistically. It is about supporting the teachers with classroom takeovers.

Wendy Thacker: It's been really amazing. When we went to look at how do we put this together, the education of the child is important. We actually call this program Impact 360 because we want to look at the child holistically. We want to look at their mental and physical well-being. We want to look at education and resources. We want to look at food and clothing insecurity.

We're trying to look at that whole picture and family engagement and enrichment activities because kids and families learn by doing. Giving them experiences or the opportunity to experience things that they haven't had before are huge learning opportunities for them. It's really important for us to be able to do that and also to be able to give our staff the ability to go and volunteer and make a difference.

Catherine Schumacher: I love that too. I think ScanSource has a long and deep history of volunteerism here in Greenville. And I think that's what's so unique about the way this partnership has been structured is that it is a both and. There's financial investment to the tune of about six figures. Is that accurate?

Wendy Thacker: That is accurate via our charitable foundation.

Catherine Schumacher: Thank goodness for ScanSource Charitable Foundation. What a great institution.

Wendy Thacker: They have been very generous to fund this school for us.

Catherine Schumacher: And then do you have how many volunteer hours have been poured in?

Wendy Thacker: We have an estimate. It's over 1,500 volunteer hours, we've had over 100 employees, and when you count our suppliers and employee family members, et cetera, that number rises to about 150 that have been over to the school for some type of volunteer opportunity this year. We always say we have time, we have talents, and we have resources. Some have all three. Some may just have one. It's important that we meet our staff where they are and allow them to give in the way that makes sense for them.

Catherine Schumacher: I think that's wonderful. By the same token, the intentionality of building relationships with the school leadership team. It's doing with, not to. And that's a journey. That's a learning journey.

Wendy Thacker: It's a journey and it's learning the school district. It can be complex. It's been really great to have the relationships not only at the school level, but also at the district level.

From Local Model to National Guide: The ScanSource Community Playbook

Catherine Schumacher: I think that's a real testament to Greenville County Schools' commitment to how do we get the community connected? To have a coordinator of community collaboration, who I refer to her as the senior cat herder, because it's complicated.

Wendy Thacker: It's complicated and she's one person and she does so much.

Catherine Schumacher: She is. I think we at Public Education Partners like to think that we are adjacent. Our job is to support her and that role and how can we help problem solve and find the right places. I think it's a really unique Greenville thing, too. But I know that your hope is that this approach to investing in a school is not just a Greenville thing. Talk a little bit about how you are looking to create your toolkit to send it out across the ScanSource footprint.

Wendy Thacker: We're not just in Greenville. As we talked about earlier, we have an international footprint with a Brazil office and across the U.S. and Canada. This school, in our mind, always served as a model. We wanted to figure out a little bit of what spaghetti would stick on the wall. When we had that huge list, we said, let's see what works and what doesn't work. We've figured that out this year.

We will continue with Thomas E. Kerns Elementary but as we roll into the next year we are adding additional schools for some of the activities that we're doing in Greenville for our outer office and populations of people. Another thing that we're doing is we are creating and writing a community playbook which is a really unique type thing in this space. It's very common in the technology space. You get playbooks for how to sell different products or different solutions. This playbook is going to be all-encompassing. It's going to talk about how do you work with the district.

How do you use data to identify a school? Is it pupils in poverty? Is it the title status that they have? Is it proximity to your office or your workers? How to use that data to really define how to have the initial meeting, what an activity map should look like, what are your cadence to meet with stakeholders? Then it's going to be full of project plans. For this fall festival, for example, we will have a budget in there. We will have a supply list. We'll have a volunteer list. We will have recommended food to serve, recommended decor.

If you decide that you want to get involved with the school in your area, whether it's in Greenville or abroad, you could potentially use this book as a guide to help you create that impact. We're excited to share this guide with our partners in September at an upcoming conference.

Catherine Schumacher: It's so exciting. It can be plug and play if you can. And it can be scaled.

Wendy Thacker: Yes.

Catherine Schumacher: It doesn't have to be the size of what you all are doing at Thomas E. Kerns Elementary, which is extraordinary. But it all helps.

Wendy Thacker: It all helps. It could be as simple as you and your company are going to go in and do two reading nights at the school and provide dinner and provide some read aloud things where you can model how to read that book aloud to your children and point different things out. Or it could be that you're doing three staff appreciation events. And Catherine, it doesn't have to be grandiose. It can be as simple as rolling a cart with a cooler of Cokes and Diet Cokes and some candy bars. It is so appreciated just to have a break. I think people think it has to be this big project to bite off into. It doesn't. You can still make an impact in small ways.

How Your Company Can Start a School Partnership

Catherine Schumacher: I love the generosity of creating that playbook. What advice would you give companies that have the resources to do something like this? And a lot of them do.

Wendy Thacker: A lot of companies have resources. I think one of the things that we've been able to do and do well, number one is have focus. You can't be everything to everybody. Focus in on where you know you can create the impact and look for where there's a need that's not being fulfilled. That's the easy thing to look at is to have some focus and find that space where no one else is working with them.

My second thing is just start writing it down on paper and socialize it with your company. Most individuals are looking for ways to give back. They don't know where to get started. Or a company knows that they need to go and do something, but they're unsure how to take that first step. You've just got to reach out and take it.

This school idea was something that I socialized with the CEO back in January, the year prior. I think if you can just take that one step, you can do it. If you're in Greenville, you want to talk, I'm more than happy. I've already talked to a couple of companies that are interested in doing something similar, we're an open book. We don't have a super secret formula to how we did it.

Catherine Schumacher: You're not gatekeeping.

Wendy Thacker: No, ma'am.

Catherine Schumacher: I appreciate it.

Wendy Thacker: We can tell you what we did. I'm all about taking someone else's idea as well. I talked to a teacher yesterday in Southaven, Mississippi, and principal, and they had a great idea for the holidays. I said, hey, I'm going to take that and I'm throwing that in the playbook. And she said, that's great. I think just taking that first step and getting people curated opportunities to give back, your team will come alongside you. You've just got to show them what it is, why it matters, and how they get involved.

Catherine Schumacher: I love it. Wendy, thank you so much for your big heart and for leading on this project, which is making a huge difference in the lives of the students and the families and the teachers over at Thomas E. Kerns Elementary, but setting a model for a new, deep way to support our public schools here in Greenville and across the country, and maybe even around the world.

Wendy Thacker: Thank you for having us today and for all of your help and guidance along the way.

Catherine Schumacher: Absolutely. Our pleasure. Simple Civics Ed Talks is a joint project of Greater Good Greenville, Greenville First Steps, and Public Education Partners.

Catherine Puckett: Simple Civics: Greenville County is a project of Greater Good Greenville. Greater Good Greenville was catalyzed by the merger of the Nonprofit Alliance and the Greenville Partnership for Philanthropy. You can learn more on our website at greatergoodgreenville.org.