2020 Silver Pen Winners

On April 3rd, Summit Hills, a luxury senior living community in Spartanburg, announced the winners of the Silver Pen Scholarship Competition. The Silver Pen Competition has been hosted by Summit Hills parent company, The Maxwell Group, since 2012. The Maxwell Group has awarded over $275,000 to high school seniors to assist with their college costs. The goal of the competition is to bridge the communication gap between high school seniors and community Members.

The community Members at Summit Hills play an integral role as judges in the competition. “It’s a great scholarship opportunity, as local students write essays on a chosen topic and our Members get to read and judge the entries based on the set criteria” said Regina Fargis, Summit Hills executive director. “Our Members love participating and it’s a great way to connect with our local community”. This year, the essay topic chosen by Summit Hills was “Discuss an accomplishment, event or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.” . All entries were required to be written between 600 – 1000 words.

The Silver Pen Competition is open to high school seniors who live or attend school within 25 miles of Summit Hills, employees of Summit Hills and their families, and community residents’ immediate family. Members at Summit Hills play two integral roles in the competition. The panel chooses the essay topic for the competition and once the essays are submitted, the panel gathers to judge the entries and choose a winner. To keep the competition fair, all personal identifiers (name, school, contact information) are redacted when the essays are submitted to the Maxwell Group. Each essay is then given a unique number and distributed for judging. Judges assess the essays based on research, insight and perspective, theme development, inspirational quality, meaningful personal connect, creativity and clarity of ideas.

To learn more about the Silver Pen Competition, visit silverpen-slc.com. Summit Hills, is an all-inclusive luxury retirement community with Independent Living, Assisted Living, Memory Care, Skilled Nursing and Rehab services. The community’s premier lifestyle helps Members live longer, healthier, happier lives. For more information about Summit Hills, visit Summit-Hills.com.