What makes a student hero?

The skills Octavia Scott learned in Photoshop and multimedia classes at Lexington High School have opened the door for community service opportunities in her college career.

Scott, 20, is a regular volunteer with Winthrop University’s Habitat for Humanity chapter. She also maintains the group’s web site and publicizes their events.

A junior in college, Scott has worked with Habitat for Humanity for three years, painting and cleaning build sites with other Winthrop students. Winthrop is in Rock Hill, South Carolina, almost 80 miles from Lexington.

Habitat for Humanity provides homes for families in need; the idea is to provide a hand up, not a hand out.

Applicants to the program not only must demonstrate the need for a low-mortgage home but they also must help build the home.

“Habitat is a non-profit organization,” she said. “They fundraise to help get supplies to these people so that they can build their own house and start to make a living for themselves. I just think it is a really good organization to get involved with and help people start actually living the way they want to.”

Scott said working with Habitat is rewarding in many ways and having a tangible achievement at the end of a project is meaningful to people in need.

“I have an urge to do good deeds,” she said. “And when I’m there I’m not thinking, ‘oh man I’m changing someone’s life.’ It’s not until afterwards that I can see that.”

For Scott, giving back to a community and other people started before she enrolled at Winthrop.

As a member of Lexington High School’s International Bachelorette (IB) program, Scott was required to seek out service opportunities.

She mentored a local Girl Scout group, volunteered to build furniture for a West Columbia Habitat Restore Store and worked in her church, Saint Paul Missionary Baptist, soup kitchen. She also worked as an athletic trainer for four years afterschool with the football, basketball, and soccer teams.

She said these experiences instilled the principle of a servant’s heart in her.

In her free time, she taught herself HTML and web site construction skills. In middle and high school she was making Myspace web sites for fun, now Scott applies those skills to helping other students on Winthrop’s campus find out about Habitat for Humanity.

Promotion of the group and of Habitat’s fundraising events is important as Winthrop’s chapter is trying to raise money to purchase a lot in Clover, S.C.

The empty slot of land in York County will one day house a two or three-bedroom home built by Habitat for Humanity volunteers.

Scott estimates the lot will cost between $5,000-$10,000 to buy from York County’s Habitat for Humanity. Once the students buy the land, the Winthrop chapter can provide another avenue for new students who are looking for a way to volunteer in the community.

“My motivation for buying this lot is so we can get people to come build on it,” Scott said. “And to provide the space as an opportunity for service projects for groups like sororities and fraternities.”

Once land is purchased, Habitat for Humanity will provide contractor services to help with major work such as electrical and plumbing work. Then, volunteers help with smaller tasks.

“A lot of us aren’t skilled in carpentry or anything like that so a lot of things we do is just foundation work,” she said.

Habitat homes aren’t simple undertakings and usually take several days to complete.

“If you’ve never been to (a build) you think ‘oh we have to build this whole house today,’” she said. “But it’s not like that. You go in bits and pieces and you work up to building this masterpiece.”

Scott is a biology major at Winthrop University and is the daughter of Rita Cook Scott, a Lexington native.

Please watch a slide show of Habitat photos or listen to my interview with Octavia below:

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