Governor Presents Slemenda with Order of Silver Crescent

On September 9, Katharine Stephens Slemenda of Spartanburg was presented with the Order of the Silver Crescent during Converse College’s Opening Convocation ceremony as the college officially opened the 2008-2009 academic year.

The Order of the Silver Crescent is the highest civilian honor awarded by the Governor of South Carolina for volunteer and community service.

Slemenda retired from the Converse faculty at the conclusion of the 2007-2008 academic year after leading the college’s undergraduate training program for the deaf and hard-of-hearing since 1978 and served as Chair of the college’s Education Department.

Rita Allison, Director of Communications for the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education, presented the award to Slemenda on behalf of Governor Mark Sanford.

In a letter to Slemenda, Governor Sanford wrote "you have set a standard of excellence that is second to none. Your dedication to the field of deaf education is without equal. Generations of youngsters and their families in South Carolina have you to thank for well-trained teachers in their classrooms who are prepared to meet the challenges and unique needs of children with hearing loss."

In addition to leading the Converse program for the deaf and hard-of-hearing and Education Department, Slemenda has served as an active member of organizations including the South Carolina Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, the Spartanburg Chapter of the National Society to Prevent Blindness, Council of Education of the Deaf, the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and the Spartanburg Consortium for the Hearing Impaired.