Three local high school students have been named winners in the competition called "PICTURE THIS: The 5 W's of Judicial Diversity — Who? What? When? Where? Why?" Keegan Patrick Duesterhaus, Spartanburg Day School; Carder Jones, Scholars Academy at USC Upstate; and Natalie Norris, James F. Byrnes High School, have won iPads for themselves and their schools in the competition sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Spartanburg County. Click here to see our photo gallery of winners and their winning submissions.

"We wanted to give students the chance to learn about the importance of judicial diversity so we asked them to explore visually the notion that a diverse judiciary is important to South Carolina because it instills in citizens confidence that the courts are fair and impartial," said Linda Bilanchone, chair of the project. "While half of South Carolina's population is women, only 30% of judges are women. And, while 28% of the state's population is African-American, only 16% of state judges are African American. And, of course, other minorities are not well represented either," added Bilanchone.

Winning entries best communicated the following statement:

This project is supported by grants from the League of Women Voters Education Fund and the Transparency and Integrity Fund of the Open Society Institute.

Educators and interested parties are free to download the powerpoint presentation (also in pdf format), lesson plans, and exercise materials on Judicial Diversity that were written for the Picture This competition.

Safeguarding U.S. Democracy: Quest for a More Diverse Judiciary

Last year LWV of Spartanburg County, together with the Spartanburg County Historical Association, developed an educational program called “Laws and Courts are Our Friends” for use in county social studies classrooms. Click here to download the workbook. This project was sponsored by the League of Women Voters of the U.S. and supported (in part) by a grant from the Transparency and Integrity Fund of the Open Society Institute.

For more information, contact Linda Bilanchone at PowersL@wofford.edu.