Leadership and service to his community is at the heart of everything Santiago Avendaño Palacio does.
It led the senior in the Darla Moore School of Business from Greenville, South Carolina to find his voice on campus by helping students at the University of South Carolina find their paths. And it led him to go into the local community by working with programs that promote physical activity to serving as a translator for people needing medical or legal help.
That work culminated for Avendaño Palacio Thursday (April 16) with him being named one of two winners of the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award, the university’s highest student honor.
“At the University of South Carolina,” he says, “I was given the opportunity and trust to turn that responsibility into meaningful service for both the campus and the greater Columbia community.”
Avendaño Palacio co-founded USC’s chapter of the Association of Latino Professionals for America and served in leadership roles for the Phi Iota Alpha and Phi Delta Epsilon International Medical fraternities.
As the academic development chair and then president of Phi Iota Alpha, a nationally-recognized Latino fraternity, Avendaño Palacio led academic and professional workshops for members and expanded philanthropic partnerships in the community.
“By prioritizing academic support, professional development, and leadership preparation I worked to ensure younger members were equipped to serve others and lead with intention,” he says. “Through this role I learned that leadership is measured not by recognition but by what continues after you step away.”
Avendaño Palacio is engaged in numerous research and community engagement initiatives offer through USC, working as a senior research assistant in the Bilingual Reading Difficulty Identification lab.
There he helped research child health, learning outcomes and preventative intervention to improve education support and resources in schools with the focus on multilingualism and Spanish-English speaking children and their families.
“At the University of South Carolina was given the opportunity and trust to turn that responsibility into meaningful service for both the campus and the greater Columbia community.”
He also worked with the Arnold School of Public Health’s childhood obesity initiative and served as the co-founder for the Exercise is Medicine organization. Both try and emphasize the needs for more physical activity.
The South Carolina Honors College student serves as a translator for the Domestic Violence Clinic at the Joseph F. Rice School of Law and at the Good Samaritan Clinic, helping non-English speakers get help from legal and medical professions.
“Supporting clients through interpretation and legal preparation reinforced that service is not abstract,” he says, “but deeply personal and rooted in dignity, trust and presence.”
Avendaño Palacio will graduate this May with a degree in international business. No matter what’s next for him, it will undoubtedly involve a level of service to his community.
“My time at the University of South Carolina reflects a sustained commitment to serving and enriching both the campus and the Columbia community through leadership advocacy and scholarship,” he says.
“USC taught me to listen to the first act with purpose and carry responsibility beyond myself. I will continue to use these lessons to advocate for access equity and dignity in my future career and community involvement.”