Introducing The Palmetto Initiative

Friends,

I'm excited to share a dream nearly a year in the making. 

A dream born out of the love of our beautiful state, South Carolina, and a deep-seated belief in its untapped potential. 

On June 28th, we officially formed The Palmetto Initiative - an organization based in Charleston, SC. 

I remember speaking with a bright young student named Maya during a recent visit to Allendale. Maya dreams of becoming a software engineer, but her school lacks the resources to teach her the necessary technical skills. Her story is not unique. It's a story shared by many children across our state.

I remember my time at Clemson exploring the beauty of neighboring Oconee County. I witnessed healthcare access challenges firsthand, where the nearest medical facility could be 1 hour away. It was a challenge then and remains a significant challenge now.

These are surprisingly common stories that need to change.

South Carolina has long been a place of charm, resilience, and promise for centuries. Yet, despite its many assets, South Carolina has consistently ranked in the bottom ten among U.S. states recently. While this may not appear accurate on the surface in places like Charleston or Greenville, many South Carolina towns and counties lag far behind. 

According to SC's Department of Health and Environment Control (DHEC), nearly two-thirds of South Carolina counties are medically underserved.   

According to the Department of Education data, South Carolina consistently ranks in the bottom half of states on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

More can and should be done to improve curriculum and technical education to best equip students for the digital age.

This does not reflect the state's potential but rather is a call to action for change.

That's why we've founded The Palmetto Initiative. Our mission is to ensure that everyone in South Carolina, regardless of their background or circumstances, has the opportunity to thrive in the digital age. We aim to introduce programming in all public schools, help implement technical workforce development programs, and improve South Carolina's digital infrastructure.

We aim to equip the leaders of tomorrow with the right mix of technical skills to promote excellence in merit-based governance. We will fund and publish policy research and implement robust public-private partnerships to improve SC’s most significant challenges. We believe that technology and innovation can play a crucial role here.

But our vision doesn't stop there. Our ultimate goal is for South Carolina to be ranked among the top 10 states by 2030. This audacious vision encapsulates our commitment to driving significant, measurable improvements in our state's digital economy, education, and quality of life.

This journey won't be easy. It will require hard work, dedication, and the collective effort of all South Carolinians. But I believe in our state, and I believe in our people. Together, we can turn this vision into reality.

I invite you to join us on this transformative journey. Whether it's by volunteering or simply spreading the word about our work, your support can make a difference.

Let's work together to make South Carolina a place where every child can learn, every entrepreneur can thrive, and every resident can live a fulfilling life.

We thank you for your support.

Best,

Justin
Co-Founder
The Palmetto Initiative

The Forgotten Danger

The whole house started to shake. It had begun.

At 11:23pm on September 24th, 2019, a 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck 70 kilometers north of Puerto Rico. Then the tsunami warning came on the QuakeFeed app.

We weren’t ready for the earthquake and we weren’t ready for a tsunami. In Camuy, 75 minutes from San Juan, we’d been preparing for Hurricane Karen. Despite the optimistic weather forecast, we’d wanted extra precautions after Hurricane Maria’s devastation.

But we weren’t expecting an earthquake.

We piled into the car and called neighbors to warn them as we followed the evacuation route up the hill.

Healthcare

I often think about how important affordable and prevalent access to healthcare is to our future.  More than 29,000 people die every day from treatable and preventable causes and more than 45,000 people from general lack of healthcare.  Many other issues, such as poverty, economic, and war stem from insufficient access to healthcare.  

Simply put, access to healthcare is the greatest challenge of our generation.

I believe that if you could choose one technological advancement to help the most people in the world, connecting every person on the planet to quality and affordable healthcare is probably it.  As history shows, societies and individual quality of life have dramatically improved in direct correlation to improved access to affordable healthcare.  

From the elucidation of human anatomy in 1543 to the invention of body imaging in 1895, and to recent advancements in pharmacotherapy, the effective treatment and prevention of disease has extended life expectancy, reduced disability and holistically increased public optimism beyond what anyone could imagine.  The overall improvements have been outstanding.

The 21st century is one of transition.  I am confident the 22nd century is going to be the century of complete democratization of healthcare.  How exactly this transition will unfold is a mystery, but the challenge is ours to make it happen.

Currently, most of the focus on improving healthcare is targeted at a political level.  In many countries, such as the United States, healthcare is systematically broken.  Governments, which tend to focus on solutions that increase complexity, cannot effectively solve the problem of providing access to quality and affordable healthcare across the globe.  

Although some may cite countries such as Sweden, Singapore and Switzerland (among others), which objectively are working quite well, these models have yet to be effectively proven at scale.

Moving forward, we must focus on instantly connecting every person on the planet to quality and affordable healthcare.

Our future depends on it.