Moore receives forensic scholarship

PROSPERITY — It’s not often you hear of a scholarship being awarded to a student in the field of forensics, but Mid-Carolina High School senior Amber Moore is changing that for Newberry County students as she was recently awarded the inaugural Tiffany Nicole Johnson Scholarship.

The scholarship was named after Tiffany Johnson, a deputy coroner in Newberry who passed away about three years ago. Johnson graduated Newberry College with a forensics degree.

“I established the Newberry County Coroner’s Foundation and one of the main things I wanted to do was do a forensic scholarship for graduating Newberry County seniors. The reason I wanted to do this was to get these kids interested in forensic science, specifically forensic pathology because I know there is such a huge shortage of forensic pathologists throughout the United States,” said Newberry County Coroner Laura Kneece.

Kneece hopes that with the establishment of the scholarship, more kids will be encouraged to go down that path or into forensics altogether.

The goal is to award at least one scholarship in the three high schools in Newberry County.

“With it being a foundation, it’s strictly by donations by the community in and outside of Newberry. We figured we would start with one and hopefully over the years be able to give more,” Kneece said.

Moore did not realize she was the first recipient of the scholarship and said receiving the scholarship was a cool feeling.

“I’ve always been kind of a problem-solver and it’s kind of like a puzzle, but in a way that you get to help people whether it’s the victim or their family so I get to help and be a problem-solver,” she said.

The ultimate goal, Moore said, is to become coroner like Kneece.

Moore’s mother Kellie said she and her father Loren are proud of their daughter’s accomplishment.

After graduation, Moore will plans to begin studying at Lander University.

“We’re just really excited for Amber to be the first recipient of this scholarship,” Kneece said.

Reach Kelly Duncan at 806-276-3122 ext. 1867 or kduncan@championcarolinas.com.