Assistant Principal Amy Driggers has been a part of the Chapman family for many years. 

During her time, she has been a teacher, an instructional coach and an assistant principal. 

Students describe her as a second mother, and teachers describe her as a loving mentor. 

Driggers had a not-so-normal pathway into education. 

She’s a graduate of Ninety Six High School, a small high school in Ninety Six, S.C.

“My high school graduating class was 119 students, so it’s really small,” said Driggers.

After high school, she went to Lander University where she majored in Biology. 

She then attended the USC School of Medicine in their dual M.D. and Ph.D. program. 

She said that she succeeded, earning high grades, but after a year, she discovered it was not the right path for her. 

“You have to be able to separate, to a degree, your emotions from the work, but not be careless and hurtful,” said Driggers. “That’s a balance I could not manage.”

Driggers married her husband, Brent, at an early age. He had an education degree after graduating and got a job at Chapman in 2000. 

Once they moved down to the Inman area, Driggers quit medical school and felt lost in the world. 

She did not know what would come of her future. 

“I struggled at first when we moved here because I struggled to find my purpose, and it happened, but it was not planned,” said Driggers. 

After doing part-time jobs to try to get an idea of what her future would hold, Driggers got a call from the Chapman principal. 

The AP Biology and anatomy/physiology teacher had just had a heart attack and would be out for the rest of the year. 

Driggers was the only person that the principal could think of that knew the content and had the knowledge to help the kids complete their school year.  

“I had not taught a single day of my life, but I had nothing else in front of me,” said Driggers. “I thought, ‘I’ll go,’ and I did, and it changed the course of my life because in the moment that I did that, I knew that this is where I’m supposed to be.”

After the year, she became certified and has been a part of the Chapman family since. 

If anyone inspired her to get into education, she said it was her husband and her mother, but in different ways. 

Her mother was a 30-year veteran educator who specialized in helping students who may have a harder time learning things than most. 

Driggers said this inspired her later in life to have the willingness to go above and beyond with each student.

As far as her husband inspiring her, she said it was the lasting relationships he created being a teacher and coach. 

“Watching the interactions that he had beyond the classroom with coaching and the impacts that he made for young men and their families were incredible to the point that I’ve been to many weddings, baby showers, life events, even now for people that he coached 20 years ago,” said Driggers. “That’s when I understood the lasting effect that one person can have on his or her community, and I think that is what inspired me to make the changes to come into education.”

Driggers has taken that inspiration and made relationships a priority at Chapman. 

“I think the biggest compliment I can give her is that she understands the importance of relationships,” said Assistant Principal Matt Davis. “Whether it’s parents, the community, teachers, or students, I think she understands that if we want to be the best school we can be, then you have to have good relationships with people, and I think that is something she does and something she excels at.”

Davis is the newest assistant principal at Chapman and said Driggers has helped him settle into his role. 

Driggers is also a mentor to teachers including English teacher Alex Colson. 

“Mrs. Driggers has helped push me to reach my ultimate potential since I started teaching,’’ said Colson. “She has taken things that I wanted to do and set me on a path to help me accomplish those things.”

Students may just see the working and mentoring side of Driggers, but she assures that she cares for each and every one of the students. 

“I know that administrators sometimes can be viewed as authoritarians and keeping order and punishing and rules and things like that, but I find that most of my interactions with kids are positive and joyful,” said Driggers. “Even when I am having to do those other things that aren’t so much fun for kids, I always try to work that into our conversation so that they understand how much I care about them.”

Driggers says her door is always open, and for senior Ellie Mitchell, this has been helpful in many ways. 

“Even though she has a super busy schedule, she’s always willing to take the time out of her day to speak with you, have a quick chat or a long chat, and give you words of wisdom, some advice,” Mitchell said. “No matter the day, she’ll always sit down to talk to you.”

Principal Andrew McMillan said that Driggers has earned the respect of not only the people in the school but also in the surrounding area. 

“She has seen and experienced multiple viewpoints of what makes our school so great, but also what challenges we face,” said McMillan. “She has spent her entire career involved with CHS in some capacity, and over that time, she has developed a deep respect within our community.” 

“The beauty of that is that she not only spends time helping students, but that she also knows a lot of the students’ parents and the community members,” said Davis. “I’ve only been here five years, so I may know a student, but Mrs. Driggers may know their parents or siblings.” 

Part of what makes her so special is that she genuinely cares about the school and the people in it.

“She loves CHS and all of us here in it,” Colson said.

Driggers said that she truly means all people.

“I am so thankful for that diversity,” said Driggers. “I listen to our orchestra play, and it brings me to tears when I look at the talent on the stage. I go to a theatre production and I’m blown away. I watch student athletes accomplish things that I am just like, ‘How do you even jump that high, how do you go that far, how do you swing on that vault?’”

Some of those students may be successful because of the investment she has made in them. 

“I believe she has a masterful ability to make students see more in themselves than they think is possible,” said McMillan.

Driggers’s message to the students is described by her as simple.

“Just be you, but be the best you there is,” she said. 

At school she is known for spending her free time building onto or forming new relationships, but during her actual free time, she enjoys spending time with her family amongst other things. 

Additionally, she loves to read, decorate, thrift and watch sports. 

“I don’t have any grand hobbies,” she said. “It’s really just spending time with the people that I love.”

Those people include not only her husband but also her daughter, Graham, a sophomore at the University of Alabama, and her son, Beckett, a senior at Landrum High School. 

Driggers encourages each student to take any and every opportunity in high school. 

Each opportunity can change a student’s life. 

“Stretch your brains, stretch your hearts, stretch your feelings,’’ said Driggers. “Do all the things you can to experience what you can in school because it will help guide you in the remainder of your journey.”

Driggers wishes she would have had this advice in high school so that maybe she could have had her dream call her sooner — the call that changed not only Driggers’s life but also the lives of many, many Panthers.