A Lancaster high schooler just made history at one of South Carolina's most prestigious innovation competitions. Grace Brusky, a senior at Cyber Academy of South Carolina, became the youngest winner in the 28-year history of the South Carolina InnoVision Awards on November 5, after her artificial intelligence platform Pathly took home the Community Enrichment Award at the Thornblade Club in Greer.
Brusky co-founded Pathly with her father, Alan Brusky, and the pair's win was confirmed by WRHI, which reported the teen's milestone alongside details of how the platform works. According to the outlet, Pathly learns each student's interests and strengths and builds a running roadmap across colleges, careers, courses and scholarships. The platform is free for students, while schools and districts get separate tools designed to deliver personalized guidance to large numbers of students at once, per the same report.
The award wasn't a guaranteed outcome going in. Pathly had been named one of three finalists for the Community Enrichment Award, according to The Herald, competing against Greenville-based Dreamgarten and Clemson-based Quick Connect, built by MyUI.ai. The Herald's earlier coverage had indicated the winner would be announced November 25 at a ceremony in Greer, but the InnoVision Awards organization's own events page and subsequent reporting identify November 5 as the actual date of the 28th Annual InnoVision Awards Celebration at Thornblade Club.
A Platform Built Around a Counselor Shortage
Pathly's pitch taps into a well-documented gap in school staffing. The company's own materials cite a national counselor-to-student ratio of 372 to 1, far above the 250-to-1 ratio recommended by the American School Counselor Association, according to a Pathly blog post. The same post states the platform's data foundation spans nearly 100,000 college and training programs across roughly 4,800 schools and 923 career paths.
That framing helped Pathly land a $25,000 startup grant from the South Carolina Research Authority earlier this year. The state-backed group described the Lancaster-based company as having designed an AI-powered student guidance platform, according to the South Carolina Research Authority. The Herald's reporting adds that while the platform remains free for students, schools, districts and education consultants use a paid version.
A Packed Resume for a High School Senior
Brusky's InnoVision win adds to an already crowded list of accomplishments for a student still finishing high school. She has a 4.6 GPA and takes dual-enrollment courses through Winthrop University, according to the academy, which also says she has launched multiple companies. WRHI reports she is already working toward a career in environmental science, even as she builds out Pathly's reach among students and schools.
PalmettoPride selected Brusky from nearly 200 applicants for a second term as a Senior Statewide Ambassador, per WRHI's reporting, a role that has brought her recognition from the South Carolina Senate and House of Representatives. Cyber Academy of South Carolina has said the online learning format lets Brusky pursue opportunities beyond what a traditional school schedule would typically allow.
Other Winners From a Night Celebrating 28 Years of Innovation
Pathly's award was one of several handed out that evening by the InnoVision Awards, a nonprofit group that began in 1999 to advance innovation and technology across South Carolina, according to The Herald. Class Window received the Small Business Award, presented by the McNair Institute for Entrepreneurism and Free Enterprise at the University of South Carolina, while GreenerFleets took the Sustainability Award, presented by VELUX America.
KYOCERA AVX Components Corporation of Fountain Inn won the Technology Integration Award, presented by Carolina Tech Founders, and the South Carolina Governor's School for Science and Mathematics in Hartsville received the Ibrahim Janajreh Michelin Young Innovator Award for the second consecutive year, presented by the Michelin Innovation Lab. For a teenager still a year or more from a diploma, standing among that list of established companies and institutions marks a notable entry point into South Carolina's innovation scene.
