Ben Lippen School is private K-12 Christian school in

Columbia, South Carolina Columbia is the capital of the U.S. state of South Carolina. With a population of 136,632 at the 2020 census, it is the second-largest city in South Carolina. The city serves as the county seat of Richland County, and a portion of the city ...

History

A Scottish phrase meaning “Mountain of Trust,” Ben Lippen School was founded in 1940 by the

Columbia International University Columbia International University (CIU) is a private Christian university in Columbia, South Carolina. Divisions CIU has five colleges: the College of Arts & Sciences, the College of Counseling, the College of Education, the College of Interc ...

(CIU) board of trustees under the guidance of CIU’s first president, Robert C. McQuilkin. The evangelical boarding school for boys was located at CIU’s Ben Lippen Conference Center on a mountain near Asheville, NC. The school became co-educational in 1952 and flourished as a school for missionary children. After a fire destroyed the main building in 1980, Ben Lippen moved its high school program to its current location in Columbia, South Carolina, in 1988 to be on the campus of CIU. An elementary program was begun in 1990 and currently boasts three campuses, one at the Monticello Road location, one on Hardscrabble Road in Columbia, and another on St. Andrews Road in Columbia. All upper school students attend the Monticello Road campus. During the Covid 19 epidemic the school was one of few that was open. Today, Ben Lippen School has more than 900 students in grades Pre-K3 through 12, with approximately 80 of them being international students who live on campus and attend the high school. Ben Lippen is accredited by both ACSI ( Association of Christian Schools International) and SACS (

Southern Association of Colleges and Schools The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) is an educational accreditor recognized by the United States Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. This agency accredits over 13,000 public and priv ...

) and is a member of the

South Carolina Independent School Association The South Carolina Independent School Association (SCISA) is a school accrediting organization. It was founded in South Carolina in 1965 to legitimize segregation academies.https://getd.libs.uga.edu/pdfs/blair_monica_k_201505_ma.pdf History SCIS ...

(SCISA).

Notable alumni

Samkon Gado Samkon Kaltho Gado (born November 13, 1982) is a Nigerian-American otolaryngologist. He is a former American football running back in the National Football League for the Green Bay Packers, Houston Texans, Miami Dolphins and St. Louis Rams. He pl ...

, former NFL player *

Andrew Brunson Andrew Craig Brunson (born January 3, 1968) is an American pastor and a teaching elder of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Brunson was an evangelical pastor of the Izmir Resurrection Church, a small Protestant church with about 24 congr ...

, pastor & evangelical missionary

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://www.benlippen.com/ Boarding schools in South Carolina Schools in Columbia, South Carolina 1940 establishments in South Carolina Educational institutions established in 1940