Strong, smart, spiritual, pretty, energetic, focused, determined. That's how a brother and a sister describe Orangeburg resident JoAnna Ward. From her family's "very humble beginnings" -- as sister Nancy Ward Butler of Washington, D.C., put it -- the 31-year-old Ward has successfully overcome many challenges in life.

-- Moving with her family from New York to Atlanta.

-- Excelling in school.

-- Earning an athletic scholarship to South Carolina State University.

-- Gaining national attention on the Lady Bulldogs basketball team.

-- Earning not only a bachelor's degree but a master's and working on a doctorate.

-- Rearing a son as a single mom.

Tonight, millions of television viewers will watch as Ward begins one of the biggest challenges of her life.

She is a contestant on "Survivor: The Amazon," which will premiere with a special 90-minute show at 8 p.m. on CBS-TV (WLTX channel 19; Time Warner Cable channels 2 and 9.)

"I've never watched it before, but now I'll be glued to every episode," said Butler, who works for a national radio network. "We're extremely proud of her."

A million-dollar prize awaits the player who can "outwit, outplay and outlast" the other 15 contestants, who will receive free air fare and accommodations and cash consolation prizes.

Just becoming a contestant was an accomplishment in itself in that entailed a battery of tests to ensure physical and mental aptitude and ability to adapt to new environments.

"Once she came and told me she was sending a tape for the interview, I had no doubt in my mind she would be chosen for it," said younger brother David J. Ward of Atlanta, a rail engineer with the MARTA public transportation system.

"My sister has always been doing incredible stuff most of her life," Ward said. "She is very intelligent. She has her master's and is working on her doctorate. She is very outgoing, very energetic."

"Probably the thing that stands out the most with her is that she has a very deep faith in God, and unashamedly so," Butler said. "That was our foundation from day one. Our mother gave us a solid foundation of good character."

Ward's mother, Dorothy Vassell, operated a ministry which distributed food and clothing to the needy in Niagara Falls, N.Y., Butler said.

Ward was born in Niagara Falls, the sixth of seven children.

In the mid 1980s, the family moved to Atlanta, where Ward attended middle and high school. "As a teenager, she always had the most guys trying to date her," Butler said. "She has always been a pretty girl."

Besides good looks and academic achievement, Ward has the strength and discipline to excel at athletics. "She was highly recruited when she came out of high school," Ward said.

She attended South Carolina State on a basketball scholarship and was one of the nation's top rebounders in her junior year, her brother said, adding that she also ran track and pledged as a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.

Ward received her bachelor's degree in English education and her master's degree in education in school guidance counseling. She has done several TV commercials for Ford and other clients and had a small role in the movie "Juwanna Mann."

Ward's 10-year-old son, Dontre, "plays on a Little League football team in Orangeburg. He's making a name for himself in sports," Butler added.

Ward is an Aerobics and Fitness Association of America Certified aerobic instructor. She also enjoys tae bo, basketball, biking, hiking, mountain climbing, running and rollerblading.

For the sixth installment of the popular "reality" series, Ward and the other contestants have to cooperate -- and compete -- for up to seven weeks in the scorching heat and torrential rains.

They build shelters, forage for food and face giant snakes, man-eating fish, alligators and hostile natives in a remote section of the Amazon River rain forest. And they are filmed up to 24 hours a day.

Ward, a school guidance counselor, "is doing this to prove to herself that she is truly a survivor outside of life's common adversities," according to CBS, which bars interviews with contestants until the airing of the episode in which they are voted off.

"I wasn't surprised that she was selected. She's very athletic and physical, and she's a smart and determined person, very focused," Butler said.

"We came from very humble beginnings, but we were taught our economic status did not dictate our future. We were never discouraged from reaching for the moon," she added.

Butler said her sister has taken that advice to heart. "When she sets her mind to something, she's going to accomplish it."

"That's just more proof that she's a survivor."

T&D Staff Writer Lee Hendren can be reached by e-mail at lhendren@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5552.

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