Meet our deserving winners and read their bios
= multi-year scholarships awarded
2017 Winners
Tiffany’s adversity began as a 5-year-old child in St Petersburg All Children’s Hospital surviving 105-degree temperature, pneumonia, empyema, a collapsed left lung and emergency surgery to correct her life threating diagnosis. After many months in the hospital and a long rehabilitation, she returned to school a very weak child and 20 pounds lighter. During her later years at RCHS she overcame continuing respiratory issues and reflected on her past medical experience to enable her to succeed academically graduating with a 4.5 GPA and reaching Regional competition in XC and District in weightlifting her junior and senior years and is attending FSU in the Fall.
Colton experienced extreme personal adversity and hardship when he tore his ACL soon after a District soccer championship his Junior year. His knee surgery was extensive and required months of difficult rehabilitation. He fought through the pain and began running well enough, without the doctor’s recommendation, to again lead his soccer team to another District title his Senior year. He is an excellent student, graduating with a 4.1 GPA and has achieved his lifelong dream of being awarded a college scholarship to play soccer at Warner University.
Yusuf spent his early years in the custody of his divorced father. His mother finally won custody of the boys and moved to Florida during his middle years to live with his mother’s father. His grandfather became his true supporter and hero! He instilled a desire for achieving good grades and playing sports, football in particular. During his middle school years his grandfather passed away from cancer with devastating effects on Yusuf and the family. However, the lessons learned from his grandfather have paid-off. He graduated with a 3.4 GPA and was Captain of the football team his Senior year. As the first in his family to attend college, he has been awarded a scholarship to Warner University and will play football.
Xiomara had to overcome specific family hardships she witnessed, including parental abuse by her mother’s male partner. These family issues resulted in her and her mother moving out and living in many locations for years. Through the domestic turmoil and housing changes, she stayed very close to her mother. She has continued to draw from those difficult times to excel in HCHS. She graduated first in her class of 400 students with a 4.33 GPA and helped lead her WVB team to a very successful season and is attending USF in the Fall.
Misael comes from an immigrant family and experienced many financial hardships while rising out of poverty. His goal was to excel academically and in sports. He qualified and enrolled in the HCHS International Baccalaureate (IB) program and joined the track and XC teams. His performance in both arenas has been outstanding for 4 years. He graduated with a 4.6 GPA from the IB School and set many personal track and XC records and is attending Rice University in Fall 2017.
Jason fully applied his ability to overcome 2 very physically devastating leg(s) injuries (IT Band Syndrome). These hardships occurred in his freshman and senior years during XC training. By focusing his energies while rehabilitating on his academic life he reached true success in the HCHS International Baccalaureate (IB) program by being eighth in his graduating class and attending FSU in the fall 2017.
