Meet our deserving winners and read their bios
= multi-year scholarships awarded
2022 Winners
I was the head coach of a U12 girls rec soccer team this past spring. As the only coach, I oversaw planning and running practices, coaching games, communication with parents, and planning/organizing other events (such as team pictures and an end-of-year party). I worked to better the girls' skill, knowledge of the game, and camaraderie within a team.
“I learned to love myself and be proud of who I am,” stated 11-year-old Emma on her Girl Power Club survey. Another girl, Madison, stated, “I learned it’s ok to be different and not be like everyone else.”
As a Girl Scout since Kindergarten, I always knew I’d earn my Gold Award in high school. When the time came, I wanted my project to make a difference in the lives of young girls in my community. I didn’t want them entering middle school with the same fears as I had. So, I created Girl Power Club, a monthly empowerment program for 17 fifth grade girls to learn about self-love, leadership, and friendship building. I wanted to become the person for them that I had needed at their age.
I would soon learn that one girl really needed the club. She was outgoing and spoke her mind on most occasions, but clearly struggled with her view of herself. We started each meeting with an activity where the girls would identify something they loved about themselves. This girl often struggled when it came her turn. My lessons reminded her that she shouldn’t question her abilities or compare herself to others…. that girl was me.
I was teaching the girls about building a strong self-esteem, but at times it felt like I barely had any of my own. I felt foolish to be teaching the girls topics that I hadn’t mastered myself. I would emphasize to them the power of staying positive and loving oneself unconditionally, and yet my inner voice repeated its loop that I was not smart enough, not pretty enough, or didn't have enough friends. And I was meant to lead Girl Power Club?
I came to realize that one of the best ways to internalize lessons learned is by sharing those lessons with others. I am actively learning how to maintain confidence and strength. I am actively learning how to love myself unconditionally. I am actively learning how to put myself out there in new situations. I realized that one does not need to be an expert to be a mentor. While the girls of Girl Power Club will surely learn their own lessons as they navigate middle and high school, the specific hindsight I gained in my journey served as foresight for theirs.
The lessons from Girl Power Club stretched further into my life than I had ever anticipated. I had always been ambitious and driven, but teaching those skills reinforced their importance. In September of 2020, I was hired at Mathnasium, a learning center for children. The confidence I had built through the creation and facilitation of Girl Power Club allowed me to quickly become comfortable and thrive in my position. Recently, I acquired the title of Lead Instructional Assistant and now train new hires in addition to my teaching and administrative tasks.
Because of what I had learned from myself and the girls of Girl Power Club, I’ve seen the power of stepping out of my comfort zone. Applying to Mathnasium was originally intimidating, as I felt I was not qualified. A year later, I’ve been put fully in charge of setting up and organizing a new center in a nearby town.
My success in one position allowed my confidence to build on itself, and I’ve since started a second job at an escape room, became certified as a soccer referee, and began an internship at my school. Stepping outside of my comfort zone is no longer uncomfortable.
On September 1, 2019, wind gusts of over 200 miles per hour ravaged through my hometown of Abaco, Bahamas, destroying thousands of houses and buildings, taking numerous lives in the process. My house was one of them, but thankfully my life was spared.
I remember waking up that Sunday morning, unphased by the loud winds and rain outside my window. I felt no reason to be frightened because hurricanes were a normal occurrence in The Bahamas. However, as the hours passed the storm worsened, and I realized this was not a normal hurricane. The concrete walls of the house shook, and the bolted down shutters were ripped off the windows. Suddenly, a bedroom window shattered, followed by the kitchen window. The roof started to lift, tearing the house to pieces. It was no longer safe inside, so a decision was made to run to the cars in the driveway. Monstrous winds pushed debris throughout the air as we journeyed to the vehicles, somehow making it there safely. I sat in the backseat crying, thinking this was the end of my life, as the truck rocked back and forth continuously.
By Monday morning, the winds had finally died down. We ventured to the closest standing house nearby and found that many others were in the same position as their houses were also destroyed. However, making it through the hurricane was not the end of the struggle. The entire island had been destroyed, leaving limited food and water throughout. People were robbing and even killing for whatever they could get. This was the scary reality for weeks after the storm ended. Luckily, we were finally able to escape to Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas, and then eventually Lakeland, Florida.
This was a new beginning for me as I was forced to move to a new country with nothing. No house. No clothes. No possessions. Nothing. Still, these items were materialistic and replaceable, unlike my friends and family, for which I could no longer see on a regular basis. This was the toughest part and caused me to fall into a depressed state of mind for months, wishing I could have my old life back. I hated my new life in Lakeland. It was an unfamiliar environment with a different culture that was unique to me. Although the adjustment was difficult, I was able to get through it with the support of those around me. It taught me an abundance of life lessons that I am appreciative of and will never forget.
Since moving to the United States, I have been blessed with so many opportunities I would have never had. From meeting new people, to finding a great swimming team, to being able to go to a Collegiate High School are just a few of these opportunities. Due to these, I have been able to accomplish remarkable success in swimming. I have won many titles at the City of Lakeland swim meet and the Polk County Championships over my three years in Lakeland. This year, I accomplished a great feat by setting a new City of Lakeland record in the 100 breaststroke, breaking a record set by Fred Schreiber back in 1999. I was able to qualify for the Florida High School State Championships in back-to-back years, placing 9th in the entire state in the 100 breaststroke this past season. Along with these accomplishments, I was also named Polk County male swimmer of the year, a title I am extremely honored to claim. Through all my athletic success, I have maintained excellent grades in school, achieving a 4.38 weighted GPA currently and being accepted into the University of Florida.
Overall, Hurricane Dorian has helped me mature significantly. It taught me that life is nothing without happiness and made me realize that I had an amazing life but was taking it for granted. I am now grateful for every little ounce of joy that takes over my body, but also for the tough times which make the good times better. The experience was hard for me and brought me to my lowest point, but I would never change any of it because it has taught me how to adjust to any situation and has given me a better understanding of life.
My name is Skyla Jones, and I am a senior at Haines City High School. During high school I played volleyball and weightlifting. I played both for 4 years and I am very thankful to experience playing a high school sport. I plan to attend Polk State College in the fall semester of 2022 to major in nursing. I have been a dual enrollment student with Polk State for two years and have completed many classes. My overall goal for my career and education is to obtain my Doctor of Nursing Practice degree and become a nurse practitioner. I plan to complete my Associate of Science degree in nursing in under three years as I still have some prerequisite courses to take before applying to the program. After graduating with my associate degree, I would like to become a travel nurse. I chose this career for the reasons of helping other people and getting to explore the country. I also know that some states have a nursing shortage so I will also be helping my future coworkers get a break.
I have not lived with my parents for the past six years. Both of my parents struggle with substance abuse. I lived with my dad for many years but then he asked me to leave his house when I was only 13. My grandparents happily took me in, and I have lived with them ever since. My grandfather passed away in 2019 due to colon cancer. It is just my grandmother and I now in our household, and it has been a financial struggle trying to support me. We cannot afford for me to attend college without scholarships. Any scholarship amount will help me tremendously to achieve my education and career goals.
By age 3 we know all 26 letters of the alphabet, by age 12 the letter S meant a whole lot more to me. As I’m writing this even autocorrect finds disgrace in the word parent without an S at the end. The little red line under the word parent taunts me. Society has taught us that happiness is 4 people standing in front of a white picket fence with smiles on their faces and not a care in the world, that could not be farther from the truth.
In 2016, I lost my father to a very long battle with drug addiction. Growing up, my dad was my hero until the day he wasn’t. Drugs grabbed ahold of not only the life of my father but my mother and I as well taking us for an unimaginable loop, opening my eyes to the evils of this world at such a young age. I spent so many days, so many weeks, and so many months asking God “Why me? Why my family? WHY GOD? WHY?” Crying out in prayer day after day night after night, he spoke into me and he told me this is only a bump in your journey, shaping you into the person you are going to be.
When life throws an unimaginable tragedy at you, you must decide whether to grab ahold of your bootstraps and keep on marching or to lay down and drown in the waves of your own self-pity. So, I decided to grab ahold of my boot strap and keep pushing no matter the circumstance. Soccer was my saving grace. I threw myself into training, practices, and different teams to fill the empty holes inside of me. Everyone has a coping mechanism and mine was soccer. I watched my mom day in and day out of my entire childhood work to support me on her own, never letting me go without and always pushing me to be the best me that I could possibly be at my sport while still be the most selfless and helpful person. Through all that she has done for me I don’t think that she ever realized that the person I am is because of the person she is. She paid for every team fee, every new pair of cleats, and every little thing I may have needed to be the best I could be. ALL while supporting me entirely on her own. Her undeniable hard work and drive throughout loss and tragedy has shown me that no matter what I go through and no matter the loss I experience my hard work and drive is what will keep me afloat in this life and help me reach the goals I have always strived for, and that is what has made me so determined in my sport.
Watching my father, a man who stood so strong in his faith, struggle and fail so miserably with addiction and his own mental health, has pushed me every day to better myself and others in life. I find peace in having a sport that has kept me healthy and happy and somewhat away from all the evils of the world. We all have our own personal struggles that no one knows about that shapes our personalities and who we are going to be, and through all of that we must keep going and find ways to cope. I have used the loss and tragedy in my young life to create knowledge and opportunities for myself. I have taken the hurt and pain and put it into the love of my game. Standing strong in my faith and believing in myself throughout everything I have been through, has taught me I can be the best at my sport if I push myself to be the best.
Although I have had many proud accomplishments throughout my life, it has not always been a smooth road, in fact it has been a bumpy one. Athletics has always been in my family’s blood. My mother went to college as a volleyball player and my father was a top tier baseball player in high school until a severe leg injury ended his baseball career. He then attended Clemson University on an academic scholarship. My brother who is ten years older than me attended the University of South Florida on a baseball scholarship while my sister, being thirteen years older than me, attended Florida Gulf Coast on a softball scholarship. With that being said, it did not take very long for me at all to fall in love with baseball.
In my early years of baseball, it was mostly my dad teaching me everything while my siblings were pursuing their college careers. Once I got to be around ten years old, my father had a pre-existing brain tumor that was beginning to affect the optic nerve. As his vision depleted, for his safety we were no longer able to play catch or hit. With that, many of my early years of baseball were instructed by my dad’s word of mouth and my self-practicing.
Over the next few years my father health continues to regress as his tumors became cancerous. My mom, who was a mentee and a friend of Robin Wagman, had to quit her job as a physical education teacher in order to take care of my dad. Shortly after, in 2016 when I was twelve years old my father passed away. This was an extremely difficult time in my life as he was my guidance through everything. If that wasn’t enough, just a few months later I broke my elbow while throwing a ball at school. I had to undergo surgery and was told I will not be able to throw for eight months. I had never had any sort of medial operation or anything close to the matter and feared messing something up again. I ended up not playing baseball for two years.
While it took a lot of time to move on from my father’s passing and my surgery, I was eventually able to. It was when I got to high school, I was able to change my grievance into inspiration to make my dad proud. My freshman year, after taking two years of my love for baseball overcame my fear and I tried out for the high school team and made varsity. I played four years varsity, was a team captain two years and won Player of the Year my senior year. I maintained a 4.0 GPA throughout high school while taking college level classes. I can now say my most proud accomplishment is that I will be attending Clemson University, just as my father.
My name is Alissa Walker and I’m currently a senior in high school. Ever since I was extremely young, I’ve found pride in my athletic abilities. I often received a great sense of satisfaction from playing sports. I’ve always planned on pursuing a higher education, but neither of my parents were ever successful or stable. Watching the hardships they faced made me realize I wanted a life completely different from theirs. Unfortunately, college seemed very out of reach. Both of my parents were drug addicts, and their irresponsible actions often affected my ability to succeed. As a child I was late to school frequently, or I would even completely miss it because my parents wouldn’t wake up. Eventually situations got worse, and my parents weren’t able to hide anymore, my guidance counselor at my school reached out to Child Protective Services. Entering middle school my mom was in rehab, my dad was in prison, and I was living with my grandma. My life was the most stable it had ever been; besides the fact my grandma was incredibly poor. She was barely capable of providing for herself at the time, but she was the only person who could keep me out of foster care. Nearing the end of middle school, my grandma was laid off. She spent the next year frantically trying to find a job, while struggling to keep a roof over our head. At this point in time, she emphasized how important getting a good education was. She felt she couldn’t compete in the current job market because she didn’t have a college degree. She pushed me daily to study and plan for the future. As I entered high school, my mom got sober and decided to move into my grandma's house with us. I got my first job to help my family financially at the beginning of my sophomore year. Six months later, I got a second job in hopes of starting a college savings. Nearing 2020 my grandma had a tragic fall that resulted in many health complications. She went from a seemingly normal elderly woman that was independently caring for herself, to someone who was incapable of every basic function in a matter of a week. She needed my mother and I, for every task imaginable. She suffered from a stroke that left her in a vegetative state. Due to all the pressure, my mother relapsed at the beginning of my junior year. Over the next year, I faced extreme emotional and physical abuse from my mother. She manipulated me and used the circumstances to control me. She knew that I couldn’t take care of my grandma by myself, and that no matter what she did to me or took from me, I just had to endure the trauma because I couldn’t leave. Despite the circumstances I worked even harder in school. I joined a brand-new soccer team at Mulberry Highschool after not playing soccer for nearly a year and half. Everything felt incredibly natural. I grew extremely close with every teammate I had. The high school soccer coach, Heath Hunt, had a huge impact on me. He encouraged me and pushed me in ways I would’ve never imagined. He gave me a captain's position on the team and was a huge reason I was nominated and mentioned by our All-County Soccer team. My grandma had also been a huge supporter of my passion for soccer. I can recall being younger and her always using her yearly tax refund to pay for the team I played on. She came to every game. As I played my senior year I felt a new profound love for the sport. Because of this, soccer has a different level of appreciation and importance in my life. It allowed me to cope with my emotions, be involved with a group, make amazing connections, and develop a confidence I never had before. My grandma passed away when I was in the middle of my senior year. My mom gathered her things and left my grandma's house the next day even though I was still a minor. Eventually my great aunts came to collect all of my grandma's belongings, and they placed her house for sale within a week of her passing. After the house sold, I moved in with a friend's family, and I plan to stay here until I move for college. I didn’t inherit anything from my grandma's passing, so I wasn’t able to afford a place of my own. I’ve continued to work and save money. The soccer field was the one safe space I had. It was somewhere I was recognized and rewarded. I used it as a distraction from the stress I was facing. Going to college and receiving a higher education to develop a career for myself has always been the light at the end of the tunnel. It has been the only hope I’ve held onto, and a goal that I’ve set for myself my whole life. I currently plan to continue my career at Publix and eventually receive a doctorate in pharmacy.
It was the second meet of the season and the judge shouted “130 3rd” and I knew it was my turn. It was my final attempt. No more chances after that. I darted my hand up, so the judge knew that I was there. I stepped up on the platform with my heart thumping hard because I had tried to get 130 pounds for months now. I tried so hard to achieve it, it was me versus me. I was my own competition and the time had come for me to give it my all. I took a deep breath and tuned out the chanting from my friends and family, it was something I always did before ever touching the bar. I took two immense stomps to maintain my balance and grounding. I caused the whole platform to shake and finally squatted down and gripped the bar with all my might.
I pulled the weight up to my thighs and thrusted my hips through the bar. I stood up tall and broad holding the weight on my shoulders. I took a sharp inhale. I had gotten through phase one of lifting 130 pounds. I examined the crowd to see my family on the edge of their seats while recording and my friends squatting on the ground in awe. There was no sound in the room, the drop of a pen could be heard. It was now time for the second phase (the last phase), and it was a matter of seconds before I failed my final attempt. The judge rose from his chair and threw up his hand cueing me to jerk the bar. I jerked the bar above my head as he dropped his hand. He put a thumbs down and shouted, “no lift”, my arms pressed out during jerking the bar. I dropped the bar and instantly felt a pit in my stomach. I was shocked that I did not conquer the invincible 130 pounds after working so hard. I was so distraught I did not even want to know where I placed on the scoreboard. I felt that if I could not even achieve lifting 130 pounds then I lost the meet entirely. If I did beat someone else it did not matter because I lost against myself, my own competition.
It was my first year of being on the Girls Weightlifting team. It was my first year of being on any sports team in high school. My weight made it more challenging. I always struggled with my weight, which is why I had never been on any high school sports team. However, I thought this was yet another activity or challenge I could achieve, and unfortunately, I was wrong. This was the experience that taught me that failure was the first step to my success. I thought weightlifting was strictly about lifting weights. But I learned it was a mental sport and much more. I woke up at 5 am every morning and made sure I was at 6 am practice where I constantly worked and worked. That hard work allowed me to get 5th place in counties, 3rd place at districts, and 6th place in regionals in my weight class.
A new era had begun for me. This personal accomplishment helped me grow in the areas of self-discipline, confidence, and time management. There were times that I thought my body could not withstand the weight and pressure I felt during training and competition. There were times I felt like giving up but by creating a positive mindset, being patient with myself, and persevering through the pain, I was able to understand what self-discipline truly means. Discovering my new abilities and strength allowed me to gain confidence in my self-image and self-worth. I became comfortable wearing the skin-tight uniforms at the weightlifting competitions without feeling the need to cover up.
That period of personal growth is because of an obstacle I overcame which allowed me to understand that my willpower is bigger than any obstacle I will ever face, even those 130 pounds.
This scholarship will help me pursue my college and career goals without worrying about finances. Coming from a single-parent household with six children has been very hard on my family. With the near-death experience my mom recently had, she is still not able to work and provide for our family as much as we need. With an expected family contribution of 0 on my FAFSA, I know that scholarships are the only way I would be able to work towards paying for college and getting into my dream career. My grandmother is retired and has been taking care of my great-grandmother for the past year due to her stomach cancer. As of February 14th, she passed away and my family struggled to cover her burial expenses and final resting wishes. Due to my grandmother being retired and having to cover my great-grandmother’s burial expenses she cannot help me financially for college. I do not want my college education to be a financial burden on my family. I need financial assistance and being granted this scholarship would help lift some of that burden and help me pay for my education.
