Carnival Foundation Awards Four-Year College Scholarships to 16 South Florida High School Students

2018 Carnival Scholarship Ceremony

Carnival Foundation, in partnership with Florida Prepaid College Foundation, presented 16 Miami-Dade high school seniors with four-year college scholarships during halftime at last night’s HEAT game.

The students currently participate in the Carnival Scholarship & Mentoring Program, an innovative workplace program sponsored by Carnival in partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Miami that pairs a student with an employee mentor from Carnival. Prior to entering high school and participating in the Carnival Scholarship & Mentoring Program, the students attended the HEAT Academy, an after-school enrichment program for at-risk youth.

The 2018 scholarship recipients include:

  • Jerome Baker – Booker T. Washington Senior High School (Carnival mentor: Carlos Garcia)
  • Cristopher Carranza – South Miami Senior High School (Carnival mentor: Ben Clement)
  • Kedrick Chirino – Miami Senior High School (Carnival mentor: Doug Stewart)
  • Kiona Collins – Booker T. Washington Senior High School (Carnival mentor: Taylor Dixon)
  • Tommy Collins – Miami Senior High School (Carnival mentor: Eric Evans)
  • Gamalier Garcia – Miami Senior High School (Carnival mentor: Travis Winslow)
  • Juan Hernandez – SLAM (Carnival mentor: David Candib)
  • Tauheeda Huggins – Booker T. Washington Senior High School (Carnival mentor: Arlene Mercado)
  • Gabriel Julien – Felix Varela Senior High School (Carnival mentor: Jose Alfonso)
  • Amaya King – Miami Lakes Educational Center (Carnival mentor: Nicole Villegas)
  • Telkevia Mackey – i-Prep Academy (Carnival mentor: Isabel Pascual)
  • Amy Morales – Mater Academy East (Carnival mentor: Arlene Marichal)
  • Dayana Pineda – Miami Senior High School (Carnival mentor: Tina Hernandez)
  • Valery Pion – Mater Academy East (Carnival mentor: Yormery Alonso)
  • Elizabeth Santos – Coral Gables High School (Carnival mentor: Carrie Klimczak-Folse)
  • Tre Thompson – Miami Senior High School (Carnival mentor: Jose Fernandez)

In addition to receiving the scholarship, students were presented with a new Dell laptop computer to support their studies, compliments of Carnival Foundation, Dell and Microsoft.

The scholarships, purchased by Carnival Foundation, were handed out at center court by Linda Coll, executive director of the Carnival Foundation, with a congratulatory handshake given to each student by Arnold Donald, CEO of Carnival Corporation.

The Founder of the Florida Prepaid College Foundation Stanley Tate, President and CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Miami Gale Nelson, Carnival’s Vice President of Guest Care and Port Services Vicky Rey, and representatives from the Miami HEAT, including NBA Hall of Famer and current Vice President of Player Programs Alonzo Mourning, Chief Marketing Officer Michael McCullough and President of Business Operations Eric Woolworth, were also on hand to acknowledge the students, as well.

For the past 15 years, Carnival has purchased Project STARS scholarships from Florida Prepaid College Foundation, representing a collective value of more than $3.5 million. The Florida Prepaid College Foundation scholarship covers the cost of tuition for two years at a Florida college followed by two years at a Florida public university. This is the ninth year Carnival scholarship recipients have matriculated into college.