PROVIDED

Four $1,500 scholarships are up for grabs from the Haitian-American Community Coalition of Southwest Florida (HACC) for deserving students of Haitian-American heritage who will be graduating from high school this year.

“HACC’s mission is to improve the quality of life in the local Haitian-American community,” HACC Scholarship Chair Betsy Vaughn said. “We care deeply about education. We want to ensure that all children are provided the proper tools for academic success and that they have the opportunity to pursue a postsecondary education.”

The deadline to apply for the scholarship is April 3. In order to apply, students must be of Haitian-American heritage and be a graduating Lee County high school senior, who is either enrolled or will be enrolled in a degree, or certificate program at a technical college, state college or university by Sept. 1. The application also includes two letters of recommendation and a 300 to 500-word personal essay.

The applications can be mailed to Haitian-American Community Coalition of Southwest Florida, 3949 Evans Ave., Suite 304, Fort Myers, FL 339901.

The recipients will be announced on, or before, May 1.

Vaughn said they began the scholarship in 2017 and to date have awarded $20,500 to 22 students.

“There will be four scholarship recipients from the class of 2023. Each will receive $1,500,” she said. “HACC holds an annual Haitian Heritage Scholarship Gala every October. This is our major fundraising event for the scholarships. We were unable to hold our gala in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID restrictions, however, we received many generous donations from supporters that enabled us to fund our scholarships in those two years. In 2017, we awarded $500 each to three students. Awards were $1,000 between 2018 and 2022. Again, this year we are able to give four $1,500 awards.”

Those who have any questions can email Vaughn at esv460@gmail.com.