Rotary Club of Cape Coral Goldcoast awards scholarships
Rotary Club of Cape Coral Goldcoast has awarded college scholarships to exceptional high school seniors for decades, with its scholarships of excellence consistently recognizing the area’s crème de la crème for their achievements and helping them realize their careers and dreams.
This year is no exception.
On Friday, the Rotary Club honored seniors Kady Jackson, 18, North Fort Myers High School, and Ethan Rincon 17, Immokalee High School, with their respective Cape Coral Resident and B-C Student scholarships at the club’s awards luncheon held at Gulf Coast Village.
Each student was awarded a four-year, $1,000 per annum scholarship. While each differs in GPA and residency requirements, both share the same rigorous academics, accountability, community service, character and potential for success in judging and awards criteria.
“The scholarship winners are all fantastic,” said Joe Cerino, scholarship chair and attorney. “I used to do a lot of criminal defense and a lot of juvenile work so I’ve seen the bad, but doing this every year gives me renewed hope in the new generation.”
At the luncheon, the Rotarians praised the students and their parents for their outstanding efforts and support. They also acknowledged this 33-year-old program’s remarkable history, longevity and evolution from a homegrown $500 college award to its present blue ribbon incarnation that has awarded some 100 area recipients with more than $250,000 total funds, Cerino said.
President-elect Don Thomas served as the founding scholarship chair from 1988 to 1994; followed by Wayne Kirkwood from 1995 to 2015. In 2016, Cerino became the present scholarship chair. He credited the efforts and generosity of club and committee members, donors, and sponsors as well as the Cape Coral Community Foundation’s scholarship administration for their successes as they work towards their $200,000 endowment fund goal needed for scholarship self-sufficiency. Further, the club inaugurated the B-C GPA student scholarship this year to help outstanding students who have achieved a slightly lower high school GPA than the other scholarship.
“I stay on the scholarship committee because it gives me hope,”said Bob Knight. “Nothing against the media but a lot of the national stuff is so negative.”
“I wish we could give a scholarship to every one of them,” Knight said. “They’re always that good.”
During the awards, Jackson detailed her career goal to become a certified surveyor with a bachelor’s degree in Geomatics from the University of Florida. Prior, she will attend Florida Gulf Coast University in the fall to earn her associate degree and then transfer to the university.
This summer, she will begin working at a local surveying company, learning the technical and physical challenges of lugging a tripod and theodolite through the hot Florida bush. She relishes the opportunity for this entry-level position where they will “teach me everything.”
Jackson defined Geomatics as: “It’s people who go out onto empty fields. They look at the field, survey it and see what can be built there.”
“They see it from start to finish,” Jackson said.
While at North Fort Myers High School, she served as Executive Council Secretary for Student Government, president of Interact Club, a member of the National Honor Society, captain of the varsity volleyball team, earned her Cambridge AICE Program diploma and has volunteered more than 300 hours while working a part-time job. She earned a 5.50 weighted high school GPA and loves calculus.
“Scholarships can change lives,” said Jackson, a Cape Coral resident.”Thank you so very much. It’s a huge honor.”
Someday, Rincon hopes to own a $3,000 Jupiter French horn but cost makes it beyond his financial orbit. Still, his B-C scholarship will help realize his dreams to become a music therapist. Rincon plans to attend Florida SouthWestern State for two years then attend Florida Gulf Coast University or Western Michigan University to earn his bachelor’s in Music Therapy. He has always loved music and began playing the French horn at Immokalee Middle School but has only rented and never owned the instrument. During high school, Rincon played in the marching and concert bands, served in the BETA Club, participated in several community projects as well as an animal neutering program.
“Hello everyone, I just want to thank all of you guys for choosing me and my dad and my mom for supporting me all the way,” Rincon said.
“Music therapy is very unique,” he said. “You get to use music to help people and mostly people with mental disabilities like Alzheimer’s, dementia and depression.”
“The French horn is a very very beautiful instrument. The sound is so unique because of its shape. The pipes made to form the instrument look like a big old snail shell.”
His parents could not be more proud — or grateful.
“Out of the possibly more than one billion families on this planet, my wife and I were given the gift of Ethan,” said Frank Rincon. “We love you and I’m so proud and I know you are going to do some wonderful things.”
To reach JANA MACKIN, please email news@breezenewspapers.com