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Four $1,000 scholarships were recently awarded to high school seniors by the Haitian-American Community Coalition of Southwest Florida.
“All four of them were young ladies,” Scholarship Chair and school board member Betsy Vaughn said during the last school board meeting. “Maybe 20 percent of applications came from young men. That may be a trend, especially among minority males. Maybe that is something we can think about to get more of the minority males to participate in those kinds of things.”
The four recipients include Mertchi Gourdet from Lehigh Senior High School, Elshamma Saint-Lot from East Lee High School, Danaikea Jean from Ida Baker High School and Aschley Joseph from Estero High School.
“It is a joy to me to be able to hand out those scholarships to Haitian Heritage students. One of the top of those top students was born in Haiti. She and her parents came to the U.S. We have had students that came to the U.S. as middle school students and rose to the top of their class with all kinds of honors and all kinds of community involvement,” Vaughn said. “At least three of the four are going into some medical field. Often it was because they were looking back at relatives they had, people they knew that didn’t have proper medical care.”
To qualify for the scholarship the applicants must be a Lee County graduating senior of Haitian heritage, who will be enrolled in post-secondary education by Sept. 1, Vaughn said. In addition, they also look at the students class rank, grade point average, and two recommendations from a school teacher, counselor, administrator, or coach, along with a personal essay on the topic of the influence of life experiences on short and long term goals.
Saint-Lot said she found out about the scholarship from her counselor through the AVID program.
“It means a lot to me,” she said of being a recipient. “With this scholarship I can further my education.”
To receive a scholarship from her community also meant a lot, as she was receiving financial support locally.
Saint-Lot will attend the University of Florida, her “dream school,” this summer.
“It has a lot of opportunities to support me and my career. I want to be a doctor in the future. There is a hospital near by to make connections and work closely in the medical field. It is really important to me,” she said.
While at UF, she wants to specialize in becoming a cardiologist, which is driven from an experience while attending a Haitian church in Immokalee. Saint-Lot said there was a girl who never had access in her home country to have the medical need and care that she needed due to a rare heart disease, which resulted in flying from Haiti to Florida to receive the care needed.
“That really affected me,” Saint-Lot said.
She was born and raised in Southwest Florida and currently lives in Lehigh. Saint-Lot graduated Sunday, May 22 from East Lee High School.
“It was really good, very exciting. To me it gives me the opportunity to move and start a new chapter in my life,” Saint-Lot said about graduating.
Jean also heard about the scholarship through an email from her counselor.
“I was really happy because I have been applying for scholarships a lot. I never really got the chance to get one. I am really proud to get the scholarship, especially the Haitian one. It made me feel proud,” she said. “Thank you for the opportunity. I am very grateful and appreciative that I was a recipient. Being a Haitian-American, your parents will really lead the way. They expect a lot out of you. If you know what you want to do, they will definitely help you.”
This summer, Jean will head to the University of Central Florida with the plan on becoming a certified nurse midwife. The desire to go into this field stems from her love of babies and being fascinated that a women’s body can nurture and care for a child in the womb.
“I believe babies are a blessing in life,” Jean said, adding that this career path “would make my day every day. I love newborns. It’s a special moment for new mothers and fathers.”
Jean graduated from Ida S. Baker High School Saturday, May 21, an experience she said was really great.
While attending high school she also took dual enrollment classes, earning 18 credits, which were the basics for her AA degree. She also took a CNA course in high school earning her CNA certification.
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