Over 100 Sarasota County middle and high school students and their parents filed into the Selby Auditorium on the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee campus on Saturday, June 25 to attend the Safe Children Coalition’s (SCC) annual career summit and cheer on the college-bound graduating seniors as they received scholarships.
The students are part of the coalition's Achievers program, which supports Sarasota County students throughout their academic careers by emphasizing personal development, college preparation, community service, leadership, cultural enrichment and career opportunities and empowering students to set and achieve educational and personal goals. The program primarily serves underprivileged Black and Latinx students, many of whom go on to become first-generation college students. Since 2008, the program has awarded over $1 million in scholarships.
“Partnering with organizations like the Safe Children Coalition is integral to our mission as a community-engaged institution,” said Brett Kemker, regional vice chancellor and vice provost for academic affairs and student success on the Sarasota-Manatee campus. “We recognize the importance of meeting the needs of our local community, and we are always looking for new ways to help prepare knowledgeable, involved citizens who contribute meaningfully to the region's overall social and economic success.”
The career summit has been an annual event on the Sarasota-Manatee campus since 2010 thanks, in part, to Darren Gambrell, assistant director of student services.
“The beauty of the Achievers program is that it provides scholarships to all college-bound students,” said Gambrell. “That’s huge. We know how often students face financial barriers when deciding to pursue higher education. So, what this program does, through funding from the Safe Children Coalition, is lessen that barrier.”
The career summit typically features rotating sessions. For the students, there is a panel of local entrepreneurs and presentations on financial literacy, self-help and fitness and nutrition.
“There’s also programming specifically for parents,” Gambrell said. “That’s another great thing about this program. It gets the parents involved.”
This year’s summit – which featured remarks by program alumni, advisory board members and Karen Holbrook, regional chancellor at the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus – was a little different.
“This was the first time we’ve met in person since the pandemic,” said Jone Williams, educational outreach director for the Safe Children’s Coalition. “The last time we awarded scholarships in person was 2019.”
Williams maintains important relationships with Sarasota County high schools to bring new students into the program. “I have contacts at every Sarasota County high school,” Williams said. “The program has been around for 32 years, so we have alumni whose kids are now in the program.”
USF student Madison Sosa got involved with the organization as a high schooler after watching her older sister Priscilla Sosa go through the program.
"The Achievers program does such a great job of reaching out to students who might not know much about college and all the available options,” Madison Sosa said. “Mrs. Williams does everything. She’ll put together a panel with, like, five doctors, so that we could come in and ask them any question we wanted. The program prepared us for the ACT and the SAT. It taught me how to write my college resume, how to apply.”
The Sosa sisters were the first in their family to attend college. Both chose to enroll at USF after touring the Sarasota-Manatee campus as part of the program. Today, Madison Sosa is a fourth-year on the Sarasota-Manatee campus. She was recently elected to the student government position of lieutenant governor. Priscilla Sosa is a dentist.
Middle and high school students interested in becoming achievers must maintain a GPA of 2.5 or greater, participate in community service projects and attend scheduled programming. The group will tour the Tampa campus later this week.