For over a decade the Poinciana Council of The Osceola Chamber has offered an annual scholarship to graduating high school seniors who live in the Poinciana area, which they have defined as anywhere within zip codes 34758, 34759, or 34746. This year, the Poinciana Council Board of Directors once again offered this scholarship opportunity to worthy graduating seniors living in those zip codes, as well as to students already enrolled in post-secondary institutions so they might continue with their degree or certification program.
Each year the Poinciana Council Board of Directors solicits applications from eligible candidates. This year, the Board established a Poinciana Council Scholarship Fund, and donations of any denomination are accepted year-round. Significant contributions this year were made by C3 Wellness Spa and HCA Florida Poinciana Hospital. Thanks to an Osceola County Community Betterment Grant from District 3 Commissioner Brandon Arrington, the Council was able to match their collected funds in order to award four $1000 scholarships, plus add an additional $500 for each student resulting in scholarship awards totalling $1500 each.
After an application review process, the Poinciana Council Board chose three remarkable high school seniors from three different Osceola County School District schools and one student enrolled at Valencia College. The decision was based on extracurricular and volunteer activity, recommendation from the students’ teachers and advisors, and, most importantly, the students’ essay response to the prompt “As a young adult/professional in the Poinciana Community, please address the biggest challenges facing the community and ways that you can address those challenges considering your educational goals, life experiences, and any obstacles or hardships that you have overcome.”
On Monday, April 29 the Poinciana Council Board of Directors celebrated these amazing students at the annual Poinciana Council Scholarship Awards Luncheon held in the Media Center at Poinciana High School. Lunch was catered, as it has been every year, by the Poinciana High School culinary students under the instruction of Chef Juan Alamo. On the menu this year was an appetizer of beef or vegetable arancini, wood-fired pizza margherita or bianca chicken, and a limoncello creme brulee for dessert.
The winners this year were a very accomplished and diverse group representing four schools. Najlaa Erlhouizi, a Liberty High School student who just passed her phlebotomy certification and is her senior class Vice President, is enrolled at Valencia College for the fall semester. Keenan Lewis from Poinciana High School is pursuing a degree in accounting form the University of South Florida in the fall with the ultimate goal of leading a non-profit that provides financial education to lower income families. Arturo Williams, who attends the Osceola County School for the Arts, is headed to New York with his jazz band this month before pursuing an engineering degree in college in the fall. Karen Zerpa, a Valencia student, could not be present at the event, but her 15-year-old sister Valeria did an excellent job representing her and reading her essay on challenges the Poinciana Community faces.
Said 2024 Poinciana Council Chair Lennore Turcotte, “It is an honor and privilege to award scholarships to these four amazing students on behalf of the Poinciana Council. These local Poinciana students are shining examples of the caliber of students in the Poinciana Community. Each winner, along with outstanding academic achievement, had spent many hours volunteering at local charities, engaging in enriching cultural activities such as band, or leading their school’s student government. The student’s penned heartfelt essays on the challenges facing the Poinciana Community including traffic patterns, lack of affordable housing, continued poverty and the lack of high paying, stable jobs in the community. Our hope is that these students will return to the Poinciana community after they complete their education to offer solutions to the problems that they have identified and to continue to make Poinciana a rewarding place to live, work and play.”
Our keynote speakers for this year’s luncheon were Commissioner Arrington and Valencia College Poinciana Campus Executive Dean Sandie Martinez. Commissioner Arrington gave the students a reality check by letting them know that “This isn’t the end of the line. You’re going to need more education. Know that you’re not smart enough to know everything; you’re going to continue to learn. Use the people around you, because education won’t always be in the classroom.” Particularly resonant in a room full of business people, he added, “You will spend more time with the people you work with than your own families, so like what you do…Dollar amount is not where success is found.” Ms. Martinez reminded them that they are “sons and daughters of our community. Be proud of who you are and where you come from.”
The annual scholarship awards could not be possible with sponsorships and community support. This year’s event was sponsored by Osceola Community Health Services and Valencia College. Poinciana High School continues to support and celebrate this event year after year, and the Poinciana Council’s impact is heightened by the generous Community Betterment Grant program and Commissioner Arrington.
If you would like to support this event or assist the Poinciana Council Board with their other education- and future-focused programs in the Poinciana area, reach out to us at cpilkington@theosceolachamber.com. See more images from the event in the gallery below.
Do you know someone under 40 who works OR lives in Osceola County who you consider an up-and-coming leader in our community? The Young Professionals of Osceola County want to give you the opportunity to nominate an individual for their Tomorrow’s Leaders Today Award! This Award recognizes individuals 40 and under that live or work in Osceola County and who go above and beyond in their acts of service, both professionally and for the community.
The Young Professionals launched the Tomorrow’s Leaders Today Awards in 2018. That year, eight remarkable under-40s were honored. Nominations* for the 2024 awards are open through July 15. Nominees will submit a detailed application and winners will be honored at a cocktail reception in the fall. Check out the list of past winners and some photos of past awards events below.
Nominate outstanding candidates here!
*Please note, nominating the same candidate multiple times does not increase their chances of winning. One nomination is sufficient for a candidate to receive an application. Winners are judged on the basis of the application they complete.
Past Winners of the Tomorrow’s Leaders Today Award
2018
Erika Booth, Osceola County School Board
Brianne Stefek, Osceola Arts
Keith Trace
Mary Downey, The Hope Partnership
Jennifer Bondy, Overstreet Law
Austin Blake, City of Kissimmee
2019
Kelly Ann Trace, Reach & Headquarters Co-Working
Candice Shields, The Osceola Library System
Krystle Bayliss, The Osceola County School District
TJ Close, Kissimmee Police Department
Ebony Cobb, Public Defender’s Office
Will Cooper, The Hope Partnership
Ian Downing, Kissimmee Police Department
Andrew Harrell, Harrell Insurance
Robert Holborn, Osceola County Sheriff’s Office
2020
Terry Castillo, Osceola County School Board
Rachel McIntee, Osceola County Property Appraiser
Kristine Zwick, Reach
Jose Campa, Osceola County Sheriff’s Office
Christina Ruiz, Tupperware Brands
Michelle Sanchez, Valencia College
Alan Sherbourne, Orange County Public Schools
2021
LaVell Monger, RTW Photography
Kendyl Bass, Osceola County School District
Henry Thacker, Balfour Beatty
Kari Ewalt, Osceola County Supervisor of Elections’ Office
Natasha Billyer
2022
David Maddock, Osceola County School District
Charminta Brown, Valencia College
Kira Takanen, A Helping Hand Community Counseling
Carla Rivera-Marrero, State Representative Kristen Arrington
Jozef Bladek, The City of Kissimmee
Mike Nichola, Osceola County
Lauryn Day, Assistant State Attorney
Michael Ballone, Denn John Middle School Principal
2023
Nicole Abodo, Deloitte/Ufuoma, Incorporated
Benjamin Burnett, City of Kissimmee
Shirley Dor, Dorsainvil Creative
Abigail Ellis, Steps Foundation
Ulysses Escobar, Elev8 Mortgage
Yanin Hansen, El Osceola Star Newspaper
Alyssa Noel, Hello Website Design/Vision Osceola
Edgardo Salgado, Chase
In April, Chamber President John Newstreet and staff took an excursion under the sea with SeaWorld to learn about their efforts to rescue and rehabilitate sealife at their Orlando park. On a tour of some of SeaWorld Rescue’s on-site facilities, we met manatees, sea turtles, dolphins, and unique species of coral that are being given second chances at life in the wild thanks to SeaWorld’s team of experts.
SeaWorld Orlando has two manatees, Nina and Sarah, that call the park home full time, but at any given moment SeaWorld is also home to many, many more temporary manatee residents – from those receiving round-the-clock care at the manatee ICU, to those about to return to their homes, to the tiniest of sea cows in Florida’s only manatee neonatal unit. In 2023 alone, SeaWorld Orlando rescued 58 manatees and released 32 into the wild. So far for 2024 they have rescued 31. SeaWorld Orlando works with five other facilities around the country to make sure injured manatees get the care they need, and the Orlando park alone has tended to manatees from as far north as Virginia and as far west as Texas. Once they have reached a healthy status, every effort is made to return these manatees to the waters they originally called home.
Rehabilitating a manatee costs at minimum $250,000, and as much as over $2 million, per animal. For this reason, SeaWorld is heavily reliant on state and federal funding for their rescue efforts. Your park patronage also helps to offset some of these costs, which is an exciting bonus to a fun day at one of Florida’s top theme parks!
SeaWorld Orlando’s rescue work also extends to sea turtles. Sometimes these creatures wander a little too far north into climates to which they are not suited. SeaWorld’s rescue teams retrieve them to return to Florida waters. Just days before the Chamber visit, SeaWorld Rescue had released 30 turtles at Cocoa Beach. Some current residents at the park are destined to be relocated to New Smyrna.
In addition to the dolphins that park patrons can come in contact with at SeaWorld Orlando’s Dolphin Encounter, thanks to SeaWorld Rescue, the park also provides refuge to dolphins in trouble. When a two-month old baby dolphin was found injured and stranded in Clearwater, SeaWorld stepped in and brought it to Orlando where he is still rehabilitating. Between his injuries and loss of the influence of his mother, this little guy needed to both improve his health and learn “how to be a dolphin” with help from SeaWorld’s trainers and older dolphin friends. For a small dolphin the SeaWorld team worried might not make it, he is doing remarkably well.
Thanks to support from Florida’s representatives like Congressman Darren Soto and Senator Marco Rubio, the Coral Reef Restoration Act was passed. SeaWorld and the Florida Coral Rescue Center are working to grow hundreds of species of coral, including Caribbean species that die off and do not replenish due to a deadly disease that has devastated coral populations since it was discovered in 2015. These facilities give the coral a healthy place to grow and also give researchers an opportunity to study the disease, Stony Coral Tissue Loss, which disintegrates the coral’s skin. A few years ago 8 coral of one specific species was brought to SeaWorld Orlando. These might have been the last of that species, but today they have grown the population to 54. SeaWorld Orlando is home to 20% of the 3,000 know coral species that are under human care.
SeaWorld is celebrating their 60th anniversary this year, as their original park in San Diego, California opened in March of 1964. The Orlando park followed in 1973, as well as two other parks in Aurora, Ohio and San Antonio, Texas that opened in 1970 and 1988, respectively. Since 1964, SeaWorld can boast that they have rescued 40,000 animals. The Chamber team was thoroughly impressed with the daily work done right in our backyard at SeaWorld Orlando to help generate this impressive level of impact and to keep the populations of Florida’s most unique species thriving. Here’s to 60 more years and counting!
