OUR SCHOLARSHIP AUCTION REALLY DOES MATTER

In 2009, the DeSoto County Historical Society Board of Directors agreed to grant a scholarship to a DeSoto County High School student beginning with the 2010 graduating class. In order to accomplish this feat on behalf of our organization, we decided to use funds derived from our annual Christmas Auction, which is held immediately after the luncheon at our December meeting. We could only muster $500 to award to our first recipient. However, since then, we have given $1000 each year, thanks to our membership’s excellent response to the annual auction now held during the September meeting since 2018. We also opened our scholarship to students living in DeSoto County who attend homeschool or a private school.

From time to time, we wonder where these young people are and what they have accomplished since they graduated. Each of them or a family member has been contacted, and their accomplishments are as follows, beginning with the year they graduated from high school.

2010-    Katie Colding    graduated from the University of South Florida with a degree in Public Health, and currently works with mentally handicapped adults in the Tampa area. She will start a Masters Program in 2017 at Florida State University.

2011-    Jahna Leonard     is majoring in English at Florida Gulf Coast University.

2012-    Shelbie Bennett    is attending University of Florida, majoring in Anthropology.

2013-     Haylie Farley    plans to attend South Florida State College in January 2017 and after receiving her AA degree will pursue her studies to be a pediatrician.

2014-     Trey Jennings    received his AA in the Spring of 2016 from Florida Southwestern State College (FSW), formerly Edison State College.  He was given a full time staff position as an Admission Assistant and is now working on his Bachelors in Supervision and Management at FSW.  His goal is to be the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of a major non-profit organization.

2015-     Jamie Westberry is attending Southeastern University, Lakeland, majoring in Psychology with a minor in Theology.  Her goal is to be a Children’s Christian Counselor.

2016-     Grant Potter          is attending South Florida State College, and after attaining his AA degree, he plans to transfer to the University of Florida and pursue a degree in Physical Therapy/Sports Medicine.

​2017 –  Briana Harris          will attend the University of Florida and study finance.

​2020 –  Allison Bordner    graduated from Florida Southwestern State Collegiate High School and will attend the University of Florida.

​2021 – Katelynn Zamora    will complete her AA degree in accounting at South Florida State College this summer.  Then she will start her bachelor’s degree in accounting at the University of South Florida.

2022 – Shayne Swanberg    is a graduate of DeSoto Christian School and will attend Pensacola Christian College.