Florida A & M President James Ammons awarded nearly $3.6 million in scholarships to potential students during the third annual “Up Close and Personal” tour. Jacksonville, Orlando, Tallahassee and Tampa, Fla., and Thomasville, Ga., were the five cities Ammons on this year’s tour. Ammons travels across Florida and parts of Georgia offering scholarships to scholars through the Presidential Scholars Program.
“This tour provides an opportunity for FAMU to reassure students and their parents that we are here to help make their dreams into a reality,” Ammons said. “We are excited about traveling to these cities to offer students an opportunity to be a part of the FAMU family.”
Ammons traveled with university recruiters, administrators, student leaders, and approximately 50 FAMU students, including members in the FAMU Connection. The FAMU Connection is a group of students who tell FAMU’s history in a theatrical performance.
FAMU budgeted an estimated $35,000 from private funds to pay for the tour.
More than 100 high school students benefited from this tour receiving scholarships.
According to the Office of Communications, high school students in Orlando, $560,000; Jacksonville, $1,990,000; Thomasville, Ga., $578,000; Tampa, $421,000.
In Tallahassee, Ammons awarded $879,000 in scholarships to 33 potential students, including the Life Gets Better (LGB) scholarships. The LGB scholarship is worth $85,000, and includes a laptop computer, annual stipend and summer internship. These funds could be used for tuition, room and board, groceries and other necessary items or services.
Shinequa Revills, a student at Westover High School in Thomasville, Ga., was awarded the LGB scholarship. She was one of 12 students awarded scholarships totaling $578,000.
Revills said she did not expect to win the scholarship, but she was felt great be a recipient.
With the rising cost in tuition and budget cuts being issue to the University, the “Up close and Personal” tour gives high school students a way to pay for college. Shazvae Turner, 19, a sophomore social work student from Panama City, Fla., said she thinks the school needs to save money but she supports the idea of continuing the tour in the future.
Ammons said, “As a product from a single parent household, I know the transformation that can take place at FAMU. FAMU is the shinning light on the hill, the place that takes you and molds you into the person that you want to become.”
Genae Smith, 19, freshman graphic design student from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., said she would like to see FAMU continue the annual tour to help increase the enrollment of top caliber students to the university.
“I am a scholarship student, and without it I would not be here.” Smith said. ” These students can improve the overall image of the university.”