Local High School Students Receive $250,000 Scholarship

Two Hillsborough County public high school students are among the 10 recipients nationally receiving a $250,000 scholarship from the Leonore Annenberg College Scholarship Fund.

The students were nominated by the Council for Educational Change for their exemplary academic performance, leadership skills and commitment to their community.

Isabelle Morris, a senior at Plant High School, keeps a rigorous schedule as the coxswain of the rowing team, a concert master in the orchestra and an honor student with a 5.2 grade point average. Morris is a member of the Spanish and National honor societies and tutors students at a local elementary school.

She plans to attend either Emory University or Rice University to study cognitive psychology.

Sean Vennett, a junior at Jefferson High School Center for International Studies, currently serves as the student government vice president and is a member of the Town and Country Youth Council. In addition to keeping a 5.1 grade point average, he frequently volunteers at a center for those with special needs and will earn his Eagle Scout designation from the Boy Scouts at the completion of his project.

He plans to attend Harvard University, focusing on cancer research.

In addition to funding scholarships, the Leonore Annenberg School Fund for Children has funded a $50,000 grant for Lockhart Elementary Magnet School.

This literacy grant will offer students the ability to use E-readers at one of a number of Literacy Zones around the Lockhart campus while enhancing student achievement.

Over the past five years, the Council for Educational Change has funded grants totaling more than $700,000.

For additional information about the council and its work, visit www.changeeducation.org. The Leonore Annenberg Scholarship and Schools Fund is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

The award winners and grant recipient will be honored on Tuesday, April 30 from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. with a celebration at Monroe Middle School.

Do you know a student who has received an honor? Post word of it for free in the South Tampa Patch announcements.

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