Valencia guides young teens to college
Valencia spends four years guiding students to higher education with scholarships, mentors
The school’s Horizon Scholars Program provides scholarships, mentors and advice to students from low-income families.
“It is one of the most rewarding experiences ever to see a young person realize their dreams can come true.”
— Kelly Astro, director of the Horizon Scholars Program
Early on, Crystal Menzie wasn’t interested in meeting with her newly assigned mentor. The ninth-grader wanted to hang out with her friends during lunch and didn’t see the point of the scheduled chats.
“Why should I tell a stranger about my personal life?” she thought.
Her mentor, Heidi Shugg, drove several times to Dr. Phillips High School in Orange County to meet with Crystal, only to find the teenager was a no-show.
“It was kind of hard to connect with Crystal in the beginning,” said Shugg, a Valencia College adviser and a mentor through the college’s Horizon Scholars Program. “I always joke with her, ‘You ghosted me’.”
But Crystal, now 18, came around. She was surprised and pleased when Shugg helped solve a problem with her math teacher, appreciative of the guidance offered to support her dream of becoming a surgeon and happy for Shugg’s sympathetic ear when in a fight with a friend or wrestling with other teenage issues.
Before Crystal graduated from Dr. Phillips on May 24, she made sure Shugg had a ticket to the event and asked her to sit with her mother during the ceremony.
“I wanted her to see me,” said Crystal, who heads next to Florida State University. “She’s done so much for me.”
Crystal was one of 67 Horizon Scholars who graduated from high school this spring, the largest group the program has helped shepherd to success since Valencia began running it in 2007. The scholars’ program will welcome 100 new students in August, bringing its total to a record-breaking 500.
The program provides scholarships, mentors and advice to students from low-income families. The program taps teenagers at the end of eighth grade and then follows them through high school, with support continuing even as they enroll in college.
“We build villages around each one of our students,” said Kelly Astro, the program’s director.
The typical scholar is an average student in middle school and would be the first in their family to attend college. Many seem uncertain if college is for them, she said, so it is “life-changing” to be offered guidance and aid to get them there.
“It is one of the most rewarding experiences ever to see a young person realize their dreams can come true,” Astro added.
The program, which works in all of Orange County’s public high schools, is an affiliate of the statewide Take Stock in Children Program, which similarly selects eighth-graders for state college scholarships then mentors them through high school.
Valencia has built its program by recruiting more mentors — about 500 now —and raising more scholarship money through the Valencia College Foundation.
Melanie Torres, a program participant, graduated last month from Boone High School.
Without Horizon Scholars, she said,
“I would probably just be graduating from high school clueless.”
Instead, she’s heading to the University of Central Florida to study nursing.
Melanie’s mentor offered advice and support — “My cheerleader, basically” — and though she works in economic development, she researched and found opportunities for Melanie, who’d expressed an interest in health care, to tour a local hospital and speak with those in the profession.
Melanie and her mentor met twice a month during lunch at school and then over Zoom during the pandemic, also checking in with calls and texts.
“They guide you through so many obstacles,” Melanie said. “It’s a great opportunity. It’s life-changing.”
It feels that way for the mentors, too, said Ed Bustos, director of international admissions at Rollins College, who is mentoring his second scholar, a student at Winter Park High School. His first, a Jones High School graduate, is at FSU, and they are still in touch.
“Just seeing them grow, it’s exciting,” he said. “For anyone out there looking to do a good deed, this is a good one, and they’ll guide you through it,” he said.
A first-generation college student himself, Bustos said he was eager to offer academic help to students who would otherwise be navigating their way to college alone.
But, Bustos admitted, the first few meetings with a student aren’t always easy, despite the training provided by the college.
“I think it’s a nerve-wracking experience at first,” he said. “You’re meeting a stranger, a teenager.”
But after a few sessions, he found the boys he mentored willing to open up about school, home and whatever else was on their minds. Sometimes they’d get so engrossed in their conversations, they’d lose track of time. “Wait,” he would say. “I have to get to a meeting. You have to go to class.”
Of the 67 scholars who graduated this spring, 36 will attend Valencia, 31 will head to other colleges and universities and two are joining the military, Astro said. The program’s scholarships cover two years at Valencia but can be used at four-year schools, too. Program counselors help students seek out other aid to cover costs not paid for by the program.
Crystal, who moved here from Jamaica when she was in the sixth grade and lives with her single mother, last month won an extra scholarship from the program, which will help her cover her third year at FSU.
She covered her face in surprise and began crying when told.
“Oh, my God, Crystal. Congratulations,” said her mother, Ivy Powell. Turning to the Astro and another Valencia official she added, “Thank you so much.”
Crystal was excited in eighth grade to learn she’d secured a Valencia scholarship. “I really hit the jackpot,” she thought.
It was meeting with a mentor she wanted to shrug off. But college officials told the ninth-grader meeting with her mentor, taking part in college advising sessions and doing volunteer work were all required by the scholars’ program.
Then Shugg worked to intervene when a routinely late school bus was making Crystal late for first-period algebra class. Shugg couldn’t make the bus come earlier, but she did talk to the math teacher.
That was huge for Crystal, who felt the teacher wrongly viewed her as a disinterested student. “I’m not a skipper,” she said. “I love to do my school work.”
She realized Shugg cared and soon she found her new mentor was a good listener, too. She didn’t skip any more meetings and even asked, “Oh, Ms. Heidi can I invite one of my friends in? They’ve got questions about Valencia.”
Shugg, who has mentored another student as well, said she was delighted to watch Crystal blossom during their four years together. They were both thrilled by her FSU acceptance.
“To share that with her has been wonderful,” she added.
Shugg plans to remain a mentor. “This program,” she said, “it has my heart.”