JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – An Ed White High School student and a recent Ed White graduate are among four students statewide this year to be awarded college scholarships through the Children's Home Society Foundation’s Virginia Morey Rell Memorial Scholarship Fund.
Bre'Onna Brewer, a junior at Edward H. White Military Academy of Leadership, a CHS community partnership school, and Cierra Lynn Warren, a 2017 graduate will receive the scholarships, which were established by former CHS President and CEO David Bundy, who created the fund to honor the memory of his mother and her legacy of generosity as a foster parent, adoptive grandparent and through her support of many causes and organizations including CHS.
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Raised in a single-parent home and working a part-time job to pay for college, Brewer became active in EWMAL’s Student Leadership Council during her junior year and credits it with helping her develop leadership skills and an attitude of community service.
Upon graduation, Brewer hopes to attend Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University, majoring in secondary education.
“My lifelong goal is to become a teacher in the public school system, hopefully high school or middle schools, where help is needed most,” Brewer said.
Eventually, she wants to earn a master’s degree and become a high school principal “to help students graduate and be the best they can be.”
Warren works three jobs to pay for college and also was active in the Student Leadership Council and received a CHS scholarship to participate in the Florida Senate Page program.
She has ambitious goals to study sports management with a minor in counseling at Trinity Baptist College before joining the Air Force to become a pilot; she hopes to eventually retire to coach college softball and be a professional motivational speaker.
She considers her high school involvement with CHS an inspiration.
“You provided me with a breathtaking life experience which changed my direction,” Warren said. “I plan to never go for the bottom of the barrel, and always work to be at the top of everything I do in life.”
The CHS Foundation hopes to help both students achieve their goals.
“The scholarships provided through this endowment allow the legacy of Virginia Morey Rell to continue transforming the lives and futures of youth,” said Michael Shaver, CHS CEO. “Such generosity advances her mission – and ours – to build bridges to success for children.”