Krop hosted an event for ninth graders to learn more about Bright Futures, a scholarship program that helps Florida students pursue their education, with multiple state and district representatives as speakers and the Superintendent Dr. Jose L. Dotres in attendance.

     Commissioner of the Department of Education in the State of Florida, and former Krop student, Anastasios Kamoutsas, led the talk, giving students insight on what they could achieve with the help of the scholarship, with students needing at least a 3.0 GPA to be able to get 75 percent of the scholarship.

     “Common misconceptions are that you need a 4.0 GPA for the scholarship, that you have to be an AP student or you have to be an honors student and that’s not the case,” Kamoutsas said. “There are classes like art, or PE or business organizations, classes that students should be able to get an A on. You want to focus on balancing your GPA out so you’re hitting that 3.0 benchmark.”

     The Secretary of the Florida Lottery, John Davis, spoke about his partnership with the governor to fund education and help students coming from humble beginnings. 

     Students were walked through each of the Bright Futures scholarships –which are the Florida Academic Scholars (FAS), the Florida Medallion Scholars (FMS), the Florida Gold Seal CAPE Scholars (GSC) and the Gold Seal Vocational Scholars (GSV)– how to apply, and what they would receive if they were to be accepted in one of the programs, with FAS and FMS being the well-known ones. 

     “I was able to get information about each of the scholarships and how I could use them not only for college but for technical schools as well, with different professional opportunities like becoming a chef,” freshman Audriana Ruiz said.

     Kamoutsas highlighted the fact that this scholarship and the opportunity that is being offered is for those who come from challenging and difficult places with humble backgrounds, but that have a passion for success and want to prosper in college, university or technical school debt-free, becoming something of themselves.

     “I was one of those students,” Kamoutsas said. “I remember there were educators in my life who went above and beyond to make a difference so that I could be successful and be where I am at, and so this is my vision of giving back to the community I grew up in.”