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WARSAW — Smiles shone bright at James Kenan High School on Aug. 28, as Amirah Loveless was surprised with a $40,000 BigFuture scholarship in front of hundreds of classmates.
Amirah’s parents, Kimberly Rose and Charles Whitfield, were just as surprised with the announcement. According to Michael Holton, James Kenan High School principal, the school asked Amirah’s parents to come to the school, telling them that it was good news but didn’t explain what it was about.
“They begged us to tell them why we wanted them to be at the school this morning for two or three weeks now — they just had no idea,” Holton told Duplin Journal. “It was a neat thing to see their reaction.”
Holton said the school was excited to have the opportunity to participate in the surprise with Amirah receiving such a huge scholarship, and she was completely unaware of what was going on. “It was a great honor,” said Holton.
“We are still surprised,” said Charles Whitfield with a huge smile, adding that Amirah was very much deserving of the scholarship.
“It’s truly a blessing to be able to be a part of it,” said Whitfield. “She is a good child. I’m very proud of her.”
Kimberly Rose echoed the sentiment. “It means a whole lot. She’s been working hard,” she said. “This is a big blessing.”
The surprise announcement took place in the school’s gym, following a presentation on College Board’s BigFuture from Brian Barnes, College Board senior director.
The BigFuture website serves as a platform to help high school students plan for their career, recommending steps students can take to explore career interests, find colleges and scholarships, and access financial aid. BigFuture rewards students’ efforts to take action providing chances to win scholarships.
“Lots of tools to help you,” said Barnes. “Because you can’t just think about your future. You’ve got to act on your future. You know, either things happen to you, or you happen to things. … Taking action, it’s a good movement in the right direction.
“There’s over $4 billion in scholarships that are listed on this website that you may be able to apply for. A lot of times you think to yourself, ‘Oh, I don’t know if I can do a scholarship. I’m not this or I’m not that.’ You don’t know until you look,” added Barnes, explaining that there are scholarships for students who are from different backgrounds.
Barnes said each month the College Board gives away two $40,000 scholarships and hundreds of $500 scholarships to students for going onto the website and starting their plan.
“It doesn’t matter what your grades are. It doesn’t matter what courses you’ve taken. What matters is that you took some action toward your future. … You can begin applying in your sophomore year and you can be awarded in your junior or senior year — and there’s just one step. You go and you register … and you might have this opportunity. … We have at least one student here who’s done that before,” said Barnes as he called Amirah to the floor.
“Would you like it if I could tell Amirah she won a $500 scholarship? That would be amazing, wouldn’t it? I just can’t because she won a $40,000 scholarship,” said Barnes as the crowd erupted in applause.
Amirah is one of the two $40,000 scholarship winners in the country for the month of August.
The lucky junior filled out a career list of jobs that she was interested in, and through doing that her name went into a lottery pick.
Amirah told Duplin Journal she had no idea filling out a list on BigFuture would win her a scholarship.
“I didn’t know because it was on campus, and I just started doing stuff. I didn’t know it was going to get me $40,000,” said the surprised teen.
Amirah told Duplin Journal that she has not decided what college she wants to attend, but she wants to study nursing. “That’s something I’ve been wanting to do,” said Amirah, adding that she was also considering joining the military. Amirah is currently in the school’s JROTC program.
Visit BigFuture.org for information to help students complete college and career planning steps on BigFuture to earn scholarships.
