Catalina is one of six students at the Osceola Campus who were named Johnson Scholars this year. The others include: Kiana Boodram, who hopes to become a neurologist; Kimberly Muniz, who would like to become a physician assistant; Danikha Pierre, who is trying to decide whether to go to medical school or become a physician assistant; Kevin Rivera, who hopes to become a surgeon; and Regina Russell of Orlando, who wants to become a pediatric anesthesiologist.

Over the past three years, 11 Valencia students have received Johnson Foundation Scholarships, which provide $1,000 per semester for students while they continue their studies at Valencia and $2,000 per semester at UCF. Once selected, they will receive the scholarship until graduation as long as they continue to meet the criteria set by the school. Recipients of the scholarship are deemed “Johnson Scholars,” and throughout their college careers they will have special program requirements that emphasize leadership development.

The Johnson Scholarship Foundation, a private educational foundation based in south Florida, began a matching-grant partnership with Valencia and UCF in 2012.

“We’d been looking for a way to invest in what were then community colleges. Part of our mission is to assist disadvantaged people to attain education, and by disadvantaged, we mean people with economic and social disadvantages,” says Malcolm Macleod, director of the Johnson Scholarship Foundation.

Although the foundation provides funding to Florida’s universities, Macleod said his organization began working with two-year colleges because they are often starting points for students from low-income families. “We’ve come to see community and state colleges as bridges, bridges from poverty to education,” he says, “and of course, once you have education, that’s your ticket to a better job and a better life.”

At Valencia, officials chose to target the Johnson Scholarship funds for students studying biomedical science at the Osceola Campus. “We know completing a bachelor’s degree in a science field is a significant challenge,” says Dr. Kathleen Plinske, president of Valencia’s Osceola and Kissimmee campuses. “We thought offering this (scholarship) program would create a community for our students that would help them persist in a difficult field.”

For 19-year-old Regina Russell, who went to high school in Jamaica and moved to Florida to live with her father and attend college, the scholarship will help her chase her dream of medical school. “I’m not currently working, so my father has been paying the tuition and he has other children, so this scholarship will be a great help,” she says.