PEF Scholarships

High School Graduation 2017

Scholarships Received: Grant Lacerte Memorial Scholarship for Excellence in Music, Winter Haven Women’s Club Scholarship, and T.J. Bowden “It’s all good” Passion Project

Kasie graduated in the top ten at WHHS and was an active member in the band and multiple other clubs on campus. She was heavily involved in the community as well as music theatre. At Florida State University, Kasie was a member of the Florida State Marching Chiefs and went on to earn a Medal of Honor. She also had the amazing opportunity to serve as President for her sorority and be a peer counselor to the college kids on campus. Kasie graduated in December of 2021 with two degrees and three certificates.  She is starting her masters in the fall of 2022 focused on mental health counseling while earning accreditation in play therapy. After completing, Kasie wants to begin working in low economic areas to provide resources to children who are in search for help. She also plans on pursuing her PhD in Counseling Psychology. Kasie’s end destination will be owning her own private practice providing all types of therapy for kiddos including music therapy, speech therapy, sports therapy, etc… Children and their families will participate in talk therapy, completing their initial intakes.  Referring families to different in house therapy sources based on their needs, while all providing a place they trust!

Kasie went on to share, “These scholarships allowed me to enter college with an eagerness to explore and find my place in the world post high school graduation. The world is a scary place and having the security of scholarships to help lessen the scariness of money aspects allowed me to be more engrossed in the world of a normal college student. It allowed me to obtain two degrees and become one step closer to the career I’ve always dreamed of having. I am forever thankful for all of the encouragement and support from the Polk Education Foundation and others who funded my way through college. I wouldn’t be where I am now without all of the love and support!”

High School Graduation 2014

Scholarships received: Latt Maxcy Foundation, Inc. Scholarship

“As a first-generation college student, the opportunity to further my education was very important to me.  I was so nervous I wouldn’t be able to afford the cost but, the Polk Education Foundation (PEF) made my college career possible.  I will never forget the day during the Harrison School for the Arts senior award ceremony when PEF announced I won a scholarship. I remember being so incredibly honored. All my dreams were finally possible. I truly believe the opportunities I have been presented with would not have been possible if it weren’t for PEF and Maxcy Foundation paving the path for me.  Once I finished my undergraduate degree and decided to pursue the ambition of higher education, I was matched with an all too familiar struggle. The US Virgin Islands challenged me with high living expenses, travel fees, and international tuition rates. I was not expecting to receive any aid from Maxcy Foundation and was overwhelmed with gratitude when I was notified that they wanted to assist in funding my graduate degree.  I will remain forever thankful to PEF and Latt Maxcy for helping me follow my dreams, setting me on the path for success, and being a support system through the years,” Madyson shared.

After graduating from high school, Madyson majored in Marine Biology at the University of West Florida (UWF) in Pensacola, FL. During her undergraduate years, Madyson had several opportunities to dip her toes in the field of Marine Biology. She worked as a lab technician in The Janosik Research Lab where she executed an entire project called “Microplastic Ingestion in Mysid Shrimp from the Great Lakes”. She was also the President of the Marine Ecology Research Society at UWF. Madyson’s most exciting undergraduate adventure was when she got to study abroad in Indonesia! There she got to work on several different research projects located on a tiny remote island in the middle of the Coral Triangle (a massive coral reef system).  Following her undergraduate, Madyson worked in Biloxi, Mississippi on the Salt Marsh Bird Project through Mississippi State University for 6 months before deciding to pack up and move to the US Virgin Islands where she would complete her master’s degree at the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI). At UVI, Madyson studied an invasive seagrass in the Caribbean. In addition to her thesis research, Madyson collaborated on a published research project diving into the coral disease that is plaguing Florida and the wider Caribbean. While completing a degree during COVID-19 wasn’t easy, Madyson made the most of it and even won a World Water Day video contest that allowed her to travel to Hawai’i to attend an International Youth Ocean Policy Summit. In addition to Hawai’i, Madyson’s advisor invited her to work as his summer research assistant in Bodega Bay, California. While there, she worked with some of the ocean’s strangest critters! Madyson passed her thesis defense and graduated with her M.S. in December 2021 with a GPA of 3.8!  Before graduating, Madyson received a prestigious honor awarded by the National Sea Grant College Program called the John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship. This fellowship has allowed Madyson, and her new cat, to move to the Washington DC area to work with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Coral Reef Conservation Program. In addition, Madyson continues to follow her passion for diversifying the STEM field through work with organizations like Women in Ocean Science, Heirs to Our Oceans, and the US Youth Advisory Council for the UN Ocean Decade.