PROGRAM — Florida Tax Credit Scholarship

The Florida Tax Credit Scholarship I received was the sole reason I was able to attend a private, Christian school for eleven years. Since I was very young, my parents waited nervously, hoping and praying that we would again be blessed with this fabulous opportunity so that they might be able to pay for my siblings and I to go to private school.

For my family, private school gave us the opportunity to reach our academic potential and instilled a strong spiritual foundation in myself and my siblings. I attribute a large part of my academic success to the relationships I built with teachers and peers in our smaller, more focused classrooms. The instruction I received has allowed me to be only the second person in my immediate family to attend a four-year university, and I will be the first to graduate.

“I attribute a large part of my academic success to the relationships I built with teachers and peers in our smaller, more focused classrooms.”

My experience was unique because I actually left private school in ninth grade to pursue sports at our local public school. While elements of the much larger school were enjoyable, and I did indeed make some great friends, I found that I missed the smaller classrooms and the teachers who I had become so close with. I missed the emphasis on academic achievement and I felt that with the sheer numbers of kids in the school, it was impossible for guidance counselors to provide information on college to all students.

This led me to the decision to go back to private school, again with the aid of the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship. Once reenrolled, I regained my academic and extracurricular footing and excelled in the way I knew I could.

Without the scholarship I received, neither of my private school tenures would have been possible. I am forever thankful for the opportunity the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship gave me, and I applaud the American Federation for Children for championing the education of kids like me. I look forward to continuing to share my story in advocacy for school choice so that perhaps one more kid might receive one more extraordinary education.

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