2022 SUCCESS STORIES

Helbert Villa

Most Improved Athlete Award Honorable Mention

I would like to start off by saying just how great of an opportunity this was to help my future endeavors in University. With this I can help pay for necessary tools to reach my business goals. I hope to graduate as a successful athlete which gave me this opportunity but an all around hard worker wherever my studies will take me to play a role in our growing society. Thank you Charity of Champions.

Jodi Gray

Goodwill Scholarship Winner

The Charity for Champions Goodwill Scholarship is a meaningful honor granted to those that have a strong grasp on their goals and have an incredible sense of empathy and morality. The general rule is to treat others as you would want to be treated, and that is a big part of my personality. My future plans are to attend university and graduate as any other student would. The overall goal is to become a vet and contribute to the world the best I can, by providing proper nutrition to animals.

Justin Ruf

Academic Achievement Award Winner

I would like to thank you again for awarding me with this scholarship. It means so much to me and will be a great help financially. While I do not plan on pursuing swimming, I do plan to move forward with my SpeakEasy project. I am currently taking a class on 3D modeling at the University of Florida. I plan to use the skills I learn to design a 3D-printed enclosure for the SpeakEasy device, and in the next couple of years, I would love to arrange and lead a research project here at UF. After I earn my mechanical engineering degree, I want to look into mass-producing the SpeakEasy.

Grace Murphy

Athletic Achievement Award Winner

My future plans include working in communications which I believe can apply to any industry and every business needs to be able to communicate effectively. I’m also very interested in working in the film department. My hope is to shoot documentaries or biography films. If love to be the Art Director behind the film. This role is the person who chooses the artistic choices behind the movie. (For example, deciding whether to use a car from the 1970s versus a more modern car.) I like being able to use my creativity. This scholarship means a great deal to me and I am so grateful that I earned it. Being an athlete has been a huge part of my life and I’m glad to recognized for it especially while living with the challenges of Type 1 Diabetes. I am so appreciative to Dr. DeSimone and the team behind the Charity for Champions and that they are so generous to be able to grant me this scholarship recognition.

David Guillen

Personal Achievement Award Honorable Mention

I am attending Broward college where I tend to get my associates degree and further on my education at the university of central Florida.I will be majoring kinesiology to achieve my dream job of being a NFL or NBA physical therapist Or trainer. This Charity for champions award means that those who are able to strive through to achieve their goal and is willing to put in the hard work and time to achieve that goal.This charity for champions award means a lot to me because it shows that all the hard work I put in paid off and and now I can use this award to help further my education and use it as more motivation to chasing my dreams.

Zoe McClure

Extraordinary Community Service Award Winner

I am currently attending the University of South Florida where I am studying communications. I have a nonprofit called Kindness Couture, and my future plans include bringing it to Tampa where I attend school and sharing the kindness all over the state of Florida. The Charity for Champions scholarship is very special to me, because I now have a voice as a cheerleader who is normally shunned in the sports world, and it also gives me a voice to share Kindness Couture with others. Thank you.

Sadie Anderson

Personal Achievement Award Winner

I am very honored to have been selected for the Personal Achievement Award. The opportunity Charity For Champions has given me through this scholarship is something I will be forever grateful for and encouraged by. I will be continuing my education at Florida Gulf Coast University and plan on majoring in nursing. Being recognized through this scholarship and the application/interview process helped me be proud of the things I have done in order to persevere and overcome the adversity I experienced being a female wrestler. As I continue in my education I hope to continue personifying all of the qualities which this scholarship acknowledges. Thank you so much Charity for Champions and Dr. DeSimone for helping me be successful in my future!

Maximus Fuentes

Team Fellowship Award Honorable Mention

My future plans are to pursue my dreams and play overseas basketball as well as getting a degree in Business-Economics which is one of my passions. It is truly an honor to receive this scholarship, and it is a great help to assist me in pursuing my goals. It is a big deal to me because the meaning behind a champion is so much more than winning a trophy on the court. And that is what I live by because life is so much more than basketball, and it is truly about enjoying every day and the impact you make on others. For that reason I am truly blessed to be recognized and rewarded this scholarship, as I feel like it reflects on who I am.

Christian Dohler

Personal Achievement Award Honorable Mention

It is an honor to have received this award from Dr. DeSimone and the Charity of Champions staff. Thank you for recognizing me for this and even letting me apply for such an award. I will be attending Georgetown University where I will be participating in both the football and track programs. I plan to major in psychology and go to grad school to get a masters or doctorate to become a psychiatrist or work as a forensic psychologist. This award means a lot to me because I have faced two devastating injuries in my sports career in high school and I was still able to strive through and be successful in both school and athletics. Even after my first injury that benched me for eight months I still managed to break records in both soccer and track, and get in local newspapers after one of my injuries sophomore year. Thank you again for this award and I will use it to help with tuition at Georgetown University