An Orlando area high school student lived out her college dreams Friday by earning on-the-spot college admission and at least $75,000 in college scholarships during the HBCU Week College Fair at Walt Disney World Resort.
- Drum Major Mickey Mouse, Walt Disney World Ambassador Raevon Redding and Disney on the Yard executives were on hand at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex for the celebratory moment when Djahnel Reid from Maynard Evans Senior High School (Orlando) received the surprise of a lifetime.
- Bethune-Cookman University, which was her dream school, accepted Reid on-the-spot.
- Reid was also given a $50,000 college scholarship from Propel, powered by Southern Company, plus an additional $25,000 from B-CU for a total of $75,000.
- Reid, an ambassador of a program called Elevate Orlando, said her biggest inspiration is her father who has suffered three near-fatal strokes, leaving Reid to often wonder what life would be like without him.
- Reid’s father was not able to go to college and that fuels her motivation to not only go to college, but to excel academically.
- She has a 4.2 GPA and hopes to one day be an accountant or real estate mogul.
- She was among a record number of students – more than 6,000 from Central Florida, the Southeast and beyond – and 53 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) representatives who attended the college fair Friday when more than $10 million in scholarships were awarded, an event record.
- HBCU Week is being held for the first time in its five-year history at Walt Disney World Resort, October 7 – 9, in collaboration with the HBCU Foundation and Disney on the Yard, an initiative focused on deepening Disney’s engagement with HBCUs. Interested students can visit www.hbcuweek.org for more information about scholarship eligibility, future events and more.
- Propel is an innovative learning hub for the HBCU community with a focus on career readiness.
- The Walt Disney Company teamed up with Propel this year to expand opportunities for historically underrepresented students to have future careers as storytellers and innovators.