Our Award
Recipients
About Our Recipients
Starting in 2019, the Becky Walker Scholarship Foundation provided just 1 scholarship per year, and since we've grown over the past 5 years, we have now expanded to 2 Title 1 schools and increased the number of scholarships from 1 to 4 each year. See below to read about our wonderful recipients!
Becky Walker Scholarship Recipients of 2024
This year, we've expanded our support at Leto High School with two deserving scholarships at each goal. Additionally, with our brand new partnership with Florida Pre-Paid, we've been able to nearly double our scholarship funds provided to each student through a matching program.​
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Erick and Vincent will both be attending the University of Florida and Savannah and Isabella will both be attending the University of South Florida.
Savannah Swiebocki
Vincent Nguyen
Isabella Ruiz
Erick Santos
Becky Walker Scholarship Recipients of 2023
Becky Walker Scholarship Recipients of 2022
Jacob Garbett
Kay Gutierrez Valerio
We are thrilled to have Thompson, Carl and Brandon award this year's recipients at the Spoto award ceremony to two very deserving students. Kay excelled at Spoto achieving a 4.9 weighted GPA and was active in community service and extracurricular activities. She will be attending North Carolina A&T this fall. Jacob was Spoto’s Valedictorian attaining a 4.0 unweighted GPA while taking several AP classes. He also was also a three sport letterman while working and achieving over 100+ community service hours, he is attending The University of North Florida.
In 2023, we are so grateful to announce that we have official met our goal of starting to expand out to more Title 1 High Schools in the Tampa Bay area. We have two wonderful recipients from Spoto High School, Kiera and Abby, in addition to our first recipient at Leto High School, Lauryn, AND last but not least, we are officially supporting Spoto's Culinary Program with a $5k scholarship to a very well deserving student, Apsara.
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Kiera will be attending the University of California San Diego, Abby will be attending the University of North Florida and Lauryn and Apsara will be attending the University of South Florida this fall.
Kiera Taylor
Apsara Touch
Abby Beckton
Lauryn Tanner
Becky Walker Scholarship Recipients of 2021
Asia Nobles
Jashly Garcia
Once again, we were able to extend two $10K scholarships at Spoto High School this year based upon everyone’s continued support and generosity. Board Member Brandon Furman presented this year awards to Asia Nobles and Jashly Garcia. Asia is Spoto’s first African American Valedictorian achieving the highest weighted GPA in school history. Asia is attending South Florida this fall and is very well-rounded giving back through her church to the Heart Walk, Meals on Wheels, and the Epworth Project. Jashly overcame a severe tractor accident at age nine to excel in academics as a Top Five weighted GPA graduate at Spoto and completed accelerated Literature and Composition classes. Jashly competed in athletics as captain and long distance running in Track and was treasurer of National Honor Society. Jashly also tutored Algebra and served at Feeding Tampa Bay and the Pet Resource Center. Jashly will also attend South Florida in the Fall. Our foundation is proud as we continue to grow, but this year was bittersweet as it was the last senior class that had Becky in freshman Biology.
Becky Walker Scholarship Recipients of 2020
Amy Lamas
Isaias Martinez
The Becky Walker Scholarship Fund grew this year from giving one $10K winner to two awards at Spoto High School with the 2020 graduating class. Isaias Martinez had duel enrollment at USF and Spoto HS last year and will continue his pre-med studies and USF. Isaias also logged over 300 hours of volunteer work at Shriner’s Hospital. Amy Lamas was this year’s Valedictorian at Spoto HS, winning numerous additional awards including “Volunteer of the Year” for her time at Women Centered for Success and Palm River Community Center. Amy is attending Dartmouth College this Fall. Thank you all for your support to change the lives of these deserving young adults.
Becky Walker Scholarship Recipient of 2019
Haley Wathey
On May 7, 2019 the Becky Walker Scholarship Foundation awarded the inaugural $10,000 scholarship (spread over four years) to Spoto Senior Haley Wathey. We received fourteen deserving applications and the process of awarding one winner was very difficult, but we are 100 percent confident that Haley—who had Becky as a Freshman and remembered her as a great female role model and mentor—was the right choice. Haley is attending Abraham-Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton, GA (hometown of Beth Mason) where she will be studying and playing soccer. See photo of the Senior Awards night at Spoto High School above.