Florida Realtors present $5,000 scholarships to college-bound students

ORLANDO, Fla. – Aug. 25, 2009 – For three recent Florida high school graduates now starting college classes, their freshmen year may be a little easier thanks to the $5,000 state scholarship awards each received from Florida Realtors®. The students’ winning essays were written on the topic “How Does a Realtor Professional Benefit the Community?”

The state winners are Natalia Alvarez of Jacksonville, a 2009 graduate of Stanton College Preparatory School; Jordan Andreu of Plant City, a 2009 graduate of Durant Senior High School; and Lauren Sorondo of Miami, a 2009 graduate of the School for Advanced Studies.

These students each had previously received a district-level scholarship of $1,000 for their winning essays in the Florida Association of Realtors®’ 2008-2009 Scholarship/Essay Contest for High School Seniors, giving each state winner a total of $6,000 in scholarship money to help with their college expenses. There were 13 district winners – for a total of $28,000 in scholarship funding given to Florida students this year from FAR. Alvarez won the District 1 scholarship award; Sorondo received the District 4 scholarship award; and Andreu won the District 6 scholarship award.

2009 FAR President Cynthia Shelton announced the scholarship winners and presented them with their $5,000 grand prize awards during the 93rd annual Convention & Trade Expo, held at the Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando, Fla. About 450 members of the association’s Board of Directors honored the students for their achievements.

The students’ families were also present to see them receive their scholarship checks and hear them read their winning essays to the appreciative Realtor audience. The winners and their families thanked Florida Realtors for establishing the scholarship/essay contest and helping to make their college dreams a reality.

Here’s what happened when Natalia and her parents found out that she had won one of FAR’s state scholarships: “I thought that maybe I had just gotten lucky, and that there was no point in hoping to become a state winner,” Natalia said. “I was absolutely glowing when I found out that I was a winner! My parents were so relieved and ecstatic, because this money means so much to us and can only mean more opportunities for me in the future.”

FAR’s three state scholarship winners all have big plans for their future. Andreu and Sorondo are both enrolled in the Honors College at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Sorondo plans to major in English or Linguistics, plus earn a double minor in Italian and music performance. One day, she’d like to become a novelist, or have a career as a college English professor or an editor at a publishing house. Andreu also is an English major at UCF. She has set her sights on becoming an international affairs attorney and hopes to work for the United Nations.

Alvarez is attending Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., where she is studying pre-med with plans to major in neuroscience. One day, she hopes to help terminally ill children.

In her essay, Lauren Sorondo wrote how Realtors not only provide information on the complicated process of acquiring a home, but bridge relationships between owners, buyers and neighbors. She talked about how a Realtor helped her neighbors sell their home, and then also helped the entire neighborhood cope with the loss of friends of 30 years. “The job of a Realtor is not simply defined by the selling of real estate; it involves compassion, honesty, dedication, perseverance and support at a crucial time in people's lives,” she wrote. “With the touch of a Realtor, an entire community can be changed.”

Natalia Alvarez described how a real estate professional helped her parents find an affordable home of their own to raise their family. She noted in her essay: “A Realtor can be misconstrued as simply an entrepreneur with ulterior motives, but a Realtor represents something much greater. A Realtor is instead a creator — a creator of strong communities, an architect who edifies the dreams of fledgling families struggling in rundown apartment homes into tangible structures of substance, and a visionary who knows that never is there a ‘never’ when it comes to those dreams.”

In her entry, Jordan Andreu wrote, “By helping people to realize their dreams, Realtors also help the community. They help little kids have a place to play with their Barbie dolls or monster trucks, help moms have a kitchen to bake delicious chocolate chip cookies in and help dads have a roof to decorate with twinkling Christmas lights. Although a place to eat cookies and play with toys appears to be unimportant, it makes all the difference in the world to the little girl with scraped knees or the young boy with an ant bite. I know that having a place to call home has made my life much better.”

At the end of her essay, Andreu concluded: “I may not know all the real estate technicalities and the complex statistics involved in the selling of homes and property. But I do know that every time I see a Realtor, I want to thank them for helping my family and others to actualize the American Dream. I want to thank them for showing me that there really is ‘no place like home’.”

Business executives, educators, media representatives, Realtors and community leaders from across Florida volunteered their time and expertise to serve as judges for both the district- and state-level essay competition. During the ninth year for the state association’s scholarship program, more than 400 high school seniors from across the state sent in entries for the essay contest. To read the state winner’s essays, go to: http://www.floridarealtors.org/AboutFar/ScholarshipAwards/index.cfm

© 2009 FLORIDA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS