NORTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - Seniors at Miami Central High School were recognized for receiving academic scholarship awards.
Tia Ray and Kalida Gawon received a standing ovation at Tuesday morning’s ceremony after the students received over a million dollars in scholarships.
“It’s a very emotional day for me,” said Tia Ray.
She will be headed to Florida State University to major in criminology with a minor in real estate. She will be the first in her family to go to college.
“Them being here, honestly, it kind of makes it so emotional because I’m the first person in my family to ever even step foot in college. Setting the path for my younger siblings is the biggest motivation because I know that college is something we haven’t seen.”
Kalida’s twin brother, Kalid Gawon, was also recognized at the event. The siblings, both graduating high school at 16, ranked as two out of the school’s three top scholarship winners.
They were born in the U.S., raised in Nigeria and then came back to South Florida in 2016.
Kalida Gawon has totaled $858,000 in scholarship awards while Kalid Gawon has accumulated up $366,000 in scholarship funds.
“I have a 4.393 GPA. I applied to 36 colleges and got accepted into 32 colleges,” said Kalida Gawon.
She plans on attending Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania and hopes to become an obstetrician-gynecologist.
“My GPA is a 4.0, and I applied to University of Florida, University of Central Florida, and I got accepted to most of my schools,” said Kalid Gawon.
He is headed to Miami-Dade Honors College to later head to an Ivy League school. He hopes to become a pharmacist in the future.
Out of the entire senior class, 75% were recognized for being accepted into the college of their choice, and 15% of those students have been awarded scholarships totaling $40,000 or more.
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