Lombardi Scholarship Program selects 2006 class

April 14, 2006

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Six incoming freshmen at the University of Florida have been offered scholarships through the Lombardi Scholars Program. This program is in its fifth year, and the six additional students will maintain the program at 32 participants.
Each year, students who exemplify former UF President John V. Lombardi’s commitment to academic excellence, community service, leadership, and public responsibility are selected as recipients of this prestigious award program. Lombardi Scholars will receive a substantial scholarship for four years of study at UF; they will also be matched with a faculty mentor in their field and will receive support for several overseas study and internship experiences.
Students in the first year of the program spend six weeks with anthropology professor Allan Burns participating in an overseas study program in Merida, the capital of Yucatan in Mexico, during the summer before they begin at UF. All the students will participate in the Honors Program at the University of Florida.

Shantelle Williams of Pine Crest School has declined the scholarship offer; students have until May 1 to make their final acceptances. The six students who have been offered the Lombardi scholarship for the 2006-2007 academic year are:

Alexis Fabrizio: Fabrizio is ranked number one at Winter Park High School, where she is in the International Baccalaureate program. A National Merit finalist, Fabrizio is an AP Scholar with distinction, a national winner of the NCTE Writing Competition, and one of only three female students at Winter Park to pass the first level of the American Math Competition. She is parliamentarian of the National Honor Society and a member of the French, Math and Science Honor Societies. She participated in the Winter Park crew team for three years and competed in the national semifinals twice. In addition, Fabrizio is president and co-founder of the Literature Appreciation Club, which annually coordinates a schoolwide book drive for underprivileged children. She works about 18 hours a week and tutors in all levels of math, physics, English and French. She plans to study biochemistry and molecular biology, with minors in religion and math, to pursue a career as a biochemist.

Christopher Hanson: A senior at Bay High in Panama City, Hanson is ranked second in his class and has played football, soccer and tennis. He is a student in the Advanced International Certificate of Education (AICE) program in which he earned the Cambridge Scholar award. He is a youth lay eucharistic minister in his church and president of the National Honor Society, vice president of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and he has led several community service projects for various organizations. Hanson attended the 2004 Society of American Military Engineers Engineering and Construction Summer Camp at the U.S. Air Force Academy. He is interested in travel and the film industry. Hanson intends to major in integrated biology and political science with a focus on international relations at UF.

Bryan Hood: A senior at Seminole High School’s International Baccalaureate program in Orlando, Hood has won several competitions including: placing fourth in Tetsujin, a national robotic exoskeleton contest; placing first nationally in a trigonometry competition in Mu Alpha Theta; and qualifying as a semifinalist in the Physics Olympiad. He has been a mechanical engineering intern at Kiva Systems, a robotics company located in Boston, where he designed and built an inverted pendulum. He also founded the Robotics Club at Seminole High School. He also plays basketball and tennis, as well as serving as a tennis instructor. He plans to study electrical, mechanical, or computer science engineering at UF.

Mike Jones: Jones is the student body president of Lawton Chiles High School in Tallahassee, where he also represents the 35,000 students of Leon County as the student representative to the school board and is chair of Leon County’s Student District Advisory Council. He is active in several community service projects including the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life and Habitat for Humanity. He has participated in the Duke University Talent Identification Program, spending summers at Davidson College and Kansas University studying geology and international relations. Jones is an AP Scholar with honor, National Merit commended scholar, National Honor Society treasurer, and a member of the inaugural class of Youth Leadership Tallahassee. He is currently undecided as a major.

William Jarrad Littleton: Littleton is a senior at West Boca Raton Community High School, and is a member of the first graduating class. He has been recognized as a National Merit commended scholar, National Hispanic Scholar and AP Scholar with honor. During the summer of 2005, Littleton carried out seven weeks of biomedical research at the University of Florida on a cancer-associated herpes virus and won the First Place Science Research Poster Award and Outstanding Speaker Award for his work. Littleton is president of the National Honor Society and the Safe School Ambassadors, a club in which members work to decrease violence on campus through numerous intervention techniques. Littleton is also senior editor of his high school’s yearbook staff and works part-time. He is interested in pursuing a career in medicine.

Kevin McCarthy: McCarthy is the salutatorian of his class at H.B. Plant High School in Tampa, where he has been recognized as an AP Scholar and was National Merit commended. As a wrestler, McCarthy participated in the state final tournament as a sophomore and was 1st team All-Conference. During his senior year, he switched to football, and broke the county record for sacks, and got the most sacks in class IVA in the State of Florida for the 2005 season. He was awarded the Jimbo Kynes lineman of the year award for Hillsborough County and was named to the 1st team All-State. He works in the freshman mentoring program at Plant High school, participates as a peer mediator, and works on the Board of the Student Advisory Committee. He has also served as vice president of Students Against Destructive Decisions, academic editor of the yearbook, and has led several blood drives at the school.