Alexis Preiss, Windermere Preparatory School, Windermere. Ms. Preiss was the sole recipient of the Volunteer Service Award at her school in 2015. She has volunteered at Dr. Phillips Hospital, as an assistant to biologists at the Disney Wilderness Preserve, and as a peer mentor at the UCF Summer Biology Institute. She has worked part-time at Publix during high school as well. She already has an interest in marine resources, having attended the UCF Summer Biology Institute and taken high school Advanced Placement coursework in marine biology. Ms. Preiss plans to attend UCF and eventually pursue a PhD in marine biology. She wants to use her scholarship funds to help her achieve her goal of graduating from college debt-free.
James Bible, Sebring High School, Sebring. Mr. Bible is an active volunteer at his church, serving as a vacation bible school instructor and traveling to Romania on a youth mission trip twice. He is a four-year varsity first baseman for the Sebring High School team and a nationally recognized sporting clay shooter. He has taken coursework in agriscience foundations, agritechnology, and horticulture and is interested in studying ways to efficiently produce food while keeping natural ecosystems and habitats safe. In his high school International Baccalaureate chemistry class he designed and ran an experiment to test for the effect of herbicides on the concentration of ions in soil and to determine how much of the herbicides ran into aquifers. He plans to attend the University of Florida and major in agricultural engineering.