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About the Award...
Now in its 19th year, the Florida College Student of the Year Award is Florida's premier leadership scholarship program. The Award recognizes outstanding campus leaders statewide. Since 1987, this prestigious scholarship competition, founded by Florida Leader magazine, SunTrust Education Loans, and Office Depot, has honored students who excel academically, support themselves financially, and volunteer in the community and on campus.

The Florida College Student of the Year Award is the only statewide scholarship of its kind, and its stringent eligibility criteria have been used as a model for programs such as USA Today's All-Academic Team.

In 1987, the program's first year, about 50 applicants competed for $10,000 in scholarships and prizes, and Miami-Dade Community College's Mary King was named Student of the Year. In 1997-98, 2,100 students, parents, and educators inquired about how to apply, and 206 top leaders from Florida colleges and universities competed for more than $30,000. In 1999, 2,600 people inquired and 171 top leaders competed for $35,000 in scholarships and prizes. In 2000, 3,500 students inquired, while 140 top leaders applied for $50,000 in scholarships and prizes. In 2003, 5,000 students inquired, and in 2004-05, there have been more than 5,000 queries about the Florida College Student of the Year Award.

Thanks to the generous support of SunTrust Education Loans, Gulfstream International Airlines, and other benefactors, the scholarship program now offers more than $65,000 in scholarships and prizes each year to 20 worthy students. All 20 winners are featured in a special edition of Florida Leader.

  
  Department of Education Commissioner John Winn, 2005 Florida College
  Student of the Year Award winner Matt Collier, 1st Runner-Up Alton Austin,
  and Florida Leader Publisher Butch Oxendine.

The Florida College Student of the Year Award recognizes a diverse pool of talented students. Over the past 19 years, Florida Leader magazine has honored mother of five Mae Nielander of Florida Atlantic University, Romanian refugee Florin Tudor of the University of Florida, and Army ROTC standout Jessica Killin of the University of Tampa, among others, as overall winners.

Former Top 20 winners have gone on to become respected political, business, and education leaders for the state of Florida.

The annual Florida College Student of the Year Award ceremony is held in the Capitol Building in Tallahassee. The winners attract statewide media attention for themselves and their schools. Interviews and articles about the students appear on numerous TV and radio stations, as well as in newspapers and magazines nationally.

"We always hoped to create an awards competition that would recognize and promote outstanding student achievement and community service," says W.H. "Butch" Oxendine, Jr., publisher of Florida Leader magazine. "We also wanted to honor self-reliant students who, despite the odds, have excelled academically. After 19 years, the Florida College Student of the Year Award has become a program our state can be proud of."

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