For the Record
As a student at Hilliard Middle-Senior High School, the Rev. Kalvin R. Thompson thought an athletic scholarship was his only path to college. Although he was a good basketball player, he wasn’t a great one, he said.
Then a friend told him, “‘You can go to college on your grades.’ And once I found that out, that was my key,” he said. He graduated high school as the salutatorian of his class. He earned a four-year academic scholarship and graduated from the University of Florida.
“That’s why I have a passion about scholarships and doing whatever we can to help students,” he said. “God is not a respecter of persons. What he has done for one, he’ll do it for another.”
Now, as pastor of Impact Your World Church Inc. in Yulee, Thompson is leading his church in doing for others what was done for him. For two consecutive years, the church has awarded the George E. Thompson Academic and Achievement Scholarships to the top two African-American students in the Nassau County School District.
During a presentation June 8, the church awarded college scholarships to the two African-American scholars with the highest grade point averages in the district’s 2025 graduating class. Next year the church will expand the scholarship program to include awarding a scholarship to the top African-American from each high school.
Both of the award recipients intend to pursue studies in pre-med. The Academic Scholarship award recipient, with the highest GPA, is Celine Victoria Joinville. She graduated from Yulee High School and will attend the University of South Florida, majoring in biology on the pre-med track. She received a $2,500 scholarship.
The $2,000 Achievement Scholarship went to Hadleigh
McKinley White, a Fernan-dina Beach High School graduate attending the University of Central Florida to major in biomedical sciences on the pre-med track.