May 17, 2021
Tallahassee Community College announced two gifts today that will benefit graduating seniors from Godby High School.
Oliver/Sperry Renovation and Allen & Pam Nobles have each created a $25,000 scholarship fund to students graduating from Godby High School that are first in their family to attend college. These funds will be matched dollar for dollar, creating two new $50,000 scholarship funds.
There will be 10 students selected annually over the next five years. Each will receive a $1,000 scholarship in the fall and $1,000 in the spring to help cover their tuition. They will also receive a laptop from the TCC Foundation, and a $500 book scholarship to the TCC Bookstore.
Currently, there are more than 400 students from Godby High enrolled at TCC. Just over 17% are dual enrolled students and 80% of them are on some kind of financial aid. These scholarships will help ease the burden of these graduates as they take their next step post high school.
Oliver/Sperry partners Bill Oliver and Todd Sperry and Allen Nobles are all Godby High School alumni.
“We did not want to fund another scholarship that would provide just five scholarships over the next five years,” said Todd Sperry. “We wanted to make more of an impact by spending the funds over the next five years and providing 25 scholarships.”
“We wanted to take advantage of the generous match, computer and book scholarship that TCC was offering, allowing our contribution to be leverage into a larger impact,” said Bill Oliver.
“Zip code 32304 needs assistance in improving quality of life. We felt our best impact would be through funding education,” said Allen Nobles. “Having worked with Godby High School and TCC for many years, I know the value that both can provide to change the lives of many deserving people by providing an education to those that have not had the means to do so in the past. We chose to provide this especially to first generation students because they are the ones that have the most need and can hopefully change their lives.”
Heather Mitchell, Vice President for Institutional Advancement and Executive Director of the TCC Foundation, shares her gratitude toward the Godby Alums for providing access and opportunity.
“It is known that education is the great equalizer, helping to move people out of poverty,” Mitchell said. “These scholarships are wonderful tools to use in helping to make that pathway a bit easier to travel for first generation students graduating from Godby High School.”
The donors challenge other Godby graduates to match their commitment.