JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Congratulations are in order for a GRASP Academy student, who earned thousands of dollars in a scholarship for college.
Hunter Haymen who is in the seventh grade, did not know he was going to earn $6,300.
The scholarship awarded to Hunter is sponsored by Florida Tax Watch, a nonpartisan and nonprofit taxpayer research institute. The same organization also awarded the academy's principal, Annessia Powell, the Principal Leadership Award.
Florida Tax Watch allowed Powell to select one student to earn a scholarship. To Powell, Hunter was the right choice because he advocates for students with dyslexia and excels in school.
"This student has an opportunity to go to college," Powell said. "Over things, obstacles, his learning difference, he's overcoming that. He's self-advocating and he's working for that," Powell said.
GRASP Academy is the only public school in Northeast Florida that tends to students with dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyscalculia. Powell, who has ADHD and is dyslexic, says Hunter is a model student.
"His family is supportive of the work we do," Powell said. "Words cannot tell you what it feels like to be a principal and have somebody celebrated that works so hard."
Hunter has not discussed his future plans for college, yet.