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Hello, everyone.

I'm Rameca Vincent Leary, and welcome to this edition of Pensacola State today.

Life is full of decisions that can be game changers, but we must be willing to take that first step.

Have you ever thought of applying for a PSC scholarship?

With over 300 options available, the possibilities are endless.

During this special edition of Pensacola State Today, we will be highlighting two of them the African-American Memorial and Dr. Garrett T. Wiggins.

Live your dream endowed scholarships will discuss significant triumphs for past and present awardees and culminate with our special recognition for the 2024 recipients.

Folks that get that conversation started.

I'm happy to welcome Andrea Kreger, executive director of institutional development right here at Pensacola State College.

Hello, lovely lady.

Hello, my friend.

It's so good to be here.

Listen, it is always a pleasure.

You can tell I'm giddy with excitement because I'm talking about scholarships.

And we know that Dr. Ed Meadows, president of Pensacola State College, would have loved to have been here with us on set.

And of course, he's the chairman of the Florida College System Council president.

So he is here, there and everywhere, isn't he?

He is.

And you know what?

What better thing for our community and for the Florida colleges?

We are very lucky that he is willing to commit his time to do that.

It helps all of us.

And I know he hates missing this.

Oh, I know he loves the scholarships.

And I will tell you this.

This is a Hallmark event for him every single year.

He definitely appreciates the hard work of these scholarship recipients.

It takes a lot of work, doesn't just get things together.

It does.

You know, it really does.

And I think he just loves the celebration because he knows they've gone through all the hoops to get here.

Speaking of hoops and celebrations, as a college, we recently celebrated 75 years.

And if you could have seen him there that evening in our very own Amos studio taking the reins, doing such an amazing job.

But I will tell you, one of the people who spoke, Sandy Sansing, and he has an endowed scholarship ship here at the college.

But tell us what else.

You know, Sandy is just wonderful.

He has an endowed scholarships and for years he's done just as Sansing scholars.

Annually.

He's provided 20,000 to help students, and he takes time to meet with all of those students.

He loves giving back because of his experience here at the time at this college, junior college back then, back in the day.

And one of the things he also does with his endowed scholarship pizza, who doesn't like pizza?

But let's reminisce a little bit and share this amazing clip of Sansing Sing at our 75th anniversary.

Take a look.

Thank you very much, Dr. Mendelsohn.

It's a privilege to be here.

It's an honor to be invited to share the podium.

Dr. Meadows, I've noticed that of your first four speakers, with the exception of Dr. Wiley, you have had three politicians, and now you have a used car salesman.

So some people might question your selection of speakers, but it's a it's an honor honor to be here.

As I look back in my time and a couple of years behind Mayor Wiggins, it's nice not to always be the oldest person around, but I was a tall, skinny kid.

I was six feet tall, a weight, £125, not quite as tall as my.

But when I came here and I had a phenomenal, phenomenal experience here, I remember going to the registrar before we started school to register and pay my tuition, and she said, Well, sir, you're tuition covered.

You have a golf scholarship.

And I said, Well, thank you.

It was $99 was tuition for the semester.

But that wasn't but 58 years ago.

So some things do change over time.

But I am so and loved it and were the best professor I ever had in college.

Was Dr. Ted Kerrigan Karageorge, a history professor who was just phenomenal and it was phenomenal for me.

I enjoyed it.

I enjoyed my time here and about 20 years ago I was driving to work, going up Airport Boulevard, and I noticed a young man, short limp had a bad leg carrying a bunch of books, and he was about two blocks from Pensacola State College.

And I said, He's going to college.

He's having a hard time walking.

I bet he needs some help.

And I called Patrice and I said, Patrice, I'd like to do some scholarships.

And she said, We'd love to have you do it.

And we began doing that.

We've been doing it for 20 years or something.

Patrice I get so many letters from individuals and we think of PJC or Pensacola State College as kids coming from high school to college, but over half the letters and over half the luncheons we do a lot of the people in their twenties, thirties, forties, going back to school, going back to get a nursing degree, and letters of a young lady who says, I'm 40 years old, I've raised my kids.

I now I don't have any money.

I paid for college, I need money.

And I went back to Pensacola State College, thanks to your scholarship.

And now I'm able to support my family.

So to me, Pensacola State College is one of the most important institutions, organizations in all of northwest Florida.

I'm one of the many, many tens of thousands of people who got an education here who could not afford our families, could not afford to go off to big state schools to go somewhere else.

And there's tens of thousands of people right here in our community who have received an education, who enabled them to get a job, who enable them to keep a job, who enable them to get more income, enable them to get promotions.

And all of that has helped our community as they've made more money.

They've been able to support families, they reduce crime.

And it's been just so wonderful in so many ways that I would love to know the number of students Dr.

Murders who have attended here and so many like me, really, This was our place we began and it was phenomenal experience and I treasure my time.

Dr. Meadows, like everyone else, our politicians of all said, We praise you for the excellent job you've done because I've been involved for many, many years.

Your leadership for your wisdom has been phenomenal.

Our teachers, our professors here, our community support has been over the top.

And thank you for joining in and supporting.

I encourage everyone to continue supporting Pensacola State College because the letters I get, the people I meet, I have a pizza luncheon every year with the kids and we've got it next week with the kids that are recipients of our scholarship.

And they vary from kids out of high school to 40, 50 year old people going to shifts, going to nursing or whatever.

And the impact this institution makes in our community.

We can never appreciate or give enough thanks for.

So Dr. Meadows our faculty, our staff, our workers, thank you for what you do and thank you for the impact you've had on my life.

Thank you, sir.

All right, folks, what amazing story, Andrea.

He is just a phenomenal human being.

But I will tell you, Sandy is wonderful.

Many of our donors are just that way, just like, you know, from 100 for 100.

Yes.

If we have 315 privately funded scholarships, there are so many folks who are just like Sandy who are doing it because they knew how important it was to them when they were here.

And so they've chosen to give back and pay it forward because it made that difference for them.

And he tells that same story at that luncheon.

It's phenomenal.

And also the scholarship application process.

Tell everyone how easy that is with a blanket form.

Yeah.

So that's that's one of the things we've really worked on.

And right now a student can go in, it's virtual so they can access it wherever they're at.

They apply one time and when they apply that one time, it matches them to all of the scholarships that they have that they qualify for.

So if the criteria is in there, whatever Sandy has on his whatever the Kyle Alden Lowry family has their criteria, the Ames scholarship, the Wiggins scholarship, those criteria the students are automatically matched to.

And so they only have to fill it out one time and they make it more than one scholarship when they apply.

But we are able to broadcast that to more students that way.

And some might say who can apply for a PSC scholarship, Anyone who is a student here, if you're enrolled here, you can apply for a scholarship.

So you want to come to PSC, you apply for a scholarship Senate, you do that application to apply here.

You can apply for a scholarship with your student I.D.

number.

And what about veterans?

Veterans?

Absolutely.

We love our veterans.

We have many scholarships that support veterans.

I mean, there are so many different resources when you think about what's available for students.

We have a thousand students, roughly a thousand students each year that got scholarships, individual, unique students.

That's 770,000 that's paid toward their education that they don't have to put the money in for.

So it's a huge help for them to be able to just apply one time and they may get a scholarship in the fall.

They may get one in spring, they may get one in summer all off of that one application.

So they may get multiple awards across their career at college.

And let me tell you, this is someone who teaches in the business department.

I urge my students to apply, many of whom have received more than one scholarship in a given term, the elation on their faces.

But you and I got all gussied up for a huge 100 for 100 campaign celebrates in the studio, focusing on our African-American Memorial and Down scholarship and the Dr. Garrity Wiggins living our dream scholarship, which was just endowed in 2023.

You know, such great work from these volunteers and from the donors to give $100 at a time, or I'm sure many get more than $100.

Many do.

Yes, it's wonderful.

But, you know, when we're thinking about it, these two scholarships are so important because they're started by individuals who are passionate about helping the students that are African-American.

There's a preference for it.

And when we think about our students, one in five students that are at Pensacola State, so a little over 18% of our student population identify themselves as African American.

And that means these two scholarships that have a preference, they know automatically they have a chance to honor the history for Dr. Garrity Wiggins and also for our African-American club.

You know, the original founding for the Ames Wiggins was truly taken on by the Jesse Black History Committee.

Right.

And it wanted to recognize not just African-Americans, but those who'd given their time at the college.

And they were they had passed on, but they wanted to leave a legacy for that faculty who had given their life to students here in Pensacola State College.

And so what better way to honor them than to support the students?

Those faculty loved?

That's true.

And Dr. Tony Anderson Steele, chair of the Black History Multicultural Committee.

I'm her administrative liaison.

We work so well with and we just like the fact that we're a close knit family here at PSC.

It just speaks volumes, doesn't it?

It does.

It absolutely does.

You know, I think about I think about Garrett, Dr. Garrett, T Wiggins, and I think about when when this scholarship originally started and it started because he originally was an administrator for the first junior college at the time for African-Americans in the state.

In the state, the youngest one, the longest lasting one.

And what a benefit it is to have that at Booker T Washington High School and then have him come on as the the president of the African American College there, Booker t Washington.

And then when it merges as part of PGC, he continues that legacy by coming over here, having the foresight to be a director of research here.

And the college is smart enough to know how important his history is to our community and to the students that will come for the following generations.

So 2005, now it's getting further and further back now or is.

But we have to add that Dr. Meadows was so elated in 2023 when the Dr. Garrity Wiggins live your dream scholarship was in doubt.

And there might be some people out there who are thinking about the endowment process.

Can you explain that to us?

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

It's actually fairly easy.

If you think about it.

It's 20,000 to endow scholarship.

And the reason we've set that threshold from the Board of Governors for the foundation is we want to be able to earn, create enough earnings to actually award scholarships.

But if you think about it, if you think about Ames, for instance, that scholarship hasn't been in doubt for a while.

So it's approaching the corpus of the gift.

The principal that's in there has been awarded out just off of interest earnings so somebody can endow a scholarship for $20,000 and it will be in perpetuity that they're able to award scholarships and support students.

And they can do that, take three years, take five years, turn down your scholarship.

But once you get it endowed, it's going to go on forever helping students, which is huge.

We love that.

So we and we do.

Because, I mean, one day when I pass away, I want to be able to have had that impact.

I want to be able to have something that last passed me and many individuals who have endowed scholarships have that assurance.

That's their legacy.

They're able to leave.

Well, Andrea, we sure do appreciate having you on this show.

You are such a gem and a treasure.

All right, folks, Pensacola State College recently celebrated its 75th anniversary.

Take a look at some special memories that highlight many of the college's Alma housing achievements.

We'll be back right after this.

Pensacola State College celebrates 75 years of quality education in Northwest Florida.

136 students attended the first class of the new Pensacola Junior College on September 13th, 1948.

James L McCord was the first director of the college, then located in the former Aiken boardinghouse on the corner of Palafox and Savannah streets.

Pensacola State College providing a dynamic and supportive learning environment since 1948.

Pensacola State College celebrates 75 years of quality education in Northwest Florida.

In April of 20, 21, a new state of the art bars technology building was unveiled during a ribbon cutting ceremony.

The 23,839 square foot two story facility is home to STEM programs and cycle the State College, providing a dynamic and supportive learning environment.

Since 1948.

Hello, everyone.

It's always a blessing when we can recognize our scholarship recipients in a special way.

We'll reveal them later in the show.

But first, we'd like to welcome a phenomenal man who's assisted us in our efforts.

None other than Darryl Nelson, the owner of Favor Flavor Seafood Restaurant.

He is our 2024 physical awards sponsor for our Aimes Wiggins scholarship recipients.

Now, Darryl, tell us why you have such a love for our PSC students after being a peer PSC alumni myself.

Yes, you are.

I have developed a love and a passion for the school of seeing with the aims and Wiggins scholarships do has pre-clear a place in my heart that will be there forever and I have to be a part of it as much as I can.

Whenever you guys open the door for us, we're always going to be there.

And speaking of big hearts, you're coming back because in 2022, you were the physical award sponsor when you had one location.

Now, two years later, you've been blessed with two additional locations, bringing that grand total to three.

We'll get to that in a little bit.

But I just have to tell you, you are a likable guy.

You have such a huge heart.

Well, we have to share something with our audience.

Once upon a time, it was a cold day.

I decided to go to your food truck, and I must have had at least five layers of clothing underneath my coat.

That's how cold it was.

And you invited me to come out and join you at your food truck, isn't that right?

Yes, ma'am.

So, viewers, we would love to share this amazing cooking segment with you.

Take a look.

Hello, everyone.

I'm Rebecca Vincent Leary joining you on a very cold and cozy day right in the heart of Pensacola at our best food truck.

I am joined by the amazing brothers, the chef duo Marcus Turley and Darrell Nelson.

Listen, we're going to have some great things cooking up for you in the kitchen.

So brothers, are you ready?

I'm ready.

Let's get to it.

So we're transitioning inside the food truck with the chef brothers, and they'll be preparing three separate dishes their own.

Why don't you tell us what they are?

Today we'll be doing our number one cellar, which is our wing and burger combo.

We'll be doing a limited number of wings with our housemade hand pressed burger, Smash burger.

They are.

And they will be doing our number two, which is not too far behind and number one seller.

But our fishing grits is definitely on the menu today.

It's warm and still sunny.

Hey, Cozy, where are my friends?

Let's hear from gluten free.

Know.

So go ahead and hit the grill.

Marcus, you're over here.

We're doing all of this simultaneously, folks, so we're going to have a great conversation in the midst of the process.

Now, Darrell, I see that you dropped the lemon pepper wings.

Right now.

We seasoning with our housemade all-purpose seasoning, and then we drop a mean crisp and pull them out, hit them with a lemon pepper seasonal, which is some of the best in the land.

We do all our own blend, all our own seasoning in-house, like we said before, and they're right here.

Not many people know that.

Lemon pepper.

Now, Marcus, what do you have going on over here?

Well, over here we have hamburgers.

Our train that we want to put together with our special meat and everything.

So what I'm have you.

I already have two prepared if I can have you add the tomato and the onions to all of them.

Go.

Just like that.

That's beautiful.

All right, I'm going to.

Ready now while I'm while I'm doing that.

So, Step brothers, as I told you all before, how did you all get that cooking bird?

What sparked that interest?

I don't know.

I think it's just kind of bred in our DNA.

Started with my.

My on my side.

My dad, my Aunt Mary is phenomenal in the kitchen, man.

When I pay for my grandmother, my mom, my sisters, the whole family.

When we got hungry, we cooked some meat and we had to thaw food out.

It went no order and we had to wait for the thaw in the water.

And we cooked it Friday.

It baked it.

Nine, ten, 11 years old.

So Darrell, there's a little bit of history because we have three separate locations.

Tell us about them.

I know that favorite flavor seafood restaurant is location number one, right?

For flavors, Number one used to be the seafood bowls, ball in the bag type seafood.

Oh, I lost the boxes.

Phenomenal on there.

But now we've come over from just seafood to doing seafood.

And so all which is kind of showing a little bit last year, but we rolled it out with the heart more all the way around the restaurant.

Seafood, soulful, soulful, soulful.

I mean we're doing this is we're turning around very good very fast great looks but Come by Sea is 2005 West Jordan Street.

So let's talk about what's happening at our best.

Po'boys.

And we have wings and po'boys is a deli inside of a friend of mine is Mike.

What's my best friend?

One of my best friends is my dad were very near and dear to my heart.

Yeah, that's a part of our family we're over at there.

Takes us to more number two, location and we're doing all of the hot ticket, fried snow, crab, fried lawson, Phil fried jumbo shrimp.

They got the wings to have the burgers.

Philly specials are phenomenal over there.

We're running some great Philly cheesesteak chowder, and we're here right now.

And the food truck, Correct.

I repeat, what a blessing.

Now, if you could just smell the aroma, folks, it is tantalizing inside this food truck.

Marcus, I noticed your brother Darryl, this is actually shaping up those patties.

And they are a combination of which meats this is.

This is short ribs.

This is a brisket.

This is all of those good parts, all the scraps from those good parts of cow, not just your regular beef Angus beef on there.

It's called a big train burger.

I named it after my wife's old store in our old neighborhood.

And it's been phenomenal.

People love these burgers.

He actually research that burger.

You actually did his due diligence on all the meat parts and whatnot.

What did you put together?

Tasted It simply is when he came over right here.

Listen to that sizzle on the grill, my friends.

How long does it normally take for one of those burgers to cook?

It takes about 8 to 9 minutes on a well delivered.

So, Darryl, on a cozy day like this, fish and grits, my friends, is there a special recipe for these grits?

Because people don't make grits the same way all the time?

Well, of course, everything everything that we do is going to be special.

I'm not doing anything wrong at a meal.

Everything is is homemade, all from scratch.

The grits are smoked.

Cheddar cheese.

Great.

They are phenomenal.

They're stone brown grits from a local a local farm here over in Alabama.

And what kind of fish are we frying at?

Fish has got to be catfish.

We have catfish, we have swi, we have tilapia.

And we also do marlin from time to time, just depending on how to harvest that.

A mother and I like that you're varying up the mix of selections here.

I have to step in here a little bit closer to this grill because these live in pepper wings are on fire.

I cannot wait for those to finish.

Let's check out these patties.

My goodness.

They're colossal.

So they're half a pound burgers is a big giant burger is a half a pound of all the good stuff of the time.

I mean, you get a brisket, you're going to short where I mean, they're putting in a goose.

I love the fact that you added brisket.

I am a huge fan and who thinks about putting brisket in a burger.

It's the research, all about the research he made into the science.

It's about just having good burgers here.

You know, Nobody wants that same old run of the mill.

I mean, output is corn corner.

We've got a lot of them that are up here.

There are just no burger patties out of the box.

But that's not what we're about.

We're about standing out the big train burger, as you can see outside.

That's our that's our signature item.

I'm a burger fanatic.

I go over barbecue burgers for me.

I mean, when I'm taking a trip and I'm riding on the highway, when I see the hole in the wall burger joints and a hole in the wall barbecue joint, I'm all ears.

And I'm hoping that I can get a little piece of it, because some of these places like us right here, are a little piece ahead that I don't know how you all do it.

Okay.

Food truck.

You have three separate things going.

Your eyes are on everything.

Yeah, things are cooking nicely.

Had it been me by myself, I think it could have been a different story.

But you're all about the synchronicity, brother.

Well, well, actually, that's what we want to show you.

How it is on the line, how it is in the kitchen.

And it won't be all pretty.

I want to show you the nitty gritty.

Get down to it.

Knowing that you know, the frying, the cooking, the putting together there with customers, you know, keeping a great attitude.

You got to create that environment.

It's all about culture.

And like I say, these are half pound burgers.

You got to be ready to eat.

Oh, I don't think we'll have a problem with that.

The flavor is awesome.

Like the particular seasonings that we put on them.

Maybe he came together with also, you know, tasting all the burger like that.

I could see you bottling up your seasonings and offering them.

That's next.

That's next.

Especially the butter, spicy butter.

And on it, I'll tell you what I'm seeing over here.

So he's loading up the box with the big train burgers and sprinkling it with some of those lemon pepper wings.

And that's not all, folks.

We have more to be added to the boxes because the fries are still there.

Yeah, we haven't even got on the fish and grits.

You know we have it.

I think by the time it's all said and done, I would have eaten enough for three people.

Now I'm taking a look right here.

This is a partial assessment, folks.

Not everything yet.

We still have a little bit more to come.

But I could imagine that when you're preparing these meals and you have people coming to see you, the aroma could probably be smelled for blocks.

It actually can be like we have customers coming up now.

We have to send them off right now.

So they want it right now.

So there's high demand.

Yes.

Especially with the aroma, the different season we have the in place of the Pensacola, you know, but we have to stand out from everybody else.

We have to taste better, smell better, look better and have to execute that, as you can see.

All right.

A little bit of bread in that box, as I see, is not messing around with the attributes, the extra things that everyone would love when they have it.

Now, a little story.

When I was growing up as a child, every single Friday, my dad, US Navy retired.

That was Fish Friday and we had grits.

We had fish and also coleslaw.

That was every single Friday.

Now, I don't know if you had any family traditions like that was.

That's actually one of the really?

Yeah.

Every Friday.

Every Friday with fish and grits.

Yep.

And we had these communities, guys in the community, we'd go around and within church community and they brought fish and money to the different families and during those times and that was even before I was younger, my mom would do the same thing.

And every Friday my grandfather and my mother, people at next door relatives go out of town and they had a fish and grits and anything of that you put on.

And you know what?

Seeing that box with the fish reminds me what my dad did on every Friday.

Remember when I just said the fish on Fridays can't ask for a better meal on a cold cozy?

And what was your passion?

Oh, I love flounder.

That's my thing.

Snapper.

A lot to.

Oh, no, that's my favorite.

Oh, yeah.

Pink snapper can not disappoint ever with that or bake anything you all right, guys?

I think I'm going to head on outside and taste a little bit of food, just like the customers do.

Doing that by that kind of feel?

Yes.

Let's get it done.

I'm going to do it.

Order up.

Ooh, la la.

Let's take a look at what I have.

Oh, that looks so amazing.

My big train burger, my lemon pepper wings and fries.

But you know what, folks?

I think I'll take a bite out of my big train burger first.

Here we go.

This thing is ginormous.

Now, little old me trying a big train burger.

Let's see how this works out.

Oh.

Oh, my goodness.

That is so good.

I love it.

Hmm.

This special feeling.

Oh, you know what, Darrell?

That big train burger was amazing, but we have to try the fish and grits.

Right?

Right, right.

So let's get some of those.

All right, Marcus, we're going to take a look at that.

Oh, my goodness.

Look at that big portion of grits.

Have the fish.

Now, you mentioned before that this is catfish, right?

That fish.

All right, let's take a little piece.

There's nothing better this Christmas fish on a cold, cozy day.

Oh, I love it.

Those secret ingredients are cooking.

All right.

Seasoned really well.

Grits.

Mm.

Never disappoint.

Thank you so much.

You are so amazing.

The chef duo brothers Darryl Nelson and Marcus Straley.

Folks, that is some good old favorite flavor.

Eating well.

Yeah.

Talk about cold, cozy days.

It was.

Oh, my goodness.

It was one of those blistering days, as they would call it.

Right.

Frigid, I think, is the right word.

I know it.

But you are so multifaceted.

You took some classes at the college.

Are you self-taught when it comes to your culinary skills?

Yes, ma'am.

A lot of on the job training.

All right.

But if not everyone has that certain panache like you do, I know there's certain things that may keep you grounded.

Is there an individual that maybe has really contributed a lot day have a guard?

And why so?

Well, growing up, he had my great grandmother who raised him and she was like one of the best cooks in Louisiana in the world that she could meet.

And he learned from her.

And it was his passion to teach me all the recipes that she taught, you know?

And so that was one of our our oh, my fondest memories of him is just being in the kitchen, just cooking on time.

He'd always call me and, you know, where's the gumbo?

You better have gumbo.

Yeah.

So we have some some recipes.

They just go so far back in our families and rich history.

I love those roots that I'm able to pass along to my community and the people around me that, you know, priceless is priceless, you know, And they see me and they say, I better have my gumbo.

I know you also work with nonprofits.

One is called Feed Foster.

Tell us about that and what you do.

So Feed the Fosters is a program out of Pensacola First City Baptist Church.

They have combined with like 18 other churches in the community, to bring food as a change for as a as a.

All right.

How do I see a lot of the desserts out there?

So this is a huge help, right?

Like an olive branch to the foster kids away into to, you know, lift their spirits and draw me into the church.

And what they do is they reach out and they they they get funding from all the different churches and they come together and it's like 18 restaurants to that end with And we we donate food, we donate time and all the energy towards feeding over 800 families once a month.

And we do every month that they feed these children and we get to peak.

We do probably once every three months ourselves because it's other restaurants that are involved.

But it's so near and dear to my heart.

I just love to help children.

It's one of my my biggest passion is reaching back to and there are so many things that you do that you don't talk about because you're so modest.

Do you have any advice for someone out there who has a dream they want to achieve?

Just like I mentioned earlier, 2022, you have one location now you've grown to three.

Could be someone who wants to earn a college education, Right?

So what would you say?

Someone who has a dream?

I would say keep the first no more.

Let them lead the way.

I always listen for his voice.

I'm a stickler for for just being patient and listening for his piece so that I can move.

And that's my secret weapon.

I don't usually tell people in.

I got on TV to told my secret, but hey, I get on my knees every night and my relationship with him is is a phenomenal one.

And, you know, I just cannot express enough that the favor of God is what you see happening with this flavor.

Flavor, flavor.

And I'm telling you his favorite words that go before you makes the cooking place the state of your life.

And I give all of the honor and glory to him without it for him, by him and through him without him, we couldn't do.

And we just hold it.

On his unchanging hand, he keeps opening doors.

You know, what he say is no man can sit and open many doors for you, friend.

Tell you what, such a blessing to have you on the show.

And thank you for being our 2024 physical awards sponsor, my friend.

It's always a pleasure.

Thank you so much for the opportunity.

All righty.

Now, folks, we have much more to come as we focus on our amazing Pensacola State College students.

We'll be back right after this.

Hello, everyone.

You just saw the smiling faces of the 2024 African-American Memorial Endowed Scholarship recipients will highlight the Dr. Garrett T Wiggins Live Your Dream Endowed Scholarship awardees later in the show.

But during this segment, we're going to catch up with some 100 for 100 scholarship campaign volunteers who also happened to be PSC employees.

I'm thrilled to welcome Evelyn Gant right here and Tilden Whitfield, both of whom share a fervent love for our PSC students.

And to round out the segment, we have Dr. John Woods, a faithful volunteer who has been with me since the beginning.

We are family, aren't we?

Yes.

And all of us work at PSC, plus we're PSC family on top of that.

So let's start with you.

Your role at PSC.

You just graduated recently.

Tell us about what you do and how ecstatic you were when you graduated.

I work for Enterprise Solutions at Pensacola State College with Michael Johnston, Bo McHenry, several other wonderful people over there were one big happy family.

I am the coordinator of Student Financial Solutions and what I do is I use Workday, amplify the integrations, do all of the footwork to make sure the background process is needed for financial aid and student financials and of course, here and there for other departments as well, run smoothly for for their day to day processes.

So they're able to do their job and function as they want.

And you do it so well.

Now, Tilden, I know that you and Dr. Woods have offices that aren't too far away from one another, but you're pretty new to the college.

So tell us about your role.

Yes, well, I am an academic advisor for the Veteran Student Support Services program, and pretty much I'm a success coach.

I work with the veterans, give them what they need, help them with the resources, get them in the right classes, get them on their way.

So, yes, I have a feeling that Dr. John Woods had a huge part in you agreeing to VA 100 for 100 volunteer.

I don't know.

I just have that feeling.

Dr. Woods, we are so elated that you're serving as one.

And Dr. Woods, you have been with me since the beginning, and we have to give thanks to all of our 104, 100 volunteers who aren't here.

The four of us.

Right.

We're volunteers, but many thanks to Kayla Williams, Ingrid Davis and Michelle Jones.

And I think you'd like to add a couple, would you, Dr. Woods?

I'll be Corlew and then Trish Brown Yeah, that's right.

It takes a village.

And as we said earlier in the green room, I heard it does, but collectively in the pot, working hard.

Now we all have roles at PSC and this is above and beyond what we do in the office, right?

Absolutely.

So Avalon, Workday Rising Conference.

I just happened to pull a little photograph of you there.

How was that experience for you?

It was amazing.

We were in San Francisco.

It was just simply amazing.

I've never been to San Francisco.

So first that was an opportunity to go.

I got to meet all of the people that use Workday from various different educations.

Facilities and various different businesses mingle with some of the vendors there.

It was just amazing.

A lot of the knowledge we picked up things to bring back, things to learn, things to add, things to share.

A lot of great networking was when I mentioned Mike Johnston earlier, and I know that he was in that picture, went to the conference as well.

Now Tilton, Bachelor of Arts from the University of West Florida.

All right.

Let me tell you a little bit more about him studied acting and performance in Atlanta at Nick Conti's Actors Studio.

Yes.

Wow.

That's what I'm saying.

When and in addition to the wow factor, you also write, you direct, you act.

Tell us about the job experience.

So the job experiment, the job experiment is it was a recent play that I written and directed based off the biblical story of Joe, and that was a really, really great show, had a great turnout.

And really the purpose of that whole thing was just kind of impact and the importance very similar to these scholarships the aims to get begins.

We want to leave the world in a better place than what we found it.

And so that's what the joy experiment was.

Yes, the job experiment happened to be an experience for you, Dr. Woods, because I believe that you were one of the people who attended.

I was.

Your reaction?

So so it was really cool because Tilden, you know, asked me, you know, if I would go and gave me a gave me a ticket.

And I said, absolutely.

And what was so cool about it?

It was a modern perspective on what Joe went through it as outlined in the Bible.

So so it was really cool.

I put that together and he had this little boy in there that did appeared a few times.

And it was just so neat how, how, how that little one interacted with the adults and and everything.

And then when you find out who he really is and you can't give that away, right?

That's right.

I know.

But seriously, till then, you wrote and directed that.

And you've also worked with a man named Calvo Griffin.

I know him.

The elevator pitch.

Yes.

Now, the the picture that I pulled for you.

You're in an elevator.

Actually, I'd be scared to get in that elevator, Dr. Wood, but I think that the elevator would probably get stuck on the 10th floor.

But just the reaction and not everyone has that ability, that gift that you have when it comes to acting.

But, hey, we can do anything, right?

Exactly.

Anything and everything.

Now, Evelyn, you have some additional detail calls that haven't come to the surface, but maybe it will be a debut for our viewers outside of your efforts with Kingdom Builders, Christian Ministry says you do a lot of outreach with that.

Talk a little bit about that and I'll cue everyone else in on the other thing that I'll mention shortly.

Oh, goodness.

Yes, we do.

But by giveaways, every August, we give backpacks away.

Last year we did to about 200 students, and each year we try to give more and more grow our numbers.

We have a big event.

It's like a humongous carnival, if you will.

We have various people come out, various vendors such as yourself.

Normally in August, I remember we were out there and your friend Mike Johnson was out there with us.

We had an amazing time and and looking at Dodger was looking at the kids faces and the smiles, the joy tilted.

They receive a backpack, then they get a free mail.

On top of that, we had a free hair.

Good lesson.

There were so many things out there.

But I have to cue everyone else.

And you are a deejay on this side.

Hey, I guess I'll tell that I hear you laughing everyday.

Are you surprised?

It sounds like you are.

You know, I'm just I'm.

I'm.

I want to hear something like a little scratch.

Maybe you'll sing a little bit in a minute and maybe some overlap and maybe a clever little collaboration.

Speaking of collaboration, So then back to you.

Now, zombies just hearing it scares me.

And then the abode.

Why don't you talk a little bit about those two?

Because, listen, you're out there doing a lot.

Yeah.

So it's interesting.

Both of those are films that I was acting in that came out this year, and they're both in the genre of horror, so.

Exactly.

Zombies, the Ebola, we're kind of getting some comedic relief from my characters in those roles.

But yeah, very, very great opportunities.

And again, just again, impact having a good time, going out there, being creative, letting it all hang out and from Pensacola.

So those are great things as well.

Now, are you from the Pensacola area?

So I am from so I was born in Alaska.

Alaska, Yes, Yes, correct.

But I grew up in Saint Augustine area and came here for school.

So.

Yeah.

All right.

We'll come back to you shortly that you would tell us why this campaign means so much to you.

Because you've been with me since the beginning.

Yeah.

So it's a it's an opportune unity to invest in other individuals, individuals that you're not even going to probably meet or know or see their face.

But you give the gift, give the opportunity to be able to invest in them getting an education.

We know that, you know, especially nowadays, the the ability to be able to sometimes pay or fund for an education is difficult.

And there are individuals out there that want to do that, but they don't have the resources.

So this is an opportunity for them to do that.

And probably all of us would have to admit that at some point in time in our educational journey, someone helped us along, you know, with some resource or with some tutoring or with something.

They helped us along with it.

So that's why support it.

Now.

Your work with veterans and how you inspire others?

Several of the people you work with have been former students of mine, so please delve into that for us.

So what's also cool about that is, is as as we talked about earlier, Tilda and I both work with veterans here at the college and we provide some of those resources and that scholarship.

Yes.

As well as tutoring, service, career counseling, and a wide variety of services for those veterans.

You know, when you've been in the military and you get out and kind of going through the military, you're kind of told what to do, when to do it and those type of things.

So you get out and now you got to go into a whole new community, a whole different world.

And so we we help them.

We show them the ropes of going to college, help them with their with enrolling till then helps with advising and get them into the classes.

And of course, you're such a great instructor.

I know you are.

A lot of math came back to me and said, Oh, I know Dr. Leary.

She you know, I had her for communications, you know, or something like that.

So that's kind of cool.

We definitely support one another till then, think about maybe someone you've helped and how you were able to inspire them, because we know that sometimes just a smile, maybe a kind word can mean everything to someone, especially if they're having a bad day, correct?

Yes.

I can definitely expound upon a moment.

I remember sitting with a student who was having a pretty bad day, and a lot of times in those situations, I try to just listen and I try to just be available and through what they were able to tell to me, I was able to tell them about resources on campus and just be a friend that day.

And that student went on to do it very, very, very well.

So again, echoing, I think it's really important to just support and to help when you can.

100% mentorship.

Evelyn Now, you do a lot with the church, I know, but honestly, folks, the first time I called Evelyn on the phone, I could hear the smile in her voice.

I know that you probably mentor people or have mentored people, and in doing so, what has that meant to you giving back?

It means the world.

I mean, a chance for me to pour out into someone else and to sow a seed into the future of someone that will pretty much run, especially people of African-American descent such as myself.

It's amazing to see our people go further in life and get there.

And anyone basically is wonderful is very awesome.

Well, I pulled a picture of you playing the keyboard in your church.

Talented, investigating right now that's thing.

It's just highlighting the different things that you do now.

Even with that you probably have some little ones in the church to say, Hey, I want to be like Sister Evelyn and one day learn that I see you smiling, right?

So it probably happened.

Yes, I have one in particular.

His name is Louis and he's such a sweetheart.

He came to me when his mom and them go there that actually they've been there for quite a while.

And he asked, he says, to get Can you show me some stuff on the keyboard?

And I showed them.

And when he was before he got into the sports scene, because then that kind of taken my lead for him.

He comes to service and he'll go, Oh, let me show you what I've done on the keyboard.

I've learned something new.

So I'd give them something from time to time to practice.

He's really enjoyed.

That's awesome.

Now, as a recent PSC graduate, what advice would you give someone who maybe is pondering the idea of applying for a PSC scholarship?

It just hasn't done it quite yet.

I believe you should do it.

The application process, it's pretty much set up.

Like I said, I do a lot of backend work with financial aid, so all of the data that you need that is pretty much used from time to time with your name and everything it's already been.

So all you have to do is add the extra pieces for the different scholarships, do the award letters, write your essay, the essay That is really important.

You need to pour out why you need the scholarship.

They do take the time to write those essays later, and that can lead to you receiving scholarship scholarships.

Sure can.

And Dr. Woods, I had to smile because I've written many a scholarship letter, and I encourage all of my students to apply for our PSC scholarships.

And piggybacking on what you just said, Evelyn, I had someone come to me one time and said, Well, my GPA isn't the highest.

Should I still apply for this scholarship?

I said, Absolutely, because there are other factors that come into play.

You have also worked with prison ministry.

We definitely want you to talk a little bit about that.

So one of the things that I do at the prison is teach life skills.

A lot of the individuals out that that have been incarcerated, they're getting ready to return back into the community and they need a little bit of help.

They haven't been in the community for a while.

So I teach things like anger management and parenting classes.

I'm currently teaching a coping with losses in life class.

And so so I put them through, you know, different scenarios.

We talk about what's going on, but the cool thing about it, it's all biblically based.

So it's all taken from scripture and and they get they get they get a load of Jesus with it, you know, there and, and then they learn.

And I've had been very successful in doing, doing that all right.

And it's true family integrity training.

So I wanted to make sure I mentioned that family integrity training.

That is fascinating.

Phenomenal.

You all are amazing.

And 100 for 100 volunteers.

Please know how much your efforts are appreciated and you are gems to me.

Appreciate you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

All right.

You're welcome.

All right, folks, as we pause momentarily, we want to reveal the 2024 Doctor Garrity Wiggins, live your dream endowed scholarship recipients.

We are so proud of them.

Take a look.

Hello, everyone.

It was heartwarming to see the smiling faces of the 2020 for Dr. Garrett T. Wiggins.

Live your dream endowed Scholarship recipients.

What an amazing honor.

Collectively, there were 21 AMES Wiggins awardees.

And during this segment, I have the pleasure of welcoming two of them.

Right now, I'm thrilled to introduce Ashley Fossett.

So beautiful.

And Ziah Eubanks equally as lovely as well.

They are both Ames recipients.

Hello, ladies.

Hi.

Now, you are such an amazing person, Ashley.

You right now are pursuing a medical billing and coding certificate.

Tell us a little bit about your program.

So essentially, I am working towards becoming a medical biller, and it sounds a lot harder than what it is.

You know, there's coding classes I have to take.

There is medical terminology, classes I have to take.

There's health care law because a great portion of the medical billing program is understanding the way health care law works.

You know, so and that is fascinating because you also mentioned the fact that you would like to study or pursue something else in addition to that later on.

What would that be?

It would be the next step after medical billing and coding, which is health information management.

That is a I believe, a two year associates degree.

I was wanting to put my foot in the door with medical billing first, get a feel for the whole field and then work towards that degree.

So proud of you looking at this beautiful word right here.

Aptly so now Ziah culinary management.

Every time I say that, I get hungry.

But I want you to tell us a little bit about your major and what you like best about it.

Um, I like the culinary program.

I work for wine.

Can I give you a little backstory?

Yes, absolutely.

I was raised with my parents, but I stay with my grandmother a lot, and I stay in the kitchen with her.

So that's really what gave me the idea.

Are the you know, it's basically the inspiration for cooking.

And the culinary management is basically just going over the basis of like what go on throughout the the restaurant businesses in like hospitality.

Yes.

So all of that is incorporated throughout the program.

So now, how far along are you in the program?

Uh, this will be my, I would say, a year and a listen, the years and months passed so quickly.

But pretty soon you will be done.

But I have to ask you, what was your first reaction when you found out that you weren't Ames recipients still looking at your award right there?

Take us back.

I was pretty shocked, like when I got the call that I was receiving the reward, I was like kind of lazy affairs.

And I was like, Oh my God.

I didn't expect for the scholarship to, you know, turn into me having a reward ceremony to become to this point.

I just thought it, you know, scholarships and lots of amazing surprises.

And see, okay, now actually, how about you?

What was your first reaction when you found out about your Ames?

I was actually at the airport with my brother, about to go on a trip to meet some long distance friends for the first time.

And I was checking my student email and I was like, Oh my gosh, this can't be correct.

I want to say I want a scholarship award.

And I immediately told my parents, I told my brother.

So I'm the oldest of nine kids.

Oh, right.

Yeah.

So I told everyone they're like, wow, like, what is the award for?

And I told them everything and, you know, it went from there.

Now you love to read.

What is the most recent book that you have read?

It's actually like a scary short story.

It's called The Thing in the Woods.

And that sounds scary.

It was actually quite scary.

I'm huge on audiobooks lately.

Like you can ask anyone that knows me well.

I either have a book in my hand, a reading on my iPad, or I'm listening to an audiobook.

All right?

And as I have words of encouragement for anyone out there who is thinking about applying for a PSC scholarship, listen, this is the end result, folks, right here getting a scholarship at PSC.

So what would you say to someone out there?

I definitely would say just apply.

I mean, you can't do nothing but apply, you know, hope for the best and likely, like you say you can.

Does it matter your GPA or anything like that just apply and just do it.

Ashley What would you say quickly to someone who is thinking about applying but just hasn't done it yet?

I would say put away your doubts, put all your worries that you are worthy of a scholarship.

Just do it because I felt the same way.

You know, I'm 26, I'm a mom of two daughters, and I was just like one day, like, I need to start a career.

And the first step is going back to school.

And then to do that, I applied for scholarships and here I am.

All right.

And the rest is history.

The end result, folks.

Thank you so much, Ashley and Ziah Now, as we close the show, I'd like to thank all of our guests for joining us.

I must say, it's always a pleasure to honor our Pensacola State College students.

As a final note for more information regarding the PSC Foundation, you can log on to foundation that Pensacola State that you and Rameca Vincent Leary thanks for watching.

And remember to keep it locked in right here on WSRE PBS for the Gulf Coast.