We're pleased to announce that we've awarded the 2021 Paul Toomey IT Scholarships to three outstanding high school seniors. Throughout their applications, essays, and letters of recommendation, these three students demonstrated a strong sense of dedication, passion, and civic mindfulness. Please join us in congratulating Te'Dajah Bradley, Dominick Kapuscinski, and Marlon Edwards!
Since 2016, the Paul Toomey IT Scholarship has helped five high-achieving high school seniors with their pursuits of computer-related degrees, and this is the first year we've awarded multiple winners.
Each scholarship this year is worth an impressive $3,000. Entirely funded by employee contributions and management matches, we'd like to thank everyone who donated to this worthy cause.
Te'Dajah Bradley, East Bay High School
Te'Dajah began her high-achieving academic career with a dual-enrollment in middle school and virtual school. As one of the top three students across two high schools that she attended, Te'Dajah is active with her school's National Honor Society, Key Club, volleyball team, and softball team, and has still made time to volunteer with Feeding Tampa Bay. Her commitment to her education has driven her to place on the Principal's Honor Roll and receive an Academic Letter. Te'Dajah's career goal is to become an IT Specialist for the government. We are certain that her self-driven nature will help her achieve further success as she pursues an Information Technology degree at UCF.
Dominik Kapuscinski, Palm Harbor University High School
Dominik leads his peers as the programmer and team captain for the First Tech Challenge, a global competition with over 600 teams worldwide, and his team holds the 2019 World Championship. He also holds a leadership role as Treasurer of Key Club, and is heavily involved with teaching computer aided design as well as computer technology both locally and abroad. He has explored numerous areas of computer engineering within robotics, including 3-D design, programming, computer hardware, and networking through curriculum and with a hands-on approach. We are confident that he will continue to enjoy success in his post-secondary endeavors. Dominik applied to UF, USF, and FSU to pursue a degree in computer engineering
Marlon Edwards, Brooks DeBartolo Collegiate High School
Marlon is active in his high school's STEM club, underwater robotics team, National Honors Society, Mu Alpha Theta, sports teams, and band — all while volunteering with Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful. He is a freelance website designer and YouTube Creator. Marlon credits growing up with a non-verbal autistic brother as the inspiration behind his mission to develop tools to assist and improve the lives of individuals living with non-verbal autism. We are confident that Marlon will enjoy continued success at Carnegie Mellon University, where he will study software engineering.