On Tuesday, June 5, the final recipient of the first ‘Remember Carly Rae’ scholarship was announced during the Mosley Career Readiness Academy graduation ceremony.
Jocelyn Garnica-Lopez of Ashley High School, who will attend UNCW, is one of several students who received a $1000 grant from the Alex Highsmith Family Foundation and the Baron Family. According to the foundation’s founder, their mission is to provide a scholarship to a student from each school in New Hanover County.
“What we look for in that is a good person, a person who cares about others and enjoys school and we really feel this can help them at the next level. Yeah, academics are involved and academics are a part of it but it’s not the majority so it’s a combination of a lot of things,” Alex Highsmith said.
The scholarship is named in honor of Carly Rae Baron, who attended Ashley High and sadly lost her life in a fatal shooting in October 2020.
“Knowing her and knowing her family makes it that much more important. I know she was a beautiful young lady inside and out and to be able to do this and keep her name and memory alive is just, there are no words for it,” Smith said.
Ashley High School students Makenzie Farr, Kenan Everhart, Andre Yeoman, and Oscar Cleaveland also received scholarships from New Hanover County Schools over the weekend. On Tuesday, June 6, Hoggard High School students William Hendrick Norris and Julio Lima-Romano were revealed as awardees in an update.
Last week, the prize was presented to students from three NHC schools: Laney, Isaac Bear Early College, and Wilmington Early College.
“It’s not really fair to just give it to Ashley (students). I knew a lot of other students who went to Myrtle Grove with her, at Hoggard, at New Hanover, she had friends at Laney so let’s just make this something we share for the county. It also helps keep her name alive that much more,” Smith said.