inspirED
Meet our scholars, educators, donors and partners.
Transforming Our Community.
One Scholarship at a Time.
Step Up For Students Scholarships do more than fund education. They change lives. Students thrive in environments that fit their needs. Educators extend their reach to support vulnerable students. Communities grow stronger as educational systems improve.
This is inspireEd. Welcome.
Here, you will get an inside view of that transformation in progress. See what happens when students and their families discover the power of taking control over their academics. Watch as they forge new pathways to a better future. Find inspiration in their determination to achieve their dreams.
These are the stories of Florida students who have renewed hope because they have a school that better fits their needs or educational materials to unlock their potential. They are the stories of a community that has come together to support the belief that educational choice matters. Here, you can be a part of this incredible journey.
This is inspireEd. Welcome.
Here, you will get an inside view of that transformation in progress. See what happens when students and their families discover the power of taking control over their academics. Watch as they forge new pathways to a better future. Find inspiration in their determination to achieve their dreams.
These are the stories of Florida students who have renewed hope because they have a school that better fits their needs or educational materials to unlock their potential. They are the stories of a community that has come together to support the belief that educational choice matters. Here, you can be a part of this incredible journey.
Latest Posts
Florida Tax Credit Scholarship, Military Family, Step Up For Students, Student Spotlights
Education choice scholarship a pleasant surprise for this military family stationed in Jacksonville
Nov 11, 2024 • By Roger Mooney
Florida Tax Credit Scholarship, Beyond the Scholarship, Step Up For Students, Student Spotlights
Author! Author! Charisma loves school so much she wrote a book about it
Dec 17, 2024 • By Roger Mooney
Donor Corner, Beyond the Scholarship, Florida Tax Credit Scholarship, Step Up For Students
Universal Property & Casualty Insurance Company donates $5 million to help provide scholarships for Florida students
Dec 5, 2024 • By Ashley Zarle
Personalized Education Program, Family Empowerment Scholarship for Educational Options, Florida Tax Credit Scholarship, graduate, Step Up For Students, Student Spotlights
At 19, Gabriel is an ordained minister, motivational speaker, author, and now an education choice advocate
Dec 4, 2024 • By Roger Mooney
Step Up For Students, Beyond the Scholarship, Family Empowerment Scholarship for Educational Options, Family Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities, Florida Tax Credit Scholarship, School Choice, School Spotlights
Two more Step Up schools earn prestigious National Blue Ribbon Schools distinction
Nov 26, 2024 • By Roger Mooney
Family Empowerment Scholarship for Educational Options, Step Up For Students, Student Spotlights
Bringing water to remote villages in Tanzania a 'life-changing' event for Clearwater Central Catholic students
Nov 14, 2024 • By Roger Mooney
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Browse More From The Blog
Family Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities, Step Up For Students, Student Spotlights
podcastED: Florida mom expresses gratitude for scholarship that benefits her daughter, contributes to her own success as tutor, advocate
On this episode, reimaginED senior writer Lisa Buie talks with Danyse Streets, a reading specialist who owns and operates Bridging the Reading Gap, a tutoring and special education advocacy company in Fleming Island, Florida, just south of Jacksonville. Her 12-year-old daughter, Kate, receives a Florida Family Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities, which Streets uses […]
Learn MoreFamily Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities, Gardiner Scholarships, Hope Scholarship, Student Spotlights
Jaylen's challenge: A mission to prevent bullying while creating Tourette Syndrome awareness
BY ROGER MOONEY LAKELAND – Jaylen Arnold was 8 when he walked into his old elementary school to speak with two dozen or so former classmates, many of whom had recently taunted and physically bullied him. Jaylen was scared. His mother, Robin, walking beside him, was proud. The meeting was Jaylen’s idea. He wanted to […]
Learn MorePutting the 'student' in 'student-athlete' with the help of an education choice scholarship
BY ROGER MOONEY TAMPA – The numbers Joquez Smith compiled as a running back during his four years of high school football place him among the best to have ever played in Hillsborough County. The numbers he’s earned in the classroom at Jesuit High School, an academically demanding Catholic school in Tampa, are just as […]
Learn MoreFamily Empowerment Scholarship for Educational Options, Family Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities, Florida Tax Credit Scholarship, Gardiner Scholarships, Hope Scholarship, Rising Stars, Student Spotlights
Time to nominate your Step Up students for the annual Rising Stars Awards event
It’s time for educators to nominate students for Step Up For Students’ annual Rising Stars Awards. The recipients will be honored in April at events at eight schools across the state. The schools will be announced at a later date. Students must be enrolled in the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship (FTC), Family Empowerment Scholarship for […]
Learn MoreFlorida Tax Credit Scholarship, Family Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities, Step Up For Students, Student Spotlights
Education choice scholarships help family continue on chosen education path
BY ROGER MOONEY Those were tears of joy rolling down her cheeks after Maureen Press opened the email and learned her four children were eligible for education choice scholarships that would keep them in private school. “I was beside myself,” Maureen recalled of that day in the spring of 2017. “I didn’t think it would […]
Learn MoreNew private school seeks to connect Florida students with their Jewish roots
BY LISA BUIE Rabbi Isaac Melnick thinks learning should be fun. As a young teacher in a Hebrew dual-language charter school in South Florida, he ran a lively after-school program that taught Torah to students who wanted to receive Judaic instruction. He called the program Torah 4 Everyone. He also ran Camp Cooluna, a summer camp […]
Learn MorePurple Star program lets Florida Catholic schools nurture military families
BY LISA BUIE It’s tough being the new kid in school. It’s even tougher being the new kid every two to three years. That’s the norm for 1.2 million United States children born into military families. According to the Military Child Education Coalition, military-connected children move six to nine times between kindergarten and high school graduation. Florida […]
Learn MoreFamily Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities, Gardiner Scholarships, Step Up For Students, Student Spotlights
Fighting for life since birth, Peyton has 'overcome everything they told us she wouldn’t overcome'
BY ROGER MOONEY OKEECHOBEE – Peyton Williams entered this world with a damaged heart, a damaged airway and hardly any hope from doctors who examined her the day she was born. They told her mother her baby wouldn’t survive her first 24 hours. Then she was told Peyton wouldn’t live to her first birthday. Peyton […]
Learn MoreEducation choice scholarship gave Taty the 'true experience of what school is supposed to be'
BY ROGER MOONEY When she arrived at The Foundation Academy, a private K-12 school in Jacksonville, Tatyanna “Taty” Thibeaux was a shy student who didn’t say much and kept to herself. Some of that, her mother Lucy said, stemmed from a language delay. “When she was little, she really didn’t speak,” Lucy said. “She really […]
Learn MoreFamily Empowerment Scholarship for Educational Options, Florida Tax Credit Scholarship, School Choice, School Spotlights, Step Up For Students, Student Spotlights
School choice in Florida’s oyster country
Editor’s note: This distinctive high school in the Florida Panhandle is another compelling example of how education choice manifests in rural areas, contrary to myths perpetuated by choice opponents in other states. To rebut that misinformation, reimaginED published a new white paper last week called “Rerouting the Myths of Rural Education Choice.” You can check […]
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