From Immokalee to Brunswick

Last september, Gulfshore Life featured Immokalee High School student Alex Jeanty as one of the 2006 Philanthropists of the Year. While the Haitian-born teenager’s grades (3.7 GPA) and track exploits (second in the state for the 800-meter run) were impressive, it was his volunteer service teaching English to Immokalee adults that earned him the distinction of Outstanding Youth Volunteer.

Jeanty’s leadership didn’t go unnoticed beyond the Gulfshore; Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, has awarded him a Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain scholarship. Not only is it a full-ride, academic scholarship, but Jeanty gets a stipend for two summer internships and will head to Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire for a crash course in college-level expository writing before starting his first semester.

"Alex impressed me as a remarkable young man with loads of talent and confidence, who is clearly very bright, very ambitious and eager to learn," says Barry Mills, president of Bowdoin, who recently visited Jeanty in Immokalee. "I am delighted to know that he will be joining us in the fall."

Jeanty has decided to study education, and he’s planning to follow it with graduate school for physical therapy.

The most exciting part of all this for Jeanty? "Actually going to college," he says. "It’s just a new experience."