Biscayne Bay Kiwanis Club surprises Booker T. Washington senior with 4-year scholarship
Zamiyah Wadley woke up on Tuesday not knowing if she’d be able to pay for college. By 10:30 a.m., the Booker T. Washington High senior had gotten a big boost toward becoming the first member of her family to attend a university.
The Biscayne Bay Kiwanis Club, a community service organization dedicated to serving children, surprised Wadley Tuesday morning with a scholarship valued up to $30,000, which will cover up to 120 credit hours purchased through the Florida Pre-Paid program.
She plans to attend Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach.
“I’m surprised, thankful,” said Wadley, 18, who graduated Tuesday afternoon.
Eight Kiwanis Club members delivered the extra-large check to Wadley’s Allapattah home in a Publisher’s Clearinghouse type fashion. Her mother, Luria Davis, was virtually speechless while her grandmother Barbara Burrows had tears streaming down her face.
“I’m just so proud of her,” Davis said. “She did it. I’ve never really had to push her. This is something that she’s always wanted. She did it on her own.”
One person, however, was not surprised. Wendie Williams, Wadley’s third grade teacher, remembered her former student as one of the most “special” children she has taught over the last 35 years.
“She had an awesome upbringing,” said Williams, who retired in January, who posed with. photos with the family. “She lived by principles and, because I was a counselor by training, I taught her character values and she definitely soaked it up.”
An exceptional student, Wadley graduated in the top 4 percent of her class with a 4.36 GPA. She also was president of the news broadcasting club, an officer in the entrepreneurship club and class treasurer. But it was her more than 1,300 of community service, primarily with special needs students, that made her stand out among the final eight candidates, sayas Kiwanis Club scholarship chairman Rick Freedman.
“Her mentor wrote about a situation where one of the autistic students, one day, was having a particularly difficult day and had a breakdown,” Freedman recalled of Wadley’s application. “Zamiyah went over there, put the arm around the student and was able to control it.... That really, really just touched us.”
Wadley plans to major in physical therapy. As for how she plans on paying it forward, the future first-generation college student intends to keep working hard to ensure that she’s not the last in her family to pursue higher education.
“I just plan on doing the same thing that I’ve been doing and keep pushing myself, motivating myself to be the best that I can be,” she said.
