BY CLIFF SMELLEY
In accordance with its motto of “Dream, Live, Prosper,” DLPbank has established scholarships to help graduating high school seniors dream big, live boldly and prosper to the largest extent possible.
The bank will award five $1,000 scholarships annually to students who plan to enroll in the fields of licensed practical nursing/certified nursing assistant, firefighter, police officer, commercial vehicle driving and welding.
Students in Bradford and Union counties can apply as well as students in Alachua and Putnam counties., This year’s deadline to submit applications is April 4, 2025.
Applications are available at DLPbank as well as the schools where its branches are located.
Completed applications can be returned to DLPbank (in an envelope marked “DLPbank Scholarship Committee”) or mailed to the address provided on the application form.
Brad Bishop, the director at Starke’s North Florida Technical College, invited Executive Vice President Carolyn Reddish and Executive Assistant Marty Rhoden from the Starke branch of the bank to his campus to thank them for creating career-technical scholarships. North Florida Technical College offers programs in practical nursing, nursing assistant, commercial vehicle driving and welding.
“This is really, really cool,” Bishop said. “It’s specifically for the programs that are offered here, with the exception of firefighter and police officer.”
Rhoden said the inspiration for such scholarships came from attending a Bradford High School senior-awards event in support of his daughter. After observing that most scholarships were being awarded to high-honors graduates — typically students who wouldn’t be pursuing career-technical education — Rhoden asked himself, “Why can’t we offer something to what I call the average kid?”
“We primarily wanted to focus on the kids who get overlooked,” Reddish said.
Some of those students will be seeking careers in fields that are anything but overlooked.
“Career and technical education is what keeps the world moving,” Bishop said. “It keeps your vehicles running, your houses from burning down, your safety with the police, your healthcare — a career in technical education is near and dear to my heart.”
Scholarship applicants must have a minimum GPA of 2.0, write an essay profiling themselves and why they’re seeking a particular career field and provide a letter of recommendation from a school official as well as a letter from a community member.
Applicants, who also must provide their family’s latest tax return, must live in Bradford, Union, Alachua or Putnam.
An impartial committee will select the winning recipients, who’ll be notified no later than May 2, 2025.
Bishop said the scholarships will be of great benefit to high-school graduates who want to enroll in North Florida Technical College’s commercial-vehicle driving and certified nursing assistant programs. Pell grants aren’t available for either program, though some assistance is available through CareerSource vouchers.
“This is a great opportunity for two of our programs that don’t qualify for your traditional financial-aid Pell Grant,” Bishop said. “The majority of our students (in other programs) use the Pell Grant to go to school.”
Students pursuing one of the career-and-technical fields covered by the scholarships are looking at good starting salaries. For example, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the 2023 median salaries for those career fields, with the exception of nursing assistant, were approximately $50,000 and up. The 2023 median salary for nursing assistant was almost $40,000.
These are high-demand careers also, especially commercial vehicle driving and nursing assistant. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects both of those careers to have in excess of 200,000 job openings each year through 2033.
“They’re much-needed careers,” Reddish said. “You’re seeing a cycle of workers who have always done those jobs, they’re retiring. Those are the jobs that need to be filled.”
