This year’s recipients balance academics, service, and spiritual growth with the support of a life-changing scholarship.
For Brody Beaupre, a graduating senior from Gainesville, baseball is life. And like life, it has its ups and downs.
On a visit to Florida Southern College for a baseball showcase, Beaupre tore his meniscus first thing in the morning. Everyday tasks like walking became a challenge. His regular duties as a catcher became impossible.
He needed surgery. But with some quick action from his dad, he was able to be seen quickly by a specialist out of state. Throughout the pain, his faith was there to ground him.
“Having faith that everything happens for a reason and that there’s a bigger plan and just being able to trust that God had a plan for me,” Beaupre said. “And that it wasn’t the end of the world after all.”
By leaning on his faith in a time of need, he was able to better contextualize his situation.
“There’s a lot more to life than, you know, whether or not my knee is feeling good,” Beaupre said.
He recovered quickly, playing most of his senior baseball season.
Now he looks forward to his fall semester, where he’ll attend Florida Southern College to play baseball with the Moccasins and study religion.
He’ll be supported by the Foundation’s Sinclair Scholarship, which supports the spiritual and academic development of college-bound first-year students.
Cultivating the mindset of an athlete
Beaupre’s interest in studying religion was influenced by deep conversations he had with his grandfather when he was younger.
“And religion was one of the main topics because I have a lot of questions about it,” Beaupre said, “I still do.”
Beaupre is a member of Trinity United Methodist Church in Gainesville, a congregation he joined for its lively youth ministry.
Faith has helped him to not only navigate his own life, but to better serve the greater community. He remembers a mission trip to Brunswick, Georgia that introduced him to a lifelong path of service. While visiting a lower income area there, he helped build training aids for a local youth sports team.
“That was really fun to do like work but also get to see the kids have fun playing with and enjoying the stuff that we helped create,” Beaupre said.
From that moment, he knew he wanted to continue to serve others. In 2022, he swapped the catcher’s mitt for a sledgehammer, helping to clear wreckage and begin demo work on homes ruined by Hurricane Ian on Sanibel Island.
Beyond college, Beaupre has his heart set on the major leagues. On and off the field, he embraces the saying, “One bad swing doesn’t make it a bad round. One bad round doesn’t make it a bad day. A bad day doesn’t make it a bad week.”
And a bad week, he adds, doesn’t make someone a bad player.
As a recipient of the Sinclair Scholarship, he has one less obstacle to making that dream a reality.
“It’s not cheap to go to college nowadays,” Beaupre said. “So the Sinclair scholarship is definitely helping make that more doable for my family. And I’m very, very grateful to be selected.”
Celebrating the church as more than four walls
Micah DeHaven’s roots run deep in the Cedar Key community. His family goes back six or seven generations.
In that time, the small fishing community along Florida’s Nature Coast has pivoted to include more tourism, where people come to see the historic fishing pier, observe wildlife and experience a slower way of life.
DeHaven is a lifelong member of Cedar Key United Methodist Church. Like so many in Florida, the intensity and frequency of recent hurricanes is top of mind. He remembers walking into his church in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene and nearly feeling sick to his stomach.
“I had to take a step back and look at it and realize the church is not just the building,” DeHaven said. “There is the community that gets together and worships God. It’s like it can happen anywhere. It’s not just that building.”
DeHaven will attend the University of Florida starting in the summer, where he plans to study aerospace and mechanical engineering in the hopes of one day prototyping and designing next generation fighter jets. He is the first of his four siblings to attend college. Receiving the Sinclair Scholarship is a huge relief for his family, with the state’s Bright Futures scholarship providing only partial relief from the high costs of education.
“It just felt like a weight was lifted off of me because my parents aren’t going to be able to afford my college tuition, even with Bright Futures,” DeHaven said. “It helped me calm out a little bit and just realize it is going to work out. Everything is going to be okay.”
Sharing truth, from D.C. and beyond
Isabel Lopez, an incoming college freshman from Coral Springs, learned an important lesson on faith during the worst times of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Your faith is with you everywhere you go,” Lopez said. “Regardless if it’s at church or school or at home, or across the country or around the world.”
It was during this time that Isabel felt the pain of not being able to be physically present with her congregation at church — a place she calls her sanctuary. Though the pandemic disrupted her typical spiritual routine, she learned to lean on her faith and get through the tough time.
She plans to attend Florida Southern College in the fall, where she will double major in political science and multimedia journalism. Lopez chose Florida Southern for its opportunities — including study abroad, a semester in D.C. through a The Washington Center, and the chance to gain real-world experience through internships.
“NPR is the big one for me,” Lopez said. “Or CNN in D.C.”
Lopez has called First Church Coral Springs home since 2019. She has immersed herself in two mission trips — one to Waverly, Tennessee and the other to Paducah, Kentucky — to repair homes affected by flooding and tornado damage in years prior. She has also shared her musical gifts singing in the sanctuary choir and with the Sunday morning praise team.
For Lopez, receiving the Sinclair Scholarship is the answer to her family’s goal for her to attend college without taking on debt, especially since graduate school is a path she is considering for the future.
“I feel really supported by the Foundation and my whole family,” Lopez said.
Engineering a healthier planet
Juliana Subbert has a knack for helping others and dreaming up ways to help the world. Soon after joining First United Methodist Church of Sanford in 2023, she started as a children’s ministry leader.
“When I came to my new church, I realized they needed a lot of help,” Subbert said. “I interviewed and now I just love it because I have mostly the same kids every week, and I know them so well, and they’re all just so amazing.”
Subbert also lends a hand as an afterschool volunteer at Arbor School of Central Florida, a school that specializes in educating children with special needs. In the summer and on days off from school, Subbert volunteers with Kairos Adventures, a ministry and nonprofit started by her mom as part of The Neighborhood Co-Op at First Sanford. Kairos helps adults with special needs discover their God-given potential and purpose.
When not volunteering, she could be found competing with the Lyman High Robotics team, wearing hats working as designer, builder, treasurer, and social media manager. Subbert will continue to explore her interest in engineering and the natural world as she plans for a career related to sustainability. She plans to first get her associate’s degree at Seminole State College, then pursue studies in biology or environmental engineering.
“I think going into environmental engineering would be great because it would allow me to help the world become a better place,” Subbert said. “And not just build random things, but build stuff that will actually help the earth.” With the help of the Sinclair Scholarship, she can focus on big solutions for the planet.
“I was just so overjoyed,” Subbert said. “And I think it’s great because it’s really going to help me through college — for my finances and everything.”
Making an impact beyond the classroom
Marley Brooks is a graduating senior from Lauderdale Lakes, where she is a member of Merrill United Methodist Church. She looks forward to attending Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University in the fall. Her decision to attend FAMU was rooted in the school’s heritage and rigor.
“Just knowing that, black excellence is a pillar,” said Brooks. “And there are people surrounding you that want to see you, ones that are striving for your success and that will push you until you get there and make sure that you obtain your aspirations.”
Another factor was community. Even during her visit to FAMU, she found the community instantly welcoming — striking up a conversation with current students effortlessly.
Brooks envisions a career as a leader in education, like a principal or guidance counselor, where she can have a greater impact on students.
“And I think that’s the side that really draws me mainly, knowing that I have a larger impact, outside of just my classroom,” said Brooks.
One way she has already created a positive impact in schools is through a feminine hygiene product drive she ran with Delta GEMS, a youth mentorship program of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority. By creating and distributing care packages for girls in local elementary schools, they were able to serve the needs of this underserved group of students. “The girls who do need it, they can’t access these things or a lot of the time, like even the clinic doesn’t have it,” explained Brooks.
Brooks graduates high school with a Cambridge Advanced International Certificate of Education (AICE) diploma, a feat she describes as particularly challenging while balancing extracurricular activities. Working through the challenges of the program pushed her to her limit and deepened her relationship with God.
“It’s just you and this assignment at 4 a.m.,” said Brooks. “I have nobody else but to lean on God. Genuinely.”
Interested in applying for the Sinclair Scholarship? Applications open in the spring. Learn more.