Pictured: Giovanni Roman (left) and Bryson Boyce (right).

Booker High School has a unique partnership with Gamma Xi Boule of Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, and hundreds of students have benefitted from this distinct collaboration. Through its foundation, the Gamma Xi Boule provides programs and services that help local students to develop the attitudes, skills, and aptitude to graduate from high school, post-secondary institutions, and to excel in the 21st Century workforce. The list of Boule services provided through the partnership with Booker High is extensive. Hundreds of students have gained essential knowledge or experience as participants in the Boule’s “Journey to Success” (JTS) youth development programs. Current JTS initiatives in which Booker students participate include student internships, career explorations, group mentoring, bi-monthly speaker’s program, preparation courses for SAT & ACT college entrance examinations, and college scholarship awards. This summer, the Boule added a new initiative: the Academically Interested Minds (AIM) pre-college summer residential program. Booker High seniors (Class of 2023) Bryson Boyce and Giovanni Roman added to Booker’s extensive list of “firsts” when they successfully completed the program. Both students received scholarships to attend AIM through generous contributions from the Gamma Xi Boule Foundation, and both students returned to Sarasota with college-level experiences and additional scholarships. The five-week residential AIM program at Kettering University-Flint, Michigan included college-level courses in calculus, physics, chemistry, computer programming and communications. The AIM summer experience also included field trips to global corporations. The AIM program recruits forty multicultural high school students with a 3.0 or better grade point average, and a desire to pursue a college degree in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, or business. Participants come from the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean. Giovanni and Bryson were awarded AIM scholarships in the amounts of $8,500 a year and $5,000 a year, respectively, for their outstanding participation in the 5-week program. The outstanding performances of the Booker High School students were hailed as “tremendously significant” by Dr. Rachel Shelley, proud principal of Booker High School. “Their success will certainly open the AIM program door for additional Sarasota area students.”

Pictured: Giovanni Roman (left) and Bryson Boyce (right).