CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Six students in the Coastal Bend were each awarded $12-hundred dollars in scholarships from the Je'sani Smith Foundation and the support of Valero.
Four of those students are seniors from King High School, which is the same school Je'sani Smith attended as a senior when his life was sadly lost to a rip current on White Cap Beach in April of 2019.
This year's topic for the scholarship consisted of writing an essay on water safety and rip current safety in Je'sani's memory.
When the students received the call that they won the scholarship some of them were left speechless.
Kannon Hall is the Director of Ambassadorship and Scholarship initiatives, he spoke with 3NEWS and said, "they were so grateful. Some of them said they weren't worthy, and I had to tell them no you are you went above and beyond."
There was a total of 14 applicants this year, last year only 8 students submitted applications. The foundation along with Valero hope to get even more applicants and funds for next year.
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