Two Robinson High seniors combine friendship, academics and athletics to win scholarships to Saint Leo University.
By REBECCA RICHARDS
Published May 30, 2003
INTERBAY - On the basketball court, Jameshia Harris and Mary Jones soared with their squad.
Jameshia snatched rebounds. Mary drained jump shots.
Off the court, they got good grades, overcame hardships and landed big scholarships to attend Saint Leo University.
The best friends were among 240 seniors who graduated Tuesday from Robinson High School.
"No one deserves to go to college more than those two girls," says Lee Ware, founder of the Fortune Education Foundation, which will award their scholarships during a charity event June 14.
The seniors are among 22 African-American girls who received a total of $200,000 raised through individual and corporate donations. Most of the students come from low-income, single-parent homes and found the comforts of home at high school.
The girls met through Robinson's basketball team, on which they played as center, forward and shooting guard. Despite hardships at home, they relied on each other and their love of the game to achieve success.
Both consider their mothers the strongest influences in their lives.
Jones' mother is terminally ill. "She is not expected to live very long," the 17-year-old wrote in an essay for her scholarship. "Her immune system is decreasing rapidly and she is now at a critical level and weighing only 72 pounds."
Jones' most vivid memory as a child, she wrote, was of her father beating her mother. They divorced, and the family moved to Florida from Ohio.
To help her younger brother stay in school, Jones worked part time at Publix, even during basketball season.
Jameshia, 18, said her father left when she was a baby. Her mother sent her to live with her godmother but, after 10 years, the woman moved away without notice.
"I came home to an empty house and from that day on I have not been able to trust anyone," Jameshia wrote in her scholarship essay.
Last year, a basketball coach changed that. With her mother's approval, Jameshia used to spend weekends with Carl Green and his wife, Nadine.
"He is like a father figure to me," Jameshia says of Green, now an assistant principal at Riverview High School.
The Greens know Mary, too, and often talk to her about religion and other issues on her mind.
"Our door is always open," Green says. "We are not their foster parents, but we care and we're here for them."
They are among the people pulling for the girls, who are as close as sisters.
Ware, who owns the Fortune Real Estate Co. and started the education foundation in 1993, admires their tenacity.
"If I had to deal with the likes of what those two have, I don't know that I would have graduated from high school," Ware says. "They have put all their energy into sports and school."
On Saturdays, the girls studied for the SAT through a mentoring program founded by Tyrone Keys, a former Tampa Bay Buccaneer and member of the Chicago Bears' Super Bowl XX team. Keys works with colleges, charitable groups and guidance counselors to help African-American students "develop a game plan behind high school," he said.
That includes Barbara Simmons, a counselor at Robinson who knows the girls.
"They've had a lot to contend with," she says. "But their GPAs are high and they're going to college."
Jameshia has a B-plus average, Mary a B. Jameshia wants to be a lawyer, Mary a forensic scientist.
Before that, though, they hope to room together at Saint Leo's and make the basketball team.
"Basketball is practically my life," says Jameshia, who smiles broadly when she talks about the sport. "Whether we win or lose, I get into the game. I play to win."
She was one of the top 10 rebounders in the district this season, says coach Herman Valdes, and the team finished with an 18-11 record. The girls play powerfully, he says.
"Both girls are survivors," Valdes says. "They're going to make it."
- Times researcher John Martin contributed to this report.
The Fortune Education Foundation will honor Jameshia Harris, Mary Jones and other scholarship winners at its annual fundraiser June 14 at the Downtown Hyatt Regency. Tickets for the dinner gala and auction are $75. Call 936-9090.
