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Teen's service, adversity help her win scholarship

By TIMES STAFF
Published July 4, 2007

Emily Lester, 17, a rising senior at Seminole High School, has been named one of 10 nationwide winners of a $25, 000 Discover Card Tribute Award Scholarship.

Lester was considered for the award as one of 25 state winners of a $2, 500 scholarship.

To be eligible, students must be high school juniors with a minimum 2.75 grade point average for ninth and 10th grades, demonstrate community service and leadership, and have faced a significant challenge.

Lester underwent a bone marrow transplant in 2006 at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., because of a recurrence of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, which she was diagnosed with in 2001.

Lester formerly attended the IB program at St. Petersburg High School before becoming a student of the Pinellas County Schools' hospital/homebound program and the online Virtual High School. In early 2007, she began attending Seminole High part time.

Lester is a Hero of Hope and a spokeswoman for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

She videotaped a segment for the "Pennies for Patients" fundraising program and has been a spokeswoman for the American Cancer Society since 2004, raising funds for a Christmas party for pediatric cancer patients.

She was a model in a fashion show this year to benefit the Pediatric Cancer Foundation.

Through "Emily's Team, " Lester has spearheaded a bone marrow donor drive during Bay to Bay race activities the past two years. Lester is active with the annual ACS Relay for Life, and her family has held a fundraising garage sale to benefit ACS for the past six years.

[Last modified July 3, 2007, 21:13:01]