Florida ed choice scholarship gives young missionary a 'well-rounded education'
Celie White met children in Guatemala who live on the edge of landfills. They walk behind trucks that dump trash and pick through the garbage for something of value they can exchange for food.
Their homes are shanties made of refuse. They are surrounded by filth and disease. There is little hope of an escape to a better life.
Celie, a high school senior who has benefited from a Florida education choice scholarship, helped deliver food to these children and their families as part of a 2024 mission with her church.
Her father, Matthew White, is the worship pastor at Long Avenue Baptist Church in the Panhandle town of Port St. Joe. Since 2008, he has helped organize yearly trips to the Central American country to deliver food, medicine, and housing supplies to the poorest of the poor.
After years of hearing about the trips, Celie finally made one. She delivered food to the people who live around the landfill. She distributed food and medicine and helped build small houses for families living in the impoverished villages scattered around Guatemala City, the country’s capital city.
It was then that Celie fully realized the impact of the fundraisers and food drives she organized back home.
“You hear all the stories, and then you go down there and see the children, and you see what the donations are actually going for,” she said. “It encourages you to want to do more for them, to help them more.”
She plans to be a part of Long Avenue Baptist Church’s next mission trip to Guatemala.
“I always try to influence people to do a mission trip at least once in their life, because it gives people a first-hand experience, not only with stepping out of America but seeing the circumstances that others live in,” she said.
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Celie, 18, plans to major in elementary education at Troy University in Alabama.
She has received a Florida education choice scholarship since first grade and attended Faith Christian School, a K-10 private school in Port St. Joe. Home educated for the 11th and 12th grades, Celie receives the Personalized Education Program (PEP) that comes with her Florida Tax Credit Scholarship. The scholarship is managed by Step Up For Students.
Her siblings, Libby (10th grade) and Owen (sixth), attend Faith Christian with the help of Florida Tax Credit scholarships.
“The scholarship has been a game-changer in the life of our family,” Matthew said. “It gave us access to a great classical education.”
The PEP scholarship took Celie beyond that.
PEP gives families flexibility in how they spend their scholarship funds, enabling them to tailor an education to best meet their children’s needs.
She used her funds to take classes at Faith Christian during her junior year, as well as classes with Florida Virtual School. She is also dual-enrolled at Gulf Coast State College.
Last summer, Celie’s PEP scholarship covered the cost of a 10-day historical field trip that included stops in Savannah, Georgia; Charleston, South Carolina; Washington, D.C.; Chattanooga, Tennessee; and Chickamauga, Georgia.
She will graduate from high school with what her dad said is a “well-rounded education.”
And a clear direction for her future.
Celie, who said her role models are her parents, wants to follow in the footsteps of her mother, Sarah, a second-grade teacher at Faith Christian.
“I never got to have her as my teacher, but I got to witness the other side of teaching at a young age, and I think that's really what inspired me to become a teacher,” Celie said.
Ultimately, Celie wants to be the head of the board of directors at a college or school.
“The teachers at Faith Christian were so hands-on, caring, and influential that I really believe their impact is part of the reason I am who I am today,” Celie said. “I was raised to be very independent and to have my own mindset going into things and to take care of myself, and I really want to instill those same properties in other people. I really like management, and I’m really big into time management, so I think that with all those qualities, I could really use them in my favor.
“It’s a big goal, but I do plan on achieving that.”
In 2024, Celie was voted Miss Port St. Joe, an honor that came with a measure of civic responsibility. She served meals at a local food bank, visited elderly patients in nursing homes, and read to children at the library.
“She was in the middle of everything that year,” Matthew said. “Had some really great experiences.”
In February, Celie participated in the Florida House of Representatives’ Page and Messenger Program.
In addition to her mission trip to Guatemala, Celie also made a mission trip to Israel.
Troy University has a highly respected education program. The school prides itself on developing leaders, “change makers,” as they are referred to on the school’s website.
That’s the right educational setting for Celie, who strives to make an impact in her small coastal town and beyond.
Like Guatemala, for instance.
“The living conditions are horrible down there,” she said. “It smells like smoke all the time, and these people are always sick. There are children who literally live in a dump.
“It’s good to just talk with the people. That honestly makes such an impact.”
Roger Mooney, manager, communications, can be reached at [email protected].
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