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Kicking a bright future into high gear
Haley Jarrett was a high school sophomore attending school during the week and traveling on weekends with her parents to soccer tournaments around the state. A bright student, Haley knew college was in her future. She just wanted to find a way to help pay for it to repay her parents for all they spent on travel soccer.
That’s when a guidance counselor at Durant High School in Plant City told Haley about the Florida Lottery Bright Futures Scholarship. With solid SAT scores, good grades, and plenty of volunteer service hours, Haley was accepted into the University of Central Florida.
The Bright Futures scholarship Haley earned, along with her Florida Prepaid plan, are helping pay her way.
Bright Futures also made Haley’s college choice easier. Haley received an offer from a school in Georgia to play collegiate soccer. However, with Bright Futures and Florida Prepaid, the decision to attend UCF was easy.
“There never was a question whether I would go to college. I just wanted a way to help pay for it,” says Haley, 20, who’s now a UCF junior majoring in kinesiology. “When I heard about Bright Futures, I knew I’d found a way.”
The Bright Futures Scholarship Program, which is primarily funded by the Florida Lottery, has provided more than $6.2 billion to send over 840,000 students to college.
Haley is a spirited student focused on her future. Soon after enrolling at UCF, she took a job working as a student equipment manager with the UCF Knights women’s soccer team. Today, she’s a staff technician with a local physical therapy clinic. What she learns there, along with her classes in health and exercise science, Haley hopes will help her secure a coveted spot in physical therapy school upon graduation.
Her goal: a career in pediatric physical therapy working with children with a host of physical and musculoskeletal ailments and sports-related injuries.
“I played soccer, so I know the importance of physical therapy in young athletes’ lives,” she says. “I love working with children. This is what I want to do.”
Haley’s younger sister has her eyes on UCF,too, and hopes Bright Futures will help pay her way.
“Bright Futures has been such a blessing. It’s allowed me to go to school and focus on my grades,” Haley says. “It’s my way of repaying my parents for all they gave me.”
About The Florida Lottery / Bright Futures
The Florida Lottery puts education in the spotlight with the Bright Futures Scholarship Program. 
The Florida Lottery is committed to helping students shine inside and outside of the classroom so that they can have brighter tomorrows. Since 1988, the Florida Lottery has contributed more than $37 billion to education and has sent more than 840,000 students to college on Bright Futures Scholarships.
* As of August 2020
