Destination Hoover International awards 2020 scholarships

Destination Hoover International, a non-profit formed to foster cultural exchange and international relationships between Hoover and people across the world, chose Adelle Knight of Hoover High and Juan Luis Contreras of Spain Park High as its scholarship recipients for 2020.

Both recently graduated from their respective schools and were each awarded a $2,000 scholarship.

Knight, who will attend the University of Alabama at Birmingham, plans to pursue a degree in biology. In an essay that was part of her scholarship application, she said environmental changes are a worldwide problem, so she expects to be working with people and ideas from all over the world.

“I hope to promote cultural exchange through environmental justice by attaining a degree in biology in college and later in my career to help the world, in at least this one respect, understand the other people in it a little bit better,” Knight wrote.

Contreras plans to attend Auburn University, major in biology and follow a pre-med track with a minor in Spanish to become a physician.

When four students from Guatemala came to Spain Park, Contreras was asked to help get them acquainted with the school and go in some of their classes because he is fluent in Spanish.

That experience sparked a desire to create change on campus, so he and his sister founded a club called Take Time to Care or TC3.

“This initiative proved that [by] working together, we could offer greater opportunities to become accepted and involved, especially for those like my new Guatemalan friends,” Contreras wrote in his scholarship application.

Destination Hoover International raised money for the scholarships in part by a yearly contribution from Jubilee Joe’s Cajun Seafood Restaurant.

Submitted by Shelley Shaw.