48 FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY / COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
The growth of the program has paralleled its success. Of the 136 Immokalee students who have gone through SSTRIDE, everyone successfully graduated high school and applied for college— with a 100 % acceptance rate, according to Jodi Truel, SSTRIDE program director for the Southern Region. Truel is tasked with keeping meticulous statistics for the program. A total of 96 % of those Immokalee grads moved on to college, with the remaining 4 % choosing the U. S. military as a career path. As of this year, nearly 20 % of the graduates have been admitted to FSU, far exceeding the original goal of 10 %.
“ The statistic I think a lot of times we overlook is that each cohort of about 20 students is bringing in over $ 2 million in scholarship offers,” Truel said, which is testament not only to the students’ academic success but also to their commitment to earning a degree.“ Let’ s be honest, most of these families couldn’ t afford to send their students to college. But because we work so hard with them with scholarship planning in their senior year, that’ s how they can afford to go.”
Without SSTRIDE, many of these bright students would not have thought about a career in health care, let alone as a doctor. This pathway program has opened doors not only to them, but also to the underserved communities that many of them will return to, live in and provide access to much-needed care.
“ If it wasn’ t for NCF, we would not have a SSTRIDE program in Immokalee,” Truel said.“ I believe the FSU College of Medicine 100 % believes in SSTRIDE. However, it’ s hard to fund outreach. We rely on partners such as NCF to help us out— getting the students from middle school and then high school— and then the College of Medicine and FSU take over from there.”
This is an exciting time for the Immokalee SSTRIDE program, as the first students who began the program in eighth grade are now graduating from college, with some applying to medical schools such as FSU.
“ I thank NCF for allowing these students to see what’ s possible, allowing them to see that they can dream big,” Dimas said.“ Knowing and seeing students from SSTRIDE who are achieving those dreams makes it real for the students— they can see someone like me and see students who went through this program make it and they then can think,‘ I can do that.’”
Photo: Tenth-graders get hands-on experience during a pig dissection session. Melanie Villa, past SSTRIDE teacher and coordinator, instructs students Bryan Lopez and Youvensley Methelus.