{"id":419559,"date":"2026-10-05T21:04:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T21:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/419559\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T21:04:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T21:04:14","slug":"duval-schools-and-jaguars-foundation-celebrate-students-for-hispanic-heritage-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/419559\/","title":{"rendered":"Duval Schools and Jaguars Foundation celebrate students for Hispanic Heritage Month"},"content":{"rendered":"

A neurosurgeon, philanthropist and educator served as the inspiration for the winning submissions in the Duval County Public Schools Hispanic Heritage Month essay contest.<\/p>\n

Elementary, middle and high school students were challenged to write about a Hispanic person in Northeast Florida who has made an impact on the region.<\/p>\n

Wonderous words<\/p>\n

Aoife Lewis won the elementary essay contest for her reflection about San Jose Elementary teacher Aurelio Cruz.<\/p>\n

Nicole Jiang won the high school contest for her perspective about Mayo Clinic neurosurgeon Dr. Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa.<\/p>\n

Shannialia Perez Montero won the middle school essay contest for her words about Three Grains of Rice<\/a> founder and retired tech executive Ed Perez.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I heard about Ed Perez\u2019s story, I felt represented being a Cuban American girl myself,\u201d Perez Montero wrote in her winning essay. \u201cMy parents came from communist Cuba when I was only two years old. Ed Perez\u2019s story motivates me to reach my goals, and I would love one day to meet this great and influential man.\u201d<\/p>\n

To her surprise, she did. Perez joined Shannialia and her family during last week\u2019s luncheon inside the Schultz Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt inspired me to do better to make sure I don\u2019t give up on anything I believe in,\u201d Shannialia said after meeting Perez.<\/p>\n

Each winner received a customized jersey from the Jacksonville Jaguars.<\/p>\n

Ingrid Carias, the Duval Schools director of English as a Second Language and World Languages, says the contest allows students to envision their future amid the present occupations of local Latino residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are representing every single Hispanic culture,\u201d Carias says. \u201cWe have more than 125 different languages throughout our district. This is powerful for the students to see not only one country, but the variety of countries that we have in our culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Connections through science<\/p>\n

Nicole is a junior at Stanton College Prep. She met Quinones-Hinojosa through the Mayo Clinic SPARK program \u2014 an initiative that connects rising juniors and seniors interested in biomedical sciences with Mayo Clinic faculty.<\/p>\n

\u201cI found myself swirled into an unexpected whirlpool of fascination from hearing how he overcame extreme hardship and the loss of his sister to pursue medicine,\u201d Jiang wrote in her winning essay. \u201cBy the end of his story, I witnessed myself (and asked) a question of unprecedented introspection: Who would I be, and where could I go, if I had that same drive?\u201d<\/p>\n

Applications for the 2027 SPARK program<\/a>, which is open to Duval and St. Johns County students, will open Oct. 15.<\/p>\n

Representation matters<\/p>\n

Carias says the annual essay contest and luncheon are a way to show Latino and Hispanic students they are seen and heard by the district.<\/p>\n

The Schultz Center was adorned with flags from across the Latino diaspora, including Honduras and Mexico \u2014 two countries that celebrate their independence during Hispanic Heritage Month.<\/p>\n

District data indicates 17% of Duval students are Hispanic, up from 13% in 2020.<\/p>\n

Adriel Rocha, vice president for community impact and football development for the Jacksonville Jaguars, provided remarks for the district\u2019s event.<\/p>\n

The Jaguars Foundation is among Northeast Florida businesses and organizations that have sponsored Hispanic Heritage Month events and celebrations.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Jacksonville Jaguars nominated Bolles School senior Lorena Clutter and Nease High School senior Enrique Ordo\u00f1ez as its 2026 Latino Youth Honors nominees. The pair were recognized prior to kickoff of the Jaguars\u2019 Sept. 27 home contest against the New England Patriots. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today<\/p>\n

In a conversation with reporters in September, after the Jaguars\u2019 recognition of local tackle football and flag football players for Hispanic Heritage Month, Rocha noted that the importance of recognizing Hispanic and Latino students is that it will serve as an inspiration to others.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want to be inspired by that next person,\u201d Rocha said. \u201cSo I think it means a lot to everybody, just to see somebody in their hometown, in their area, is accomplishing. Hopefully, it allows them to want to take the next step as well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A neurosurgeon, philanthropist and educator served as the inspiration for the winning submissions in the Duval County Public…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[43323,1038,113,116,118,117,52066,115],"class_list":["post-419559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-distribute","tag-duval-county-public-schools","tag-education","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jaxtdy3","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}