Beaches Watch is pleased to present the 2023 Fland Sharp Memorial Scholarship to Fletcher High School senior Traci Schrock, a top First Coast scholar-athlete who is planning to attend the University of North Carolina-Wilmington this fall.
Schrock, a National Honor Society member and an Outstanding Cambridge Learner Award winner, and she captained the Fletcher volleyball team and played beach volleyball. She plans to study coastal engineering.
Beaches Watch awarded the annual scholarship to Schrock largely due to her scholastic achievements and her essay submission proposing that the Beaches cities add more bike paths to create more connectivity and reduce automobile traffic within and among the community. In particular, making Penman and Mayport roads and Atlantic and Beach boulevards more bicycle-friendly would help make the Beaches community safer, healthier and more environmentally friendly, Schrock said in her essay.
“I think one way to get people to use these paths would be to get the community involved with the process of planning and creating them,” she wrote.
Bradley Plummer, one of Traci’s Fletcher Advanced International Certificate of Education teachers, says Traci has a knack for making the most of the opportunities presented to her in both her academic life and personal life.
“She carries herself in a wonderfully thoughtful manner by helping others, being respectful and receptive to instruction, and excelling in her academics,” Plummer said in a letter to the Beaches Watch Board of Directors. “She is not afraid to advocate for herself and is willing to go above and beyond at whatever she is choosing to do.“
Schrock received the scholarship at Fletcher’s annual senior honors program at the school May 24.
“We wish Traci the best as she embarks on her next chapter, and we look forward to many more great things from her in the years ahead,” said Beaches Watch Board of Directors member Kevin Hogencamp, who presented the award on behalf of the board.
Formed in 2004, Beaches Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that promotes and facilitates educated and productive citizen involvement in government decisions that impact the quality of life of the Beaches communities in Duval County. In 2019, the Beaches Watch scholarship was renamed the Fland Sharp Memorial Scholarship to honor Fland Sharp, a Fletcher graduate who would become Jacksonville Beach’s mayor during his lifelong quest to preserve, protect, enrich and enhance the quality of life at the Beaches.
“It is our hope that each year, the Beaches Watch scholarship recipient will follow in Fland’s footsteps of community service and contribute in her or his own way to improving community,” said Beaches Watch President Maria Mark.