One Tuscaloosa City School Senior Wins HUGE Scholarship & Internship

A senior from Paul W. Bryant High School has secured a $40,000 scholarship and an engineering internship from Amazon, making them the sole recipient from Alabama.

Javoris Lake, 17 is among 400 students across 40 states to be awarded the prestigious Amazon Future Engineer Scholarship.

“He is also the first recipient ever from the Tuscaloosa City Schools. He was notified that he had received the scholarship on April 12,” said the press release from the Tuscaloosa City School System.

“I think it's a huge blessing,” Lake said. “You know, I try to stay faithful to God, and I feel like he's the one that's granted me this opportunity. And you know, I'm really blessed, especially to be the only person in Alabama to receive the scholarship, but just to have the opportunity.”

Get our free mobile app

“We are so proud of this young man and how he is representing not just Paul W. Bryant High School, but the Tuscaloosa City Schools and the state of Alabama,” said TCS Superintendent Mike Daria. “It the vision of TCS to prepare our students up for life and career success, and we have also put an emphasis on STEM education. Javoris is an excellent example of a student who has benefitted from both in TCS. We are excited to watch where his career leads, because undoubtedly he has a bright future ahead.”

Lake, set to graduate next month as the top student in his class with an impressive 4.3 GPA, is deciding between The University of Alabama and the University of Michigan for college. One thing is clear, he plans to major in engineering, a field he became passionate about starting in middle school with computer science classes.

“I’ve really enjoy computer science and building websites and designing different things. There's a lot of stuff that actually goes into it that you don't see,” said Lake.

“As part of the scholarship, Lake will receive a total of $40,000 for college – up to $10,000 per year—and an engineering internship with Amazon the summer after his freshman year in college,” said the press release.

Outside the classroom, Lake stays active and involved. For the past year, he has participated in an apprenticeship program at Mercedes-Benz in Vance. Additionally, he represents the Tuscaloosa Career and Technology Academy as an ambassador and serves on the Superintendent Student Advisory Group for Paul W. Bryant High School.

TCTA computer science teacher Destiny Ramey said she was “beyond excited” that Lake won the scholarship, but that she wasn’t surprised because he has excelled in everything he has done.

“I've had kids apply for this for the past four years, and nobody's ever gotten it until now,” Ramey said. ���I just think he's so deserving, because he puts in so much hard work. He works at Mercedes, and then he's doing all these different things from construction and engineering and computer science, and he's just like an awesome kid.”