Flagler County Take Stock in Children seniors honored at Recognition Dinner

Featured speaker Trinity Daley, now in medical school, said her Take Stock mentor is still a part of her life.

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When Trinity Daley was accepted into the Take Stock in Children program as a high school sophomore, she had dreams, but she also had uncertainty, she said.

The 2015 Flagler Palm Coast High School graduate was the guest speaker at the Flagler County Education Foundation’s Take Stock in Children Senior Recognition Dinner on May 22 at the Palm Coast Community Center.

Daley is now a medical student at American University Antigua College of Medicine. She recently passed her first medical school boards and will start clinical training this fall.

Twenty-one Take Stock graduating seniors from FPC and Matanzas high schools were recognized at the dinner. The Take Stock in Children program in Florida provides one-on-one mentoring, college readiness and college tuition scholarships to academically eligible, low-income and at-risk public school students.

“I didn't fully understand just how much [Take Stock] would change the trajectory of my life,” Daley said. “As a first generation American with Caribbean roots, navigating the path to higher education wasn't always clear.”

Take Stock, she said, gave her more than a scholarship. It gave her direction, stability and confidence. But the most impactful part of the program for her was the mentorship, she said. She met with her mentor, Diana Tortelli, weekly throughout her three years in the program. The meetings weren’t just about academics, they were about life, she said.

[Mentor Diana Tortelli] helped me figure out who I was, what I valued and what I wanted for my future.
— TRINITY DALEY, 2015 FPC graduate

“She helped me figure out who I was, what I valued and what I wanted for my future,” Daley said of Tortelli.

Eleven years after graduating from the program, Daily still asks Tortelli for advice. 

“If I ever have an issue, Diana is one of the first people that I call because I know she will always be there to support me,” Daley said.


OUTSTANDING SENIOR AWARD

Tortelli, was in the audience, not only to support Daley, but to celebrate the graduation of her current mentee, Matanzas High’s Alys Martinez Yera, and to show her continued support of the program. Diana and her husband, Ron Tortelli, help sponsor the program and provide the Joe Rizzo Memorial Graduate Scholarship for Flagler County Take Stock alumni entering graduate school.  

Sue Freytag and her late husband, Peter, are the title sponsors of Flagler County’s Take Stock program.

Brian and Jacki Unger started an extra scholarship for Flagler Take Stock seniors three years ago. Their 3L Scholarship will allow the 21 graduates to choose from a free laptop, lunch (financial help with their college’s meal plan) or lodging (necessities for their dorm room).

Selina Hernandez, the Ed Foundation’s assistant director for student services who administers the county’s Take Stock program, announced FPC’s Kiana Barrett as Flagler County’s 2026 Take Stock in Children Outstanding Senior.

Barrett, who will be attending Daytona State College in the fall, had a 1.7 GPA when she started in the program, raised it to about a 3.0 and has been an active member in school clubs, Hernandez said.

“She’s shown perseverance and dedication. Her growth has been incredible to watch,” Hernandez said.


LEADERS 4 LIFE WINNER

The 2026 seniors include Flagler Palm Coast’s Syed Haider, who will be attending Cornell University under the prestigious QuestBridge College Match Scholarship and Matanzas’ Remy Battles, who is one of six Take Stock seniors in Florida to win a Leaders 4 Life Fellowship.

Battles submitted a video interview as part of the Leaders 4 Life selection process. In the video, which was shown at the Recognition Dinner, she recounted her story.

When she was a young child, Battles helped care for her three younger brothers. She entered the foster care system at 10 years old and had to learn who she was as a person, she said.

“It was truly a battle within myself. I was battling the trauma I had gone through,” she said. “I had to learn how to let others help me. I learned this actually through Take Stock. I learned that there is a future for me. I plan on giving back by being a journalist. … I want to give back to my community.”

She thanked all the people who have helped her along the way.

“I’m not saying it from 17-year-old Remy sitting here now. I’m saying it from 10-year-old Remy who went to foster care not knowing what her world was going to look like,” she said. “I want to say thank you, because I want to show my brothers there is more than this situation they were put in. Their sister did it, and they can too.”

As the video ended, Battles received a standing ovation.

 

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