Vivianna Rivera, left, and Netsury Lominy are two members of the Thrive Scholars Jacksonville high school class of 2025. The two announced their intentions to attend the University of Central Florida and the University of North Florida, respectively, during a celebration Tuesday, May 13, 2025, inside the Jessie Ball duPont Center. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today
Published on May 15, 2025 at 11:36 am
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Viviana Rivera spent nearly 20 minutes listening to every syllable Byron Boston shared Tuesday night.
The Fletcher High student plans to study finance at the University of Central Florida this fall. The opportunity for an 18-year-old who will be the first in her family to attend college to listen to the CEO of a financial services firm with $9 billion in assets was created through Thrive Scholars Jacksonville.
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‘You gonna be somebody.’
Thrive Scholars is a nonprofit that helps students from underserved and underrepresented backgrounds prepare for undergraduate life through academic advisement, mentorship and career support programs. It operates in six areas: Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, New York, Northeast Ohio and Jacksonville.
There are more than 50 scholars in the Jacksonville cohort. They include 13 students who are currently in college, 19 students who will graduate high school this spring, and 20 who are completing their junior year of high school.
Vivianna was introduced to Thrive Scholars Jacksonville in the fall 2023 semester. Her teachers thought it would be a great pathway for her to academically achieve in ways she did not think were financially feasible.
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Vivianna is the youngest of five children. Her parents, Miguel Rivera and Sandra Rios, may not have finished college, but they provided an appreciation for education.
“I was really motivated to excel academically in high school, get into a good college and gain the experience and knowledge to be able to find what I’m passionate in; something that motivates me to go to college every day; work toward a career I want to do, so, then, I can, in the future, achieve the life my parents couldn’t and also support them,” Vivianna said.
Boston, the co-CEO of Dynex Capital, was in a similar situation nearly 50 years ago. He grew up in segregated St. Louis and was the first in his family to attend college.
His aunt, the late Anna Boston, who lived in rural Mississippi, used to remind him: “Byron! Boy, you gonna be somebody.”
Aunt Anna’s reassurance, as well as the community fostered in his undergraduate years, allowed Boston to transform himself from an athlete who saw college as a means to extend his football career, to someone who earned a finance degree from Dartmouth — and helped the Big Green earn the 1978 Ivy League football title along the way. He enjoyed a career on Wall Street and provided financial stability for multiple generations of his family.
During his remarks Tuesday, Boston told this year’s graduating seniors that his aunt, as well as his parents, wanted him to be academically successful. They did not know all the steps on that journey.
Thrive Scholars provides those steps.
“I was willing to take the risk to be myself as I engaged other people,” Boston said. “Whichever school you are going to, you have the grades, the drive and the energy. Don’t let anybody, anyone or anything take you out of the game.”
How to thrive in 2025
Thrive Scholars was founded in 2001 by philanthropists James and Patricia London to help high-achieving Black and African American students who were from underresourced communities in greater Los Angeles attend college.
In two decades since the Londons founded the program, it has expanded to include Latino, indigenous students as well as expanded to five other cities. The Londons moved to Jacksonville in 2020. Their connection with then-Community Foundation for Northeast Florida President Nina Waters helped create a Thrive Scholars Jacksonville.
James and Patricia were among about 50 people who watched inside the Jessie Ball du Pont center Tuesday evening as most of this year’s cohort announced where they would attend school.
This year’s scholars will attend Cornell, Amherst, Tulane and Dennison as well as Florida State, South Florida, UCF, the University of North Florida and the University of Florida. Collectively, they have a 3.9 grade point average and come from families where the average income is $49,000 — well below the $68,447 that is the median household income in Duval County and slightly above Putnam County’s $47,256 median household income.
Foundation for success
Preparing a teenager for their undergraduate years is not enough.
CaVar Reid is a collegiate administrator in Michigan who doubles as the managing director of high school and college programs with Thrive Scholars. Last month, before introducing the newest Thrive Scholars Jacksonville students to the program, Reid shared with Jacksonville Today that the Londons understood the importance of preparing students for their undergraduate years after learning about a Thrive Scholar who graduated with a degree from an Ivy League institution, but didn’t love their major or career path.
That revelation led Thrive Scholars to send students on immersive college preparatory courses in the summer before their senior year of high school as well as the summer between high school graduation and the start of college. They also were outfitted with career support throughout college and paired with mentors in their undergraduate field of study.
“We are not just a college access program,” Reid said. “A lot of these kids could get into these schools without (Thrive Scholars). But, they are not going to kill it. They might not stick in (science, technology, engineering and math) without the academic rigor we are providing.”
Thrive Scholars ensures students have an academic foundation as well as an understanding of the resources available to them both on campus and through its network. Reid says doing both not only helps students eradicate imposter syndrome but infuses them with belief.
Ishmael Goodridge is a Stanton College Prep student who says he plans to start a tech company after he earns a degree in business and computer science from the University of Florida.
“Having someone believe in you means they can look at you and see where you are — and not just how you are now, but who you could be,” Ishmael said. “My friends have seen that. (Stanton principal Nongongoma) Majova-Seane has seen that. Thrive Scholars has seen that. That network, and those groups of people that I was able to build that connection with, they are ultimately what got me where I am today.”
Ishmael said Boston’s speech reinforced the need to build a network once he arrives in Gainesville.
As Ishmael shared how the Thrive Scholars program changed his perspective, Boston stood 25 feet away and engaged in a lively conversation with Avrylle Wilson, Caydence West and Vivianna.
Vivianna added that the team of people Thrive Scholars introduced her to allowed her to overcome the moments of uncertainty that were fueled from the fact that no one in her immediate family had attended college.
“(Thrive Scholars) gave me a lot of push and resources and they gave me a college access manager who personally works with me to look at which college is best for me, look at financial aid, figure out which major I like. … They motivated me and uplifted me to continue pushing forward despite any self-doubt I might have.”
Understanding undergraduate expectations
In an era where intellectualism is demonized and undergraduates supplement their research with artificial intelligence tools, these students are excited for the rigor of undergraduate scholarship.
D’Montay Barnes is a Thrive Scholar who also earned The Gates Scholarship that is awarded to fewer than 1,000 students nationwide. The 18-year-old son of a preacher found out on Easter Sunday that The Gates Scholarship will cover the cost of his tuition, books, fees, housing, food and personal costs while he attends Tulane University in New Orleans.
“I wanted to be a biology major when I was in middle school and in early high school,” D’Montay recalled. “After taking a college-level biology class, I knew it wasn’t for me. I started taking college-level chemistry classes, and I knew right then and there that I wanted to do that.”
D’Montay plans to use a biochemistry degree to find cures and solutions to heart disease within the Black community.
The 18-year-old did not need to refer to Centers for Disease Control data to know that heart disease is the leading cause of death for Black people in the United States.
“I wanted to do something that combats that,” D’Montay said. “Also, while I’m at it, figure out where those underrepresented and marginalized communities are so I can put fresh produce there to also combat that high rate of death in the African American community.”
Thrive Scholars Jacksonville focuses on students from underresourced portions of Duval and Putnam counties. Its executive director, Hannah Oberholtzer, said the nonprofit may expand to other counties in the region in future years.
Executives within Northeast Florida’s professional sports, banking, financial services and nonprofits as well as architecture and engineering sectors have stepped forward to mentor Thrive Scholars or provide internships for the college students who have returned home for the summer.
“It’s these relationships. That’s the beauty of Jacksonville. It’s a big, small town,” Oberholtzer said. “It is who you know. The care that this community has in the belief of what we are doing here and the leaders we have in this community … that’s what it is (about). It’s getting the students in the door. They sell themselves. It’s helping them figure out who to talk to. If we can do that, they are going to take this city to new heights.”
