FSU President praises latest class of Seneff Scholars in medaling ceremony
Florida State University President Richard McCullough on Friday hailed 17 elite College of Business students as future “business leaders and community leaders who will make a big difference in the world.”
McCullough and First Lady Jai Vartikar received the Seneff grantees at the FSU President’s home for the James M. Seneff Honors Program Medal Ceremony. The program is dovetailed with the University Honors Program and the Garnet and Gold Scholar Society, allowing students to gain educational advantages in disciplines outside of the College of Business.
The Seneff Honors Program is made up of a community of top-notch business students who benefit from a particularly rigorous curriculum. The program emphasizes innovation, leadership, collaboration and building lifelong relationships.
Attendees included the honors program’s namesake, James Seneff, and his wife, Martha; longtime university supporters DeVoe and Shirley Moore; College of Business alumni Mark and Nan Hillis, who are members of the college’s Alumni Hall of Fame; and retired FSU Vice President Lee Hinkle, whose late husband Clifford is a member of the college’s Alumni Hall of Fame.
Also present were 16 of the 17 members of the current Seneff Honors Program cohort and their family members. A Seneff scholarship holder was studying abroad and was unable to participate.
The students form the fourth cohort of the Seneff Honors Program. The program began in the fall of 2019 with a portion of a $5 million donation to the college from the CNL Charitable Foundation in honor of Seneff, a member of the College of Business Alumni Hall of Fame and the foundation’s founder.
Seneff is also the founder and CEO of Orlando-based CNL Financial Group, a private investment management firm.
“Jim and Martha, thank you so much for your friendship and your generosity,” McCullough told the Seneffs, highlighting the impact of their “groundbreaking gift” on the college’s statewide programs and the University’s No. 19 public school ranking, according to US News & World Report.
The CNL Charitable Foundation gift “provides life-changing experiences and opportunities for our top business students and helps improve the entire college and university,” McCullough said.
During Friday’s ceremony, Seneff placed medals around the scholars’ necks and joined McCullough for photos with them.
Seneff urged scholars to familiarize themselves with what he calls the “ABC of life.” That starts with “progress in adversity,” Seneff told the students.
“If you don’t have adversity, you won’t get ahead in life,” he said. “The second is, ‘Big ideas will pull you into the future,’ and you don’t want to push yourself away from where you are. You want to be pulled into the future with a vision that is big and gives you the passion to live your life and give it meaning. The third thing is that you want to ‘build capacity’ through reading and thinking.”
The 2022 Seneff scholarship holders selected last fall are:
- Jonah Ashley-Friedman (Finance and Real Estate ’25)
- Joseph Cofer (Marketing ’25)
- George Duffy (Finance ’25)
- Brooks Elson (Finance and Real Estate ’25)
- Sydney Fruhwirth (Financial and Management Information Systems ’24)
- Andrew Glennon (Finance ’24)
- William Godfrey (Finance ’24)
- Ashlee Holder (Human Resources and Marketing ’24)
- Jack Huisman (Finance and Chinese 24)
- Samantha Leon (Finance and Marketing ’24)
- Elizabeth Manning (Finance ’24)
- Sebastian Mehlum (Management and Real Estate ’25)
- Sofia Perez (Finance ’25)
- Mason Pullum (Finance and Economics ’25)
- Tripp Ragans (Finance ’25)
- Jordan Rose (Finance and Biology ’24)
- Natalie Faith Timm (Finance and Real Estate ’24)