Scholars Onboard

Three hundred local students have benefitted from Naples Yacht Club Blue Gavel Scholarships

Lely High School graduate Fabiola Lopez is the first in her family to go to college, and she’s doing it with the financial support of a Naples Yacht Club Blue Gavel Scholarship. Lopez, 19, is attending Florida SouthWestern State (FSW) College and is planning to study exercise science at Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU).

Being the first in her family to seek higher education “is a big motivation for me,” she says. “A lot of students don’t go because money is a factor.” Lopez, who injured her knees in school sports, ultimately wants to earn a Doctor of Physical Therapy. Succeeding in her goals to fulfill her desire to help others also “is a way for me to give back to Blue Gavel,” she says.

Jimmy Munoz, 21, a club bartender, was thrilled to receive a Blue Gavel Scholarship to pursue a degree in adolescent psychology at FGCU. He received his associate from FSW in April 2022. The 2019 Marco Island Academy graduate has worked his way up at the yacht club over the past four and a half years. He says the scholarship takes the pressure off worrying about amassing a

burdensome school debt. “When I talk to my peers, they say they’re struggling financially with other bills. It will help so I don’t go Fabiola Lopez into debt to go to college,” says Munoz. “It means a lot. It definitely helps out.” While Jo Monvil is a server at the club, she feels her job goes far beyond bringing diners their orders. “There are more attributes involved,” she says. “I literally just like to make people happy.” Monvil aspires to be an adolescent psychiatrist— “someone who changes the world for children.” She dualenrolled at FSW in high school so is already focused on her major in psychology at FGCU. Monvil says receiving the scholarship goes far beyond dollars. “It takes a load off me from worrying about the financial aspects of school. But it also puts me in the position to be the person I aspire to be with a community behind me Jimmy Munoz who wants to see me be great,” she says. The Blue Gavel Scholarship Fund is overseen by more than a dozen Past Commodores. It’s a role to which Commodores matriculate when their term is completed. When these club leaders choose recipients, Monvil says, “they’re saying, ‘You can do great things.

Jo Monvil

Blue Gavel Scholarship celebration

We support you. Here’s my hand if you need it.’”

As the Immediate Past Commodore, James R. Lozelle (2019-2020) serves as chairman of the fund. He says NYC is “one of the few private clubs in the state” to provide scholarships for their employees and their families for college or vocational school. The Blue Gavel Scholarship has expanded to Collier County nine public high schools, too. “We are one of the premier clubs in the country doing this type of activity,” Lozelle says.

The Blue Gavel Scholarship Fund is a 501(c)(3) so members’ donations are tax-deductible. The fund overseers meet twice a year to review applications and approve recipients and their award amounts, Lozelle says. The group reviews students’ performance to ensure they are meeting scholarship requirements and track expenditures of the scholarship money, which goes directly to the higher education institution. The fund gives out about $100,000 each year and has evolved since its establishment in 1997 by raising the award the amounts to keep up with escalating school costs and expanding its outreach. The idea to start the fund was suggested by Past Commodore G. Burtt Holmes (1993) based on a similar program at Sankaty Head Golf Club in Nantucket.

“It’s a terrific program. It has been very well received by the employees and their families and highly utilized,” says Lozelle. “If we end up losing somebody as a result of them completing their studies, that’s fine. If they want to improve their lives, and utilize this and get a college degree, that’s terrific.” 

Scholarships by the Numbers

Founded: 1997 Raised: $2.1 million Granted: $1.65 million Recipients: 175 Collier County high school graduates and 125 employees and their children or grandchildren attending college or vocational school

About the Blue Gavel Scholarship Fund

The Blue Gavel Scholarship is for employees and their children or grandchildren, in addition to graduates from Collier County’s nine public high schools. Each high school receives $5,000 to award a graduating student. Other award amounts are based upon the total cost of the specific program and need. The Blue Gavel Scholarship Fund also commits $10,000 annually for first-generation students attending Florida Gulf Coast University; it is matched through a state matching fund program, bringing the total award value to $10,000.