Last month, dozens of educators, employers, healthcare partners and community leaders gathered in Hernando County for the Talent Strong Pasco Hernando breakfast, a regional convening hosted by the Spark Pasco Hernando College Access Network and the Florida College Access Network (FCAN). The event was part of Talent Strong Florida, a statewide campaign to help Florida reach 60% postsecondary attainment by 2030. Florida currently sits at 54.8%.
The morning opened with welcome remarks from Dr. Jesse Coraggio (right), chief impact officer of Community Foundation Tampa Bay, who has supported college access work across the Tampa Bay region for years. Dr. Kimberly Krupa, FCAN’s Director of Network Engagement and Communications, then walked attendees through the history of Florida’s Local College Access Network movement, tracing the state’s attainment rate from 37% in 2013 to where it stands today, driven in no small part by the sustained, community-led work of LCANs like Spark.
Attendees watched the Talent Strong Florida campaign video before hearing from Jennifer Batchelor, Program Specialist for Pasco County Schools and the force behind Spark Pasco Hernando.
“This work is about relationships,” Batchelor said. “We have school principals, healthcare systems, businesses, and community organizations all at the same table because they believe in the students of this region. That doesn’t happen overnight, but when it does, you start to see real change. And we are seeing real change.”
The results bear that out. The new College and Career Center that Spark helped open at Pasco High School in fall 2025 has already served hundreds of students, who visit daily for FAFSA support, scholarship assistance, industry certification testing, and connections to local employers. That model is now spreading. Ed LaRose IV, principal of Weeki Wachee High School, announced that his school will be adding a College and Career Center, inspired by the outcomes at Pasco High and the momentum Spark has built across the region.
“What Spark has done at Pasco High School opened our eyes to what’s possible,” LaRose said at the breakfast. “Our students deserve the same opportunity, and we’re going to make sure they have it.”
The breakfast also featured a deep dive into the data behind the region’s opportunity gap. Dave Sobush, FCAN’s Director of Research and Policy, and Kimberly Lent Morales, Director of Research and Evaluation at Helios Education Foundation, presented findings from Helios’s Florida’s Future Billions report alongside Spark-specific county data.
- The Spark region’s FAFSA completion rate is 37%, below the state average of 43.7%, meaning students are leaving an estimated $9 million in Pell grants unclaimed by not completing the form. Pasco accounts for $6.5 million of that figure; Hernando, $2.5 million.
- The region’s postsecondary enrollment rate is 48%, compared to 53.9% statewide. To reach the state average, 361 additional Spark students would need to enroll in postsecondary education each year.
- The economic stakes are significant. A 10% increase in college enrollment could generate $131 million in fiscal value and $304 million in social value for the Spark region annually.
“Education is an economic development strategy,” Sobush said. “Pasco and Hernando have strong high school graduation rates. The gap is between graduation and enrollment. That is exactly where Spark’s work is focused, and that is where this community can make the biggest difference.”
Lent Morales added that when regions invest in getting more students to and through college, “they are investing in the long-term success of their people and the community as a whole— its health, its workforce, its tax base, its families.”
The morning closed with a call to action, asking every attendee to commit to at least one concrete step: hosting an intern, sponsoring a scholarship, partnering with Spark on FAFSA programming, or simply bringing a postsecondary conversation back to their own leadership team.
“I’ve spent more than 20 years working to bring businesses to our region and help them grow. Every time I sit across from a company considering our area, workforce is the first conversation. Spark is how we build that pipeline from the inside. That’s why I’m here, and that’s why every business leader in this room should be too,” said Valerie Pianta, economic development director for Hernando County.
The Talent Strong Pasco Hernando breakfast was supported by the Florida College Access Network and Helios Education Foundation as part of the statewide Talent Strong Florida campaign.