Florida is the #1 state in the nation for year-over-year FAFSA completion improvement. Last week, the people who helped earn that ranking gathered in Tampa for the 2026 Talent Strong Florida Summit. Over three days, 350 summit attendees heard from national leaders, honored 24 awardees, and attended 33 breakout sessions covering everything from how communities are building college access for adult learners to what it takes to replicate Osceola County’s meteoric rise from 61st to 3rd place in college-going rates among Florida’s 67 counties.
Former Florida Board of Governors chair Brian Lamb spent Thursday’s keynote luncheon celebrating what has made Florida’s higher education system, now home to seven universities in the top 100, the strongest in the country, and challenging the room to protect it. “We need to be restless about the things we can do and do them better,” he said.
Wednesday, May 6: The 2026 FCAN Champion and a Community Worth Celebrating
The summit opened with a surprise. At the Welcome Luncheon, FCAN Executive Director Braulio Colón recognized Paul Luna (pictured left to right), President and CEO of Helios Education Foundation, as the 2026 FCAN Champion of the Year, an honor that acknowledged more than a decade of investment in FCAN’s mission, from co-authoring the organization’s first strategic plan to serving on its board of advisors.
Luna accepted with characteristic humility. “What makes FCAN special is all of you. It’s the network that is FCAN.”
Kim Cook, CEO of the National College Attainment Network, delivered a federal policy update before lunch that gave the room reason to celebrate: Florida ranks #1 in the nation for year-over-year FAFSA completion improvement, crediting the state’s strong ground game. That ground game has a face: the school counselors, LCAN directors, community-based organizations, and college access professionals who work county by county, school by school, and student by student to make sure seniors complete the FAFSA.
After lunch, Ashley Butler, President of Ice Cold Air Complete Auto Repair and FCAN Board of Advisors member, welcomed the room back and introduced the luncheon keynote, Pinellas County Schools Superintendent Kevin Hendrick (pictured left). Butler brought her own experience to the moment: “When we pour into people, that helps their families for generations to come.”
Superintendent Kevin Hendrick highlighted his district’s progress in college and career acceleration, with participation climbing from 60 to 72 percent and embedded college and career centers now in every high school. Every Pinellas student graduates with a postsecondary plan. His challenge to the room was less about metrics and more about mindset: are we truly preparing students for what they can do, or just moving them through the system?
Wednesday evening, Florida Trend presented the Welcome Celebration Dinner, spotlighting Osceola Prosper (pictured below), the community-driven initiative that earned Florida Trend’s 2025 Floridian of the Year designation. The program began in response to a stark reality: in 2010, only 40.1 percent of Osceola County graduates went on to postsecondary education. By 2019, that number had climbed to 47 percent. Then COVID hit, and Kissimmee’s unemployment rate reached 31 percent. What came next was Osceola Prosper: a last-dollar scholarship offering every graduating high school senior in the county a full tuition scholarship to Valencia College or Osceola Technical College, no income requirements, no grade requirements, with five years to complete the degree.
In its first five years, 11,000 students took advantage of it. More than 1,700 associate degrees and 2,000 technical certifications have been awarded. Valencia’s Dr. Carla McKnight described the shift she witnessed: “The question changed from ‘Is college possible?’ to ‘What’s my major?’” Osceola County Manager Don Fisher, Lift Orlando’s Thomas Tyler, and former Prosper student and current Osceola Prosper staffer John Urbach joined McKnight on the panel, moderated by Florida Trend Executive Editor Amy Keller. Big Poppa Band and the Divas closed out the night.
Thursday, May 7: The Journey to #1
Thirty-three breakout sessions ran across Wednesday afternoon and all day Thursday, with topics ranging from building postsecondary pathways for students with intellectual disabilities and re-engaging disconnected youth through flexible learning models, to how LCANs are using collective action to bring College and Career Centers into 47 high schools across three school districts, to a live demonstration of FCAN’s new State of College Access Dashboard.
Thursday’s keynote luncheon, presented by the Florida Prepaid College Foundation and sponsored by Lumina Foundation, opened with William Thompson (pictured left), president of the Florida Prepaid College Foundation, reminding the room that the foundation has awarded more than 66,000 scholarships and $500 million to Florida families since 1987, and is working toward a billion. “Excellence and access move forward together and they must continue to do so,” Thompson said.
Dr. Cindy DeLuca, Vice President for Student Success at USF and FCAN Board of Advisors member, followed with a reflection on the decade-long partnership between USF and FCAN before introducing the keynote speaker, Brian Lamb, former chair of the Florida Board of Governors (pictured right). Lamb made the case for Florida’s competitive advantage in higher education: the State University System has ranked #1 in U.S. News and World Report for seven consecutive years. Seven state universities now sit in the national top 100, up from two not long ago. Eighty percent of the system’s 400,000 students graduate with zero debt, with tuition roughly half the national average. “If higher education were a stock,” Lamb said, “I would be sitting here asking you all to invest in it.”
He grounded his talk in FCAN’s seven conditions for college access and success, called out Tampa Bay’s ranking as #2 in the country in a recent Wall Street Journal analysis for helping recent graduates land competitive jobs, and credited the field’s collective work as part of Florida’s “secret sauce” that other states are actively trying to reverse-engineer.
Friday, May 8: Awards, a New Look, and a Closing Charge
Friday morning brought the annual FCAN Awards and Inspiration Breakfast. Twenty-three awardees were honored across four categories.
- Tonia Shook, Director of Fred K. Marchman Technical College in Pasco County, received the Workforce Education Innovator award. Under her leadership, dual enrollment partnerships grew from 89 students in 2022 to more than 1,100 this year. She secured a $1 million grant to launch Phoenix RISE, the first inclusive postsecondary workforce program for adults with intellectual disabilities in Pasco County, and the college now achieves 90 percent certification exam pass rates, 88 percent program completion, and 87 percent job placement. (Pictured left)
- Anita Herrera of Guadalupe Center in Immokalee was named the 2026 College Ready Florida Innovator. Working in one of Florida’s most economically distressed communities, Herrera built a structure that makes postsecondary planning a normal part of high school, including weekly senior check-ins, FAFSA awareness nights with families, spring break campus visits, and an end-of-year celebration dinner honoring seniors across all postsecondary pathways. (Pictured right)
The 2025-26 Florida FAFSA Challenge honored schools and districts that led the state in completion rates and year-over-year improvement.
- MVP Districts (highest completion rates among peer districts): Dixie, Martin, Pinellas, and Miami-Dade counties.
- MVP Schools (highest completion rates statewide among peer schools): School for Advanced Studies Homestead, Terra Environmental Research Institute, Coral Reef Senior High School, and Hialeah Gardens Senior High School, all in Miami-Dade County.
- Most Improved Districts: Hamilton, Highlands, Leon, and Hillsborough counties.
- Most Improved Schools: Law Enforcement Officers’ Memorial High School and Mast Academy in Miami-Dade County; University High School and Windermere High School in Orange County.
Picture 1: Marlene Spalten, Ansberto Vallejo, Marcos Murillo, Matt Roberson, Braulio Colón. Picture 2: Marlene Spalten, Vanessa Armond-Jackson, Yelitza Greene, Staci-Lee Balaban, Cynthia Wilson, Braulio Colón. Picture 3: Marlene Spalten, Caley Forbes, Deputy Superintendent Stephanie Woodford, Braulio Colón.
In a new category this year, FCAN recognized five Legislative FAFSA Champions.
- Representative Karen Gonzalez Pittman of District 65 in Tampa received the award for Highest FAFSA Completion Growth in the Florida House, with students in her district increasing their completion rate by 17.9 percentage points.
- Also recognized: Senator Don Gaetz, Senator Bryan Avila, Representative Chip LaMarca, and Senator Corey Simon.
Steve Colón Garcia (pictured right), CEO of Bottom Line and a first-generation college graduate whose parents migrated from Puerto Rico, closed the summit with a keynote rooted in his own story and in the belief that drives FCAN partners each day: that when someone believes the path is possible for a student, it changes what that student believes about themselves. He has spent his career making sure more students can say the same.
Student musicians from three Pinellas County high schools performed across all three days, the Tarpon Springs High School Jazz Band on Wednesday, the Dunedin High School Falconaires on Thursday, and the Seminole High School String Septet on Friday morning, opening the Awards Breakfast.
See the Summit