TEEN BORN IN PRISON RECEIVES $40K SCHOLARSHIP

The future Florida Tech football star spent the first 14 years of his life bouncing around the Florida foster care system

by Andrew McDevitt

NBC 2
May 10, 2019

NAPLES, Fla. - Nothing in life has ever been handed to 19-year-old Nyre Handy. His mom was behind bars when he was born.

The future Florida Tech football star spent the first 14 years of his life bouncing around the Florida foster care system. Through age 14, Handy had moved from six different foster care homes and made a handful of different stops with relatives.

But then he met Amal-Brenal Kibler, a Mental Health Therapist with AMIKIDs group home in Punta Gorda, a woman that would eventually become his adopted mom. Shortly after meeting, Nyre moved in his Amal and her husband Bill Kibler in Naples.

In the beginning of his senior year, Nyre submitted an application for the Patricia Means Scholarship, given out by the Southwest Florida Community Foundation. For months, his essays bounced from reviewer to reviewer. On Thursday night, Nyre was speaking in front of those same reviewers as the recipient of the Patricia Means Scholarship.

"I came from basically nothing, having nothing, it’s just hard to say that I won a $40,000 scholarship," said Handy. As he returned to his seat after speaking in front of the people who selected him for the honor, he was greeted with a pat on the back from his mom. "They knew I had what it took to win the scholarship and they were just very proud of me," said Nyre of his parents.

"Life is not where you start it’s where you finish, if you apply yourself and work hard the skies the limit," said Bill of his only son's accomplishments.

When asked if this was the most proud she had ever been of her son, Amal shrugged it off saying, "Everyday I am proud of Nyre, we have new firsts daily. This scholarship shows his peers in foster care that they too can have opportunities if they apply themselves and believe in themselves."