2015

Cayman Howard was homeschooled through Eleanor
Roosevelt Community Learning Center in Visalia and
received his high school diploma a year early at the end of
11th grade. After graduation, Cayman did a 14-month-long
internship with the American Farmland Trust working on
changing public policy to protect farmlands and in the
summer of 2013 attended a program through the Quaker
United Nations Office. Cayman reports: “Through these
experiences, I have come to realize that being able to
participate in our political system is not only my right but a
distinct privilege.”
Cayman is now attending UC Berkeley majoring in Political
Economy and, according to his mother, “eats, sleeps and
drinks homework; so far, at midterm, he is receiving straight
As.” On the horizon for next semester is an opportunity to
enroll in Former Secretary of Labor and Economics Professor
Robert Reich’s economics class. In addition, Cayman and a
small cohort within his major just got invited to study at the
London School of Economics for a year starting in the fall on
an exclusive exchange with Cal. He’s wanted to go there
since he was 11 years old.
Cayman Howard is the recipient of Visalia-Sequoia Branch’s
highest scholarship award for 2015. His mother reports: “I
can’t tell you how thankful he is and how many times he has
mentioned the help it has given him.”