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Sarasota News Leader October 12, 2012 receive four-year Florida College Plan scholar- ships provided by the Florida Prepaid College Foundation. The students responded to the prompt, "Name an important aspect of Flori- da's history that has contributed to Hispanic heritage and explain the ways it has influenced your own life's success and aspirations," with an essay of 500 words or less. In his essay, Michael wrote, "Growing up in New York, I always associated Florida with Mickey Mouse and orange juice. We can thank Walt Disney for Mickey Mouse and Juan Ponce de Leon for the orange juice. There would be no Florida orange juice if there had not been Spanish oranges. … Ponce de Leon has an in- fluence on Florida culture greater than any- one, even Ponce de Leon himself, could have ever imagined." Page 60 He closed his essay with this statement: "Many of us set goals for ourselves, wheth- er it is to do better in a certain subject, or to become a major league baseball player. After reading about Juan Ponce de Leon, I realized it's not just about accomplishing the goal, it's the journey we take to accomplish it. … Florida wouldn't be anything like it is today if Ponce de Leon hadn't taken the time to simply plant some citrus seeds. While Ponce de Leon may never know how this simple action cre- ated roughly sixty-five million commercially grown orange trees in Florida today, we can still thank him, for he achieved so much more than his goal." Gov. Rick Scott issued a proclamation de- claring Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 Hispanic Heritage Month in Florida. Pine View School sixth-grader Michael Hampton has been named the state's Hispanic Heritage Month middle school essay winner. Photos courtesy Sarasota County Schools