Victoria (Tori) Bell is the third member of her family to earn class valedictorian honors at Wharton High.
For Wharton High’s 2019 Valedictorian, Victoria “Tori” Bell, being at the very top of her class runs in the family.
Both of Tori’s older brothers, Earl and Jared, were also Wharton valedictorians. Earl is now serving in the military, and Jared is earning his undergraduate degree in Applied Physiology and Kinesiology at the University of Florida in Gainesville.
“It was always assumed that I would follow in their footsteps, but I never felt forced into it,” says Tori, 17, who earned a 9.01 GPA at Wharton by completing several Advanced Placement STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) courses while simultaneously earning an Associate of Arts (A.A.) degree from Hillsborough Community College.
Tori, a National Merit Scholar and member of the Mu Alpha Theta Mathematics Honor Society and the Science National Honor Society, received fully-financed offers from Florida Gulf Coast University and the University of South Florida, but had her heart set on attending UF.
“My brothers both went there, and it’s always the school I wanted to go to,” said Tori, who was awarded the Benacquisto and Presidential Scholarship from UF, which will more than cover her full tuition and living expenses.
Tori says her recipe for success was, “consistency and determination with measured doses of goofing off,” which she did by playing video games, going to the gym, and enjoying lots of movies and TV shows by herself and with friends.
“I absolutely love stories,” said Tori, whose favorites include the Ender’s Game series, Marvel comic book movies, and the British drama hit “Killing Eve.”
Tori also is an avid reader who has whiled away many an afternoon at the bookstore, reading Gillian Flynn, Emily Danforth and Agatha Christie.
Her parents, Ed and Diana Bell, teach math and language arts at Wharton; however, her mother says that Tori is very self-sufficient and never asked either of them for help with homework.
Tori plans to major in Accounting, although she says that career choice is not set in stone, and plans to minor in English at UF. She’s also looking forward to living in Gainesville, closer to her brother Jared.
“My parents and family have been absolutely amazing, and I know I wouldn’t be here without them,” she said.
Salutatorian Also Headed To UF
Wharton’s salutatorian Ashley Joseph, who came in just behind Victoria with an 8.41 GPA, was, like the valedictorian, determined for success from the beginning.
“My parents taught me the importance of education from an early age,” says Ashley, 18, who took additional online and dual enrollment courses as a freshman and sophomore specifically to meet high school graduation requirements as soon as possible. “From there, I followed my passions and learned continuously.”
Ashley volunteers weekly in the emergency room at AdventHealth Tampa, interacting with patients and helping at the front desk, and works as a tutor at Kumon Math and Reading Center in New Tampa.
“My goal is to become a doctor,” says Ashley, who also will attend UF. “The ability to help others is extremely meaningful and rewarding (to me).”
Wharton High’s 2019 graduation ceremony will be held at the Florida State Fairgrounds on U.S. 301 in Tampa on Thursday, May 30, at 12:30 p.m.
Of 48 teams that competed in the FIRST LEGO League State competition on April 6 in Delray Beach, a team of six fifth and sixth grade students from New Tampa, called Team TechnoWizards, took home first place and are on their way to competing for a national title.
The team consists of Pride Elementary fifth grade students Ayona Bagui, Dhruv Kulkarni, Naina Sethi and Nikhil Katiyar, along with sixth grade students Anika Prasad, who attends Benito Middle School, and Netra Vijay, who attends Williams Middle School.
The team has been working together for two years now, under the guidance and support of coach Sudhir Katiyar, who also Nikhil’s father, along with other parents of team members. Last year, Team TechnoWizards qualified to go to the State tournament, but didn’t place at that competition.
This year, they placed second at the Florida-West Coast Regional competition in February, which qualified them to compete at State. At the State tournament, their improved performance landed them the first-place prize, outmatching all of their competition.
“That happened because the team worked together in all aspects,” says Sudhir.
FIRST LEGO League teams use STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) as the basis for innovative learning and competition. FIRST also is an acronym that stands for “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.” The theme for the 2018-19 season was “Into Orbit.”
The league uses LEGO Mindstorms robots as one part of its competition. Teams had to design, build and write programs to cause a robot to perform assigned tasks related to the theme.
More Than Just Robots
Robots are only part of the competition, though.
Teams also have to complete and are judged on a project. For this year’s competition, the team members researched numerous topics regarding problems in space and chose one that was most important to them — the well-being of astronauts.
They created a prototype to depict possible solutions to prevent health hazards to the astronauts, like loneliness.
“They are not judged just on the technical aspects” explains Sudhir. “They are also judged on the FIRST core values, such as how did you resolve issues and conflicts within the team, and how did you solve problems when your coach wasn’t around?”
FIRST’s core values include discovery, innovation, impact, inclusion, teamwork, fun, gracious professionalism and cooperation.
Throughout the competition season, which runs concurrent with the school year, Team TechnoWizards also explored and served their community at the public library and in their schools, as well as for Feeding Tampa Bay, the Children’s Home Network, St. Joseph’s Hospital, American Heart Association and an aerospace museum.
A field trip to NASA in Cape Canaveral gave the team a chance to meet with a real astronaut, and a trip to iFly Indoor Skydiving gave them a simulation of an experience in space.
Thanks to its win at the State level, Team TechnoWizards was invited to attend the FIRST LEGO League Razorback Invitational, a 72-team championship tournament that includes national and international teams.
It is being held this weekend on the University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville.
Emma Bryan, a Wharton High School freshman, fills her back with the names of people she knows and who have lost their battles with cancer, before participating in Swim Across America. She is one of at least 25 swimmers from Greater Tampa Swim Association who raised money for cancer research at the event in St. Petersburg today.
Emma Bryan put on a bathing suit and cap this morning, warmed up and swam, like she’s done most days of her young life. As a 15-year-old competitive swimmer, she spends a lot of time in the pool.
Today, she swam in open water, for her grandmother, her aunt, and her elementary school friend — all people she has lost to cancer.
This was the fourth year that Emma, who is a freshman at Wharton High, participated in the Tampa Bay Swim Across America event, which raises money for cancer research and took place at North Shore Park in St. Petersburg.
Participants chose between the half-mile, 1-mile or 2-mile distance, Kayakers and paddleboarders also participated.
“Every year I raise around $1,500,” she says, “and 100 percent of that goes to cancer research centers, so I know it’s going to a good place.”
Proceeds from the Tampa Bay event go to the Moffitt Cancer Center and pediatric cancer research at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital.
Emma is just one of many kids and teenagers participated in the event. They swam together as part of the Greater Tampa Swim Association (GTSA), and their coach encourages them to participate.
“It’s great for our kids to help out their community and do things that are outside of themselves,” says Julia Lamb, who is the owner and head coach of the New Tampa branch of GTSA (there also is a South Tampa branch). “The kids really take ownership of it. They register and create their own page and go out and get donations.”
The fund-raising goal was of $20,000.
Julia said Emma and the event’s team captain, Brooke Harrigan, did a great job and thought outside the box to raise money, such as selling bracelets and hosting spirit nights.
Brooke is a senior at Brooks DeBartolo High School who lives in Live Oak Preserve. She says she loves participating, in part because she knows that all expenses for the event are covered by sponsors so that 100 percent of the donations made to her and her team go directly to Moffitt and Johns Hopkins.
Moffitt Cancer Center acknowledges on its website that, since 2012, the Tampa Bay Swim Across America event has raised more than $1.1 million to fund Moffitt’s Adolescent and Young Adult Program activities and has supported clinical trials for more than 40 patients with stage 4 metastatic melanoma.
Julia adds that Johns Hopkins just enrolled its first patient in an immunotherapy trial that was specifically funded by Swim Across America.
The swimmers all believe that their fund-raising efforts are making a difference in the lives of those who are affected by cancer.
“When I swim at the event, there’s a list on my arm of who I’m swimming in memory of or in honor of,” says Brooke. “Every year I add to that list. It’s bittersweet to know another person’s been impacted by cancer, but it’s one more person I can impact through this swim.”
Swim Across America is a national organization that started with a single event in Nantucket, MA, in 1987, and has grown to 20 open water swims and 100 pool swims across the country this year.
After joining Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Properties Group a year ago, Karen and Renynold (pictured here with company CEO/Chair Gino Blefari), became members of the Chairman’s Gold Circle, awarded to the top 2% of Berkshire Hathaway’s 50,000 sales executives worldwide.
Proverbially, Realtor Karen Tillman-Gosselin wears a lot of hats, including serving as the current chair of the North Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce, the membership director of the Rotary Club of New Tampa, and on the board of several other local organizations.
And, she and her husband and real estate partner Renynold Gosselin also have been sponsors of the Taste of New Tampa & Wesley Chapel since their Rotary Club took over hosting the event in 2017.
But Karen, who joined Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Properties Group in 2018, is still not too busy to help her real estate clients with the tiniest of details, even if it’s picking out paint colors and furniture for their new homes.
“She’s absolutely remarkable,” says Karen’s client Ken Merrill, who says that’s exactly what she helped him do, as the single dad set up his home in Wesley Chapel. “She set a new standard for me.”
Ken says he relocated to the area when he bought a local Allstate insurance agency about a year and a half ago, then says he was referred to Karen and Renynold Gosselin, through their mutual Rotary Club.
He describes Karen and Renynold as “tireless,” as they took him and his kids, ages 16 and 13, out to see houses. Ken changed his mind a few times about exactly what he was looking for, and each time Karen and Renynold would simply find more homes for them to visit.
“Renynold is a virtual encyclopedia of information about the Tampa Bay area,” says Ken. “He knew every corner, every drug store, every market, and knew all the school districts.”
Ken says it was 55 homes later before he finally found the perfect one.
“Now, I absolutely love my house,” he says. “When I walk in, a feeling of warmth comes over me because of how much I love it.”
But, he also says visiting those 55 houses was just the tip of the iceberg of what the Gosselins did for him.
“They negotiated an exceptionally favorable deal for me,” says Ken, who raves about the low price-per-square-foot he paid, and then lists the ways the Gosselins have shown outstanding kindness to his family —from helping him hire a top-notch roofer at a lowest-bid cost, to giving him and his son tickets to a USF football game.
And yes, they also helped him pick paint colors and furniture.
This beautiful 5BR, 4BA home in Saddlebrook in Wesley Chapel is one of many gorgeous luxury listings by Karen Tillman-Gosselin and her husband, Renynold Gosselin. They use the same impactful photography, marketing techniques and attentive customer service for buyers and sellers at any price point, even those who are purchasing or selling their first home.
Karen says she first got into real estate when she was working as an interior designer, often staging homes for sale for real estate agents. She’s happy to help her clients make their homes look their best, whether it’s a home they just purchased, or one they want to stage to sell.
Award-Winning Service!
As real estate agents, Karen and Renynold represent buyers and sellers who want to purchase or sell a home. While Karen sells many luxury homes all over the Tampa Bay area, the New Tampa and Wesley Chapel area is her long-time home, and she works with people whose budgets are at any price point, even first-time home buyers and sellers.
The pair joined Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices in July of 2018, which Otis Bass, who is the president and managing Broker of the Florida Properties Group, says recently became the largest real estate company in the United States.
“Thanks to (chairman and CEO) Warren Buffett, there’s a lot of name recognition with Berkshire Hathaway, and it has prestige,” explains Renynold.
However, Karen says there’s much more to why they chose to join the agency.
“Berkshire Hathaway is a great company with a lot of tools for agents, including a network for referrals from agents around the world,” she says.
More referrals to the Gosselins means more buyers looking at the homes they currently have listed for sale, which is helpful to local sellers.
“Berkshire Hathaway has more resources than other brokers,” says Karen, “and they’re always looking out for the best for their agents. They have created a very positive culture here.”
Recently, the Gosselins were awarded membership to the distinguished Chairman’s Gold Circle, representing that they are in the top 2 percent of the nearly 50,000 Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices real estate sales executives worldwide.
Prior to joining Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Properties Group, Karen worked for many years for local offices of Florida Executive Realty, Keller Williams, Casa Fina Realty and most recently, Smith & Associates.
Karen and Renynold both got their real estate licenses in 2000. Reynold worked “behind the scenes” for many years, until he recently retired from a 30-year career with Verizon and became Karen’s full-time partner in real estate.
During her decades-long career in the business, Karen has sold more than $200 million of real estate.
She says she continues to be successful because she is a trusted advisor to clients who refer their friends and family to her and Renynold.
“Having a real estate agent who will listen to your wants and needs and help you find that one house you will make your home is crucial,” Karen says. “That agent needs to put you first, then properly coordinate all aspects — from negotiations and inspections to ensuring that the transaction becomes a reality.”
Marketing Your Home
Karen and Renynold say that marketing also is a big part of their success, and that having great photographs online is key to marketing a home for sale these days.
“Most buyers start on the internet,” says Renynold, “that’s why photography is so important.”
So, Karen and Renynold provide a 3D tour of each home they list. The tour is so comprehensive, it can even be viewed in virtual reality to feel like you’re actually walking through the home.
The 3D tour often is accompanied by a separate video walk-through of the home, plus drone photography, and photos and video of the community, too.
“We’re selling a lifestyle,” Karen says. “If you live in a community with a pool with slides, we’ll have photos of that or incorporate that into the video, to show people who want to move here the kind of lifestyle they can have.”
Karen says she and Renynold are by their clients’ side throughout the entire process, paying attention to every detail.
“It can be very overwhelming to sell a house,” she says. “We try to take some of the load off, because we know you’re not only selling, you’re also moving.”
Karen and Renynold’s expertise can make the entire process much easier on buyers and sellers.
Ken Merrill seconds that. “I would refer (them) to anybody,” he says. “It goes way beyond the transaction of real estate. It’s been an incredible experience, and they’re now family, as far as I’m concerned.”
To schedule a free, no-obligation consultation in your home, visit FineHomesofTampa.com or call (813) 629-1502.
Dr. Shahida Choudhry and her Palms Pharmacy have moved…but don’t worry, it’s only next door in the same Shoppes at The Pointe plaza in Tampa Palms, in a bigger store to accommodate the independent pharmacy’s ongoing growth. (Photos: Gavin Olsen)
At the Palms Pharmacy, located at The Shoppes at The Pointe in Tampa Palms, Shahida Choudhry, Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.), promises personalized service you won’t find in a typical chain drug store.
Dr. Choudhry wants customers to see and feel the difference from the moment they walk in the door, with a warm, welcoming space where coffee is offered and natural soaps lightly scent the air.
“It even smells nice,” Dr. Choudhry laughs. “People who come in expect concierge service, which they get and we enjoy.”
That means Dr. Choudhry and her staff get to know their customers. Not only do they learn their names to be able to greet them personally and start getting their prescriptions ready as they’re walking in the door, they also learn about their patients’ medications to be able to provide the best possible care for them.
“We ask questions and we get to know them,” she says. “It’s a cool process.”
The pharmacy celebrated the third anniversary of its “first” Grand Opening on April 15. Late in 2018, Palms Pharmacy moved, but just next door to its former space in the same plaza. The new location is larger, allowing more room for pharmacists and technicians to work, a separate room for prescription compounding, and another separate room where durable medical equipment (such as walkers, crutches and nebulizers) is sold and fittings for compression garments are done.
The new Palms Pharmacy is larger, more attractive and has more inventory.Â
Dr. Choudhry received her Bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy, then went on to receive her Pharm.D. degree, both from Long Island University in Brooklyn, NY, in 2001. Before opening Palms Pharmacy, Dr. Choudhry was the pharmacist at the Publix in Tampa Palms for 10 years. She loved her job and her customers, and enjoyed working with pharmacy technician Naivis Valdez.
“It was comfortable and I learned so much,” she says. However, Dr. Choudhry also says she was looking for a better balance to her work life and home, where she had two small children, and thought she could help patients more if she had her own pharmacy.
So, she says, she took classes and read books and asked questions of many people who served as mentors to her, eventually opening Palms Pharmacy and hiring Naivis to work alongside her.
Success Spurs Growth
As the business has grown, so has the staff at Palms Pharmacy. Today, there are six employees, including a second full-time pharmacist, two pharmacy students and a pharmacy clerk.
“Now that we’ve been here more than two and a half years, hopefully people realize we’re here to stay,” Dr. Choudhry says.
“We do exactly the same as every other pharmacy,” she continues, “but we do it better.”
She says this includes a wait time that is usually “next to nothing,” along with compounding medications and selling durable medical equipment not sold at typical big chain pharmacies. She and her staff also provide immunizations such as flu shots, vaccines for pneumonia and shingles, and travel vaccines.
They also thrive on helping patients with especially complicated health or insurance issues.
Dr. Choudhry says that when insurance companies decline to cover a patient’s medications, that’s when she picks up the phone.
“I know the doctors and the medical assistants,” she says. “I work with them to get their patients what they need, usually within the day.”
This is in huge contrast to other pharmacies, which may take 7-10 days to come up with a solution when an insurance company won’t cover a medication.
In fact, Dr. Choudhry says many of her patients find Palms Pharmacy through their doctors. “Doctors are supportive of us because we take care of their patients,” she says.
Clarence Williams is one patient who found Palms Pharmacy when his doctor recommended it. He drives to Tampa Palms from his home off County Line Rd., passing several big chain pharmacies along the way.
He says the personalized attention he receives is worth it.
“They know all the medications you’re taking,” he says, and will suggest alternatives “if there’s one that’s better for you or cheaper.”
Clarence says Palms Pharmacy has great communication with his doctor, checking with the doctor before making any changes, and he appreciates the phone calls he gets when his medications come in or when he’s due for a refill.
“The people working there are friendly and reliable and they just do a good job,” he says. “They go one step further than everyone else.”
Dr. Choudhry says that’s the commitment Palms Pharmacy has to all of its patients.
“We recently had a patient come in who is in his early 30s. We saw that he had been prescribed diabetic medication,” says Dr. Choudhry, explaining it was a red flag for someone so young. Dr. Choudhry found that the patient hadn’t really paid a lot of attention or given it much thought when his doctor suggested the medication because he is pre-diabetic. She says she challenged him to make some lifestyle changes, such as exercise and diet, to avoid having full-blown diabetes.
“I scared him,” she says, “but sometimes people need that, especially if they’re pre-diabetic in their early 30s.”
Dr. Choudhry says that at another pharmacy, they would just hand you your medication and you would leave. “We don’t want to do that,” she says.
Dr. Choudhry has also taken classes to specialize in hormone balancing for women and men. She reviews lab work provided by a patient’s doctor, prescribes the appropriate hormones and gets approval from the doctor for them.
She says it’s gratifying to have the doctors’ trust and help patients in this way.
Unique Gifts, Too!
Palms Pharmacy also sells natural vitamins and supplements, from companies such as Pure, Nordic, Metagenics and Mason. The store also sells LovePop pop-up greeting cards and all-natural products in the Zum line, such as Zum Bar all-natural soaps, Zum Kiss lip products, Zum Body lotions, Zum Rub moisturizers with shea butter and Zum Mist aromatherapy & body mists.
Palms Pharmacy patients also can use a free app, called “RxLocal” to refill their prescriptions, receive reminders and interact with the pharmacy staff.
Dr. Choudhry says opening her own pharmacy has been extremely rewarding.
“I love it,” she says. “From the clinical side, I have a say in patients’ health care. Physicians listen to me and they ask me what I recommend. This is why I went to school, to affect my patients’ health care.”
In addition to helping patients, Palms Pharmacy works in the community, from supporting the Parent Teacher Associations at Chiles and Tampa Palms elementary schools to providing over-the-counter and prescription medications for medical students from nearby University of South Florida who travel around the world on medical mission trips.
“We’re growing every day and it’s a blessing,” Dr. Choudhry says. “I wake up every morning and I’m excited to get to work every day.”
Palms Pharmacy is located at 17008 Palm Pointe Dr. and is open Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. For more information, call (813) 252-9063, or visit ThePalmsPharmacy.com.
