This year’s 20 winners were selected from among 37,000 applicants.
The Foot Locker Scholar Athletes (FLSA) program honors student-athletes who demonstrate exceptional academic ability and strong leadership skills in sports, in their schools, and within their communities. This year 20 winners were selected from among 37,000 applicants. Both Malika Jain and Puneet Kaur received $20,000 each in college scholarship money for their excellence in school, on their sports teams, and in their communities.
Jain – who has previously received several awards including the Girl Scouts Gold Award, the President’s Award for Education and Excellence, and the Duke of Edinburgh International Gold Award for Leadership and Service – is the captain of her school’s varsity soccer, golf, and tennis teams. She was also placed third this year in her tennis league and went to the tennis division finals.
Jain’s leadership skills are apparent in her athletics as she recruited girls to join the tennis team and supported them throughout the season. In her community involvement, she’s currently the Student Body President, President of Key Club and a strategy member of the Robotics Club at her high school.
Currently, she’s been dedicated to the Girl Scouts for 13 years and her commitment included working to raise $35,000, which is to be donated to the schools in three poverty-stricken villages in Vadodara, India. She is working on to provide basic school supplies there including the sanitary bathrooms for students, water purification systems to check water prone diseases, additional classrooms, computer lab, science lab, library, medical camps, playground equipment, etc.
Puneet Kaur, on the other hand, is a four-year varsity basketball and track athlete. “She was the first in her family to be born in the US, and will be the second in her family to go to college,” according to the FLSA’s website.
Kaur values her education to a higher extent being aware of her family’s tireless efforts to move to the US. She excels in her academics, earning good grades in the midst of her personal struggle despite having a rare epileptic seizure disorder. She plans to attend George Mason University in the fall for further studies.