Ronnell Donahoo is a young man with a plan.  Having the future mapped out is rare among college sophomores, but that’s Ronnell.  The 2015 graduate of Okaloosa On-Line Virtual School knows exactly what he wants to do and where he wants to go to learn how to do it.

As a child, Ronnell, like so many others his age, spent hours playing with Legos.  He wasn’t content with towers and small houses, he built entire cities complete with high-rise buildings, store fronts, streets and bridges.  But, at the time, he considered it simply child’s play.

Later, he dreamed of becoming a commercial pilot, but a look into civilian flight schools forced him to look at the future realistically.  With flight school cost prohibitive, Ronnell figured commercial aviation probably wasn’t in his future.  That was when he revisited his childhood passion for building cities.  An Urban & Regional Planning degree offered a little bit of everything – architecture, design, geography, traffic control and government – and his plan took root.

While pursuing his degree, Ronnell is a Pacesetter and a NWFSC Student Ambassador.  “The Pacesetters Scholarship allows me to network, receive advice and be mentored by successful, community-minded black men and, in turn, allows members to mentor one another,” Ronnell noted.

Remember that desire to become a commercial pilot?  While Ronnell is determined to seek the U&RP degree, he hasn’t given up his dream to fly and, in between his NWFSC classes and duties with the Student Ambassadors, is working to obtain his private pilot’s license.  Ronnell Donahoo has dreamed a dream, played childhood games and is on his way to living them out as a young adult.

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