Adopted Children and Families Get Dollars for Higher Education through Florida Tech Agreement

MELBOURNE, FLA. — An agreement just signed by Florida Institute of Technology President Dr. Anthony J. Catanese and President and Founder of Home At Last
Adoption Agency Inc. Dr. Rachel Fornes provides financial support to assist adopted children, birth parents and adoptive families to pursue higher
education. Called the Florida Tech Connection, the program helps those served by the agency to pursue a bachelor’s degree in programs offered at Florida
Tech’s Melbourne, Fla., campus.

Florida Tech Connection students will be awarded a Florida Tech Connection Grant of $3,000, renewable annually for up to four years. In addition, Florida
Tech Connection students are eligible for Florida Tech admissions incentives, academic scholarships, plus need-based financial assistance.

“I always thought we went over and above as an adoption agency,” said Fornes. “We can’t thank our birth mothers enough and we can never repay them, but we
are thrilled to offer them this financial support for education.” Fornes and husband Al Neuharth, founder of USA Today, and founder and chairman of the
Freedom Forum, are parents to six adopted children.

“We are extremely pleased at this opportunity to join with Home At Last,” said Catanese. “It’s good for everyone to be part of helping more people in
Brevard County realize their dreams for higher education.”

Agency clients must be high school graduates residing in Brevard County and may be graduates of the Brevard Community College (BCC) Associate in Arts
program.

Additionally, agency clients who are Brevard Community College graduates, with a 2.5 cumulative grade point average, also will be awarded a BCC-Florida
Tech Achievement Grant of $4,000. This is equivalent to what an in-state resident would pay for the cost of an associate’s degree program. This money will
be disbursed in halves in the Florida Tech junior and senior years. A BCC graduate is also eligible for the Presidential BCC Transfer Scholarship at
Florida Tech.

The Home at Last Adoption Agency, in its eight years of service, has placed more than 100 children.

Florida Tech was founded in 1958 to train professionals working in the space program at what is now Kennedy Space Center. It is the only independent,
technological university in the Southeast. More information is available at www.fit.edu.