By: Sharon Aron Baron

One local high school senior has won a prestigious national four-year scholarship to the University of Miami to study music.

Cameron Zhen, a senior at JP Taravella High School, won the Stamps Scholars merit scholarship offered to five students every four years at the University of Miami for their Stamps Brass Quintet. Zhen, who plays trumpet, said they accept a french horn, a trombone, tuba player and two trumpets. Along with their high level of skill, each player accepted is one of the best in the country.

“I applied because the trumpet professor at the University of Miami is one of the best in the world, as well as the Frost School of Music being one of the premier music schools in the country,” said Zhen.

Zhen, who resides in Coral Springs with parents George and Lisa and older brother Jeremy, who just graduated from the University of Florida, said he will be a trumpet performance major at the university.  

On top of music talent, the academic criteria to be accepted into the Stamps Brass Quintet is high, with members needing an average SAT composite of 1,300 or an ACT score of 29, along with a competitive academic profile.

In 2006, Penny and Roe Stamps created merit scholarship programs for undergraduates at their alma maters – The University of Michigan and Georgia Tech. Since then, the Stamps Family Charitable Foundation has fostered a national community of prestigious colleges and universities, awarding multi-year merit scholarships to the brightest minds across the country. In 2016, over 260 Stamps Scholarship recipients will join more than 1,000 Stamps Scholars.

Stamps Scholars are among the recipients of other prestigious awards, including Rhodes, Fulbright, Goldwater, Marshall and National Science Foundation scholarships.

Scholars receive annual awards that range from $69,000 to $5,000 (four-year awards total an average of $275,000 – $20,000) with additional funds for enrichment activities such as study abroad, academic conferences, and leadership training. The Stamps Family Charitable Foundation and partner schools evenly share the costs of the awards.