Well, thousands of CCSD high school seniors will soon be graduating.

Many of these amazing students worked very hard to get scholarships in order to attend the college or university of their choice.

Well, nearly 20 of these students received a life-changing scholarship, a scholarship based on character, not grades.

And we were there as trustees with the Charles and Phyllis M. Frias Charitable Trust, and members of the Public Education Foundation made the rounds to several high schools to surprise these wonderful students.

And wait until you hear how much each scholarship is worth.

It is pretty amazing.

-Congratulations, Nathan and Zavion.

-Cheyenne High School Seniors Nathan Acosta and Zavion Smith, 2 of the 18 students who were surprised with the wonderful news that they are the proud recipients of the Frias Legacy Scholarship.

(Nathan) Yeah, this is a lot.

It's a lot.

(Zavion) I just-- wow.

This is a lot of money.

-A lot of money is right, $100,000 to be exact.

-It's just surreal.

It doesn't feel real yet, but it is.

It's awesome.

(John H. Mowbray) We have a unique scholarship program that we collaborated with the Public Education Foundation, starting three years ago, to award Southern Nevada students a $100,000, four-year scholarship so that they could graduate the college or university of their choice, debt free.

And our scholarship is kind of unique.

Number one, we don't look so much at the grades.

We look at some adversity that that student suffered during their high school career.

-Zavion and Nathan are wise beyond their years.

-I feel valued as a person, as an individual.

And I feel amazing.

I, I feel amazing.

[applause] -And both of these deserving students have not let adversity stand in the way of their dreams.

-It has been rough, yeah, because now it's just me and my sister, which is the main reason why I'm kind of always overprotective and on her butt about things, about school and stuff, because I want her to succeed just as much as I want to succeed.

-Thank you.

Thank you, Grandma.

My grandmother, she's important.

She's probably like one of my biggest fans, for real.

It's crazy how, you know, she got custody of me and my brother at a young age.

I was about seven.

My brother was about like, four or five.

My grandma, she took the opportunity to, you know, just to get me out of that.

And without her, I wouldn't be standing right here right now.

-During each of these special surprise ceremonies... -What Charlie did, in great Las Vegas fashion, he pulled out a half dollar.

He said, Okay, let's go outside.

We're gonna flip this.

Heads we go back to Texas, tails we stay here.

And that coin flipped around.

Pssshhew... tail side up.

Good for you guys.

[laughter] -The students learn more about Mr. and Mrs. Frias and the incredible legacy they leave behind.

-From their very modest beginning-- no college education, high school degree --they built the largest transportation company in the state.

Five taxicab companies, the limousine service, and an airline shuttle business.

And along the way, they dedicated, they gave back to the community.

Frias Elementary School in Southern Highlands, a Blue Ribbon Elementary School is named after them.

-It's admirable because-- the way they went through life is the same way I want to go through life, just be 1% better every single day.

-Zavion and Nathan are already doing great things, and both also know exactly how they will put their life-changing scholarship money to good use.

And, boy, do their futures look bright.

-I want to become a equine veterinary specialist, a vet tech.

Hopefully I'll become a full-on veterinarian, but, you know, you got to do small steps before you get to like the huge career goal.

I want to settle down somewhere maybe in the countryside and chill out and help out animals and stuff.

-I want to be majoring in music technology.

-Where are you going to college?

-In Huston-Tillotson University.

It's in Texas, Austin, Texas.

After the four-year degree of music technology, I want to get into producing it, you know, and the production side of music.

-I can't wait to tell my sister when she gets back from California.

She's gonna be like, Oh!

Yeah, thank you.

That's really all I have to say is thank you, everyone.

-You're welcome.

[applause] -Bravo!

Big congratulations to all of these wonderful students.

More great news for these scholarship recipients.

The students will also be part of the very first class to collaborate with Junior Achievement on financial literacy.

They will have a chance to go through that program and manage this scholarship money so that they can graduate in four years debt free.