ZEBUlON — When East Wake Academy Headmaster Brandon Smith heard about a Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Foundation partnership grant, he knew it was designed to be awarded to students in higher education.

That didn’t stop him from assigning EW Academy staffer Jana Allen to research the possibility of the $1,000 annual grant and $500 scholarship coming the way of the charter school in Zebulon.

The timing was fortuitous. The foundation was ready to launch a high school component of the Carter Academic Service Entrepreneur grant program with a public and private high school in Atlanta, and was eager to add a charter school to the mix.

At the end of the first year, the effort has culminated in a scholarship promise along with seed money to make the project of one student come to life.

On Friday, Kenny Collie, a junior at East Wake Academy, won the $1,000 grant to conduct a renewal of the Little River Park with an education and conservation component. Upon completion of his senior project, he will receive a $500 college scholarship.

Collie is one of 56 students who applied for the program at East Wake Academy and is the first student in the country to be awarded the honor.

The grant supports service projects that incorporate academic learning and community work.

Collie’s project brings the high school biology curriculum to life with the partnership of Wake County Soil and Water Conservation staff and North Carolina Big Sweep, a statewide environmental nonprofit headquartered in Zebulon.

They will join students at EWA to restore and improve the Little River Park with educational stations and recreational facilities.

All seniors at East Wake Academy must complete a high school community project in order to graduate. Collie’s project seeks to establish a North Carolina-specific watershed education component within East Wake Academy’s biology curriculum.

The renewed park and curriculum will be combined as a resource for environmental research, school events, field trips and technology training for high school students throughout the area.

As part of the grant selection, 25 students were chosen from the 56 as semi-finalists by a group of community judges. From there, the top five were named.

Honorable mentions for the CASE grant went to Ashleigh Bilodea, a rising sophomore, for her project “Growing Hope,” which pairs patients at East Wake Total Life Center with students and community volunteers.

Data was to be collected to track biological outcomes for plants and surveys would track psychological outcomes for patients and volunteers. Bilodeau receives the Certificate of Merit from the Carter Foundation.

Finalists Jessica Hunter, a freshman, and Perry Barnhill a sophomore, both designed projects to help elementary students in the community succeed in academics.

Back for Buddies, Hunter’s project proposal, seeks to help assist low-socio-economic preschool students with backpacks filled with school and personal hygiene supplies to ensure their preparedness to attend kindergarten.

Barnhill’s project was to plan a summer day camp for third through fifth graders who do not qualify for extra help in math and reading. The summer camp would incorporate games and stories in the areas of reading and math.

Barnhill proposed to team up with the East Wake Education Foundation to build the camp and staff it with volunteers. Both students received a certificate of merit from the foundation.

Shakeeriona Hodge, a senior, designed a project called Beads of Hope. She planned to partner with Hope Community, a support group for the Cancer Centers of Raleigh, to make bracelets, symbolizing love, peace and hope, for patients struggling with the disease and for survivors of cancer.