Daqone Tirene joined the Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation as its first intern. Daqone Tirene was born and raised in Sarasota. At an early age, his teachers recognized that he was an excellent student and placed him in gifted programs, after school activities, and assigned him a mentor through Big Brothers Big Sisters. As Daqone began to flourish in school, his success would be recognized by Take Stock in Children, who awarded him a scholarship for any Florida college in the fifth grade. He would go on to play football and basketball at Sarasota High School and Booker High School. While in high school, Daqone was a College for Every Student peer counselor, an AICE student, and he mentored other students. After graduating from Booker High School in 2017, Daqone played college football at Webber International University, a prestigious business school. Daqone is a sophomore at the State College of Florida, where he is earning his AA before transferring to a major university. A passionate writer, Daqone plans to major in Journalism. Growing up, Daqone sought to become the first in his family to not just attend, but to graduate from college, and he will.