Beyond Borders Scholarship Sends Two Hampton Roads Students to Operation Smile's International Student Leadership Conference in Bangkok

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — October 2026 — The Prevail Foundation announced that two Hampton Roads students, Destiny Jones of Norfolk and Emmanuel Scott of Suffolk, have returned from Operation Smile's International Student Leadership Conference in Bangkok, Thailand, after earning their way there through the Beyond Borders Scholarship, the Prevail Foundation's scholarship program.

The conference brings together students from around the world for a week focused on leadership, service, and cultural exchange. The trip was the first time either student had traveled internationally. At roughly $4,000 per student, it was not handed to them. Each student received a $1,000 Beyond Borders Scholarship from the Prevail Foundation, raised an additional $1,000 with the Foundation's support, and then raised the remaining balance on their own.

The program is personal for Prevail. As a student he attended the same Operation Smile conference and had to raise the entire cost himself. That experience shaped his belief that exposure to the wider world at a young age builds perspective and confidence, and it led him to create the Beyond Borders Scholarship for other underestimated students.

The scholarship launched on February 5, 2026, at Operation Smile's headquarters in Virginia Beach, where Jones and Scott were presented with their $1,000 awards.

“It just felt really natural to create this scholarship to give other underestimated kids the opportunity to experience a different part of the world. Kids from other cultures get to experience the world at this age, so why not our children.”

“Without that scholarship I don't think I would've been able to experience this in the first place.”

The Beyond Borders Scholarship is part of the broader Prevail ecosystem, which connects Prevail Group, Prevail Ventures, Prevail Foundation, and 40X around a single idea: invest in people, and build what's next.