When he graduates at the end of the month, Karmello Jones will leave a pretty impressive mark at Cross High.
He is an athlete who excelled on the school’s soccer, track, wrestling and football teams. He takes his schoolwork seriously, and is currently ranked in the top five for Cross High’s class of 2025.
School staff will say he is just an all-around great student – and they are going to miss him when he crosses the stage in a couple of weeks.
He experienced some remarkable highs during his senior year: joining his football team in an attempt to seize the Class A state championship, and being selected to the Touchstone Energy Cooperatives Bowl, to name a few.
And, the accolades keep on coming: Jones is the recipient of the highly-coveted Gates Scholarship.
Cross High staff believe he may be the first student in the history of Cross High to receive this prestigious scholarship.
“It’s crazy – I can’t really process it,” he said, adding that he attributes this achievement to being a very driven student. “I expect to do great things…When you put great work in, you should get great results back. When you put in the hard work, when you put in the discipline, and you mix it with just a tiny bit of talent, you can get magical things – and that’s not just for me, that’s for everybody.”
The Gates Scholarship is one of the most generous minority scholarships and merit-based scholarships out there. This year there were more than 48,000 applicants from across the nation, and Jones is one out of only 750 selected.
The scholarship covers the full cost of attendance at any accredited United States college or university (not including other financial aid and the expected family contribution). This includes tuition, fees, room and board, transportation, books and other personal costs.
Principal Tiffany Brown recommended Jones to apply for the scholarship last fall, and Jones committed to following through on the four-step application process that included submitting lots of paperwork and three essays.
“I made it a priority this year to stay on top of the tasks, and just stay really focused on it and not let it slip my mind,” he said.
In mid-April, Jones woke up to an important e-mail: he got it.
“I woke up screaming at the top of my lungs,” he said. “I was ecstatic knowing that I got something that I had worked hard for.”
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation runs the Gates Scholarship program. Jones said officials look for seniors who are overall excellent students – not just academically, but in their character and how they present themselves to their school’s community.
Jones is a very familiar face in the Cross area. In football, he was named a three-year starter at linebacker and a two-year starter at running back during his high school athletic career. Jones led Cross to a 12-3 record and the Class A state title game in December, which was the Trojans’ first championship appearance since 2012. Cross ultimately fell short to Abbeville, but the team celebrated an overall great season. Jones was named The Post and Courier’s All-Lowcountry football player of the year, and he was one of six students across Berkeley County School District that was named to the Touchstone Energy Cooperatives Bowl -- his selected position was defensive back.
Outside of football, Jones is an accomplished wrestler who claimed third in the state his junior year. He was named a region track champion two years ago for the 400m hurdles.
Beyond athletics, he is a member of Future Business Leaders of America and Upward Bound Math & Science.
Jones is committed to staying involved in sports in some capacity after high school. He is heading to the University of South Carolina with plans to double major in sports management and sports science. Jones said he is considering joining his college’s football team as a walk-on, if the opportunity presents itself.
Jones’s career aspirations include working for a big-time sports league like the NFL, the NBA, etc. He is interested in becoming a sports manager or agent, or maybe a job that helps make safe sports equipment.
He also wants to come back to the Cross community and help make it a “powerhouse” for student athletes.
Jones said he will miss the faculty and staff at Cross High and the support system he has accumulated during his time as a student.
“I love this campus,” he said. “I feel like this is a great place to grow up.”
Jones comes from a long line of Cross High graduates on his father’s side. Jones is the son of Santory Jones and Jolanda Vega-Velez. Jones is close to his siblings: older brother also named Santory Jones, older sister Jah’Laya Vega-Velez, and younger brother Ja’Kobe Jones. He has two pitbulls, Sky and Tony.
Jones hopes his winning the Gates Scholarship will inspire underclassmen and future Cross High students to keep working hard – and that there will be more Gates recipients out of Cross in the future.
He said he is excited to go to college and move onto the next chapter.
“I’m grateful and blessed to get it (the scholarship),” he said. “Thank you, Berkeley County, for my academic journey, and thank you, Cross High School.”