We're excited to announce the 2018 winners of the OCSEA Les Best Scholarship program for dependents, members and spouses. This program is just another example of the amazing benefits of being union! Annually OCSEA awards a total of $12,000 in member-only scholarships to help members and their family afford the rising price of higher education. The Les Best Scholarship program has been helping OCSEA families afford college for nearly 30 years.
Congrats to all our winners! Read more on the selection process below.
Dependent’s College/Vocational - $2,000 scholarship
- Michael Dick, son of Vanessa Dick, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency
- Alexandra Morar, daughter of George Morar, Ohio Dept. of Transportation
- Jayia Prysock, daughter of Joel Prysock, Ohio Dept. of Rehabilitation & Correction/Dayton Correctional
- Kevin Wang, son of Zhongling Wang, Dept. of Job and Family Services
Members’ College - $1,000 scholarship + $250 book scholarship
- Rachel Feeley, member at Ohio Dept. of Health
- Tabitha Ann Palmer, member at Ohio Dept. of Education
Spouses’ College - $1,000 scholarship
- Kathleen Burke, wife of Kevin Burke, Ohio Dept. of Rehabilitation & Correction/Pickaway Correctional
- Laura Wertz, wife of Zachery Wertz, Ohio Dept. of Transportation
The Selection Process
An outside panel of independent judges with backgrounds in education or labor affairs makes the Les Best Scholarship award determinations to ensure fairness and impartiality.
Each judge scores the applications individually, and points are awarded to each applicant based on the varying requirements for the three scholarship categories, and include points given for essays, grade transcripts, ACT scores, community service and union activism.
During the final judging session, the final scores for each applicant from the three judges are added together and averaged. The top scoring applicants from each category are then awarded the scholarships.
Our judges this year were Stephanie Saunders, Vice President of Enrollment, University of Toledo; Dr. Matthew Ides, Organizer, Ohio Education Association; and Jill McNaughten, retired guidance counselor from Grandview Heights City Schools.
Applicants may win up to a total of three Les Best Scholarships, and this year we had a repeat winner, Laura Wertz, who won a Spouse scholarship for the second year in a row. We encourage all applicants, even winners, to reapply again next year. Learn more about the Lest Best Scholarship HERE.