News

Congratulations to the Les Best Scholarship winners

Posted Jun. 19, 2017 by

OCSEA is excited to announce the recipients of the 2017 OCSEA Les Best Scholarships. Eight awards were given in the Dependents' College and Members' College categories as well as two book scholarships.

OCSEA’s Les Best Scholarship makes available a total of $12,000 in scholarships each year to OCSEA members, their spouses and dependents. An additional $500 is awarded to members through the Pat Callanan-Castro Book Scholarship.

Dependents' College winners
Lexi Rager - parent, William Rager, Ohio Dept. of Rehabilitation and Corrections -
Mihir Patil - parent, Prachi Thombare, Ohio Dept. of Health
Miranda Pesa - parent, Kevin Piros, Ohio Dept. of Health
Rebecca McCarty - parent, Robert McCarty, Ohio Dept. of Agriculture, Dairy Division
Corey Edwards - parent, Sharon Edwards, Ohio Industrial Commission
Elisabeth Yuhas - parent, Alice Yuhas, Ohio Dept. of Administrative Services

Members' College winners

Deborah Moore-Payne - Ohio Attorney General's Office
Erick Ziegler - Ohio Dept. of Health
Cynthia Smith (book scholarship) - Ohio Environmental Protection Agency
Reana Jackson (book scholarship) - Ohio Dept. of Agriculture

About the Scholarship Panel
Each year, 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. Our judges this year were Petee Talley, Secretary-Treasurer of the Ohio AFLCIO, Elaine Silveira, Assistant General Counsel Operations Manager, Ohio Trooper Organization, and Jill McNaughten, a former guidance counselor with Grandview Heights City Schools.

Points are awarded to each applicant based on 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 each judge are added together and then averaged. The top score-getters from each category are awarded the scholarships.

All applicants are encouraged to reapply yearly, as Les Best Scholarship recipients are eligible to win up to three total awards. This year the judges were particularly impressed with the quality of the applicants’ essays, which asked, "Why are voter suppression efforts a danger to democracy?"

Learn more about the Les Best Scholarship

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