Athens Women's Group Awards $16,400 in Local Scholarships

Sixteen women across Athens County are heading back to school this fall with financial support from their community. P.E.O. Chapter DD in Athens awarded $16,400 in scholarships to local students pursuing degrees from nursing to architecture.

The scholarships support women of all ages enrolled in accredited colleges and universities. Recipients include Lillian Paris from Athens, who will study computer engineering at The Ohio State University, and Kathryn West of Albany, attending Ohio University's Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Katie McKinney of Nelsonville received funding for her dental hygiene program at Hocking College. Delaney Dean from Carbon Hill got support for her art and design studies at Hiram College. Wynne Dodrill and Abigail Sanders, both from Athens, will use their scholarships for biology and nursing degrees at Ohio University.

The awards come from six different scholarship funds within the local chapter. Each fund honors women who believed in educational opportunities, including the Guinther-Kiser-Johnston Nursing Scholarship and the Constance Sands Memorial Scholarship.

The Ripple Effect

This local effort connects to something much bigger. The P.E.O. Sisterhood has awarded $462 million in educational assistance since its founding in 1869 at Iowa Wesleyan College in Mount Pleasant, Iowa. Nearly 230,000 members across 6,000 chapters in the United States and Canada continue that mission today.

The organization also owns Cottey College in Nevada, Missouri, a fully accredited liberal arts college for women. What started as a small group of seven women supporting each other's education has grown into an international force opening doors for women in every field imaginable.

For the sixteen Athens County recipients, these scholarships mean more than tuition money. They represent a community saying yes to their ambitions. Rilynn Fouts of Glouster can now pursue health science. Madilynn Stein from Athens gets to follow her passion for theater performance. Brooklyn Gerity of New Marshfield will study art history at Bowling Green University.

Local residents interested in applying for future scholarships can contact Cheryl Robb or visit the P.E.O. Chapter DD Athens Facebook page for details.