Thank you so much for this scholarship. It means a lot to me when people are willing to help students in their education. You are helping me to be able to continue moving forward in my education and I really appreciate that.

After graduating from Bushnell, I plan to start of small. I'll get my foot in the door of business management and start making connections. After a few years of that, I plan to begin starting multiple businesses.

This scholarship helps me a lot with expenses and makes me want to succeed even more, for not only myself, but my daughter and family. Thank you so much.

Become a therapist or counselor.

I am truly grateful for this scholarship because it relieves some of my financial burden for the semester. I appreciate being able to focus more time and energy on my studies without the added worry of finances.

After graduation, I want to utilize my education and resources to meet the digital needs of others by becoming a software developer.

This scholarship is meaningful to me because it shows how much others can care for the betterment of younger generations.

This scholarship ultimately helped pay for my college. I don’t come from a lot of money so any kindness means the world. Thank you!

pursue a master’s in criminology.

This scholarship was so unexpected and a gift I didn't even know was available to me. I am so thankful and appreciative of the OCF Joseph E. Weston Public Foundation Scholarship. With school being so expensive, this will help me achieve my goal of being a nurse someday.

This scholarship helped alleviate some of the financial burdens that my family accrued over the pandemic. As a first-generation college student and as the oldest child in my family, I was able to use this money towards my tuition to pursue my future degree and career, which eased some of the financial stress placed on my family. Thank you for the opportunity and support given to me as I continue to move forward in my education so that I may be an amazing nurse one day.

After graduation, I plan to stay in Portland for a while. I am interested in working in med-surg after one of my clinical rotations but am also open to exploring more specialties in the future. I would like to try travel nursing someday so that I can explore new places and meet more people around the country.

I am very thankful for this scholarship. I am attending school full time and working part time. This has lifted some weight off my back and I am grateful for being chosen. Thank you!

Thank you for this scholarship. It helps me to pay my tuition as I continue to pursue higher education.

After graduation, I'm not quite sure where I plan to go. I'm trusting that when I get to senior year, I will feel pulled towards a specific place. I know for certain that I want to teach in public Title 1 schools.

This scholarship gives me the opportunity to continue my education; thank you for helping me to pay for my higher education and lessen my financial burden.

I plan to go to graduate school for computer science, and i am looking into human-computer interaction. I also plan to still make art and do social justice work for my community.

I am honored to be one of the recipients of the OCF Joseph E. Weston Public Foundation Scholarship. As the first in my family to attend college and an individual from a lower-income family, I have been determined to graduate from Willamette University no matter what. However, I may not have never been able to continue attending Willamette without this financial support due to financial setbacks over the last couple of years. This financial support has truly allowed me to continue my education at Willamette. Thank you so much for your generous support!

Willamette University was my top choice when looking at colleges. The incredible faculty, staff, and students won me over right away during my first visit to campus. Once I started school at Willamette, I took a sociology class titled "Gender in Society" and from there my interest in sociology continued to grow. I started to realize that I would like to work in nonprofit and advocacy work. Due to this, I decided to major in sociology and minor in psychology.

After graduation, I plan to work in nonprofit and advocacy work. Specifically, I plan to get involved with advocacy work for LGBTQIA2S+ individuals and housing-insecure youth. Currently, I am involved in my school’s Gender Resource and Advocacy Center (GRAC) in multiple ways. I am a co-facilitate for a transgender and gender non-conforming peer support group and co-presenter for SafeZone, an LGBTQIA2S+ competency training for on-campus organizations. Additionally, I work at my college’s coffee shop, the Bistro, and volunteer at the SOAR center, my college’s student-run food pantry and clothing share. I think that all these experiences will greatly benefit me in my future career!

Thank you! This scholarship helps tremendously with my tuition. I am the first person in my family to attend college and am paying for college on my own with little support from my parents and other scholarships. I knew that it was going to be hard for me to pay for college since my family is middle-lower class and this scholarship lowers the amount of student loans I must borrow and prevents the mental distress later of having to pay them off.

I have always been interested in criminology, and psychology seemed like a good stepping stone for me. I am interested in psychology because it is a big part of who we are and how we interact with others; I find it interesting trying to understand and explain human's actions when we don't even fully understand ourselves. Additionally, it’s a way that we can try to figure out why criminals commit their crimes and how we can attempt stopping crime. I chose George Fox because it was one of the closest schools to home that I was interested in. I also heard great reviews from people I know about George Fox’s academic drive, strong sense of community, and being known personally by my professors.

I plan to attend graduate school in-state and study Criminology. I want to study criminology because it is fascinating that a criminal may be raised the same exact way as many non-criminals but have an uncontrollable urge to commit crimes.

This scholarship really helps me on my journey through college. Thank you.

Start my own physical therapy business and make music on the side.

Historically, the field of biblical studies in Christian academic and religious communities have been undeniably slanted towards an anti-Jewish posture. For centuries, Jewish writings (and writings done by Jewish Christians) have been regarded as second rate or harmful. As a Jewish individual who has been on the receiving end of antisemitism, discrimination, ridicule, and defamation, a scholarship that enables my studies (albeit within a Christian institution) to continue my studies with this gift is beyond extraordinary. Overall, this allows more time to serve within the city investing into marginalized communities, and most of all, restoring an equitable perspectives and practices of Jewish perspectives within scholarship and Christian faith communities. Thank you for making this possible. Your generosity has alleviated one aspect of the discriminative difficulties and limited access that Jewish individuals have had within Christian institutions; especially where Jewish culture, ethnic backgrounds, and historical traumas have been routinely discredited for over two millennia at the hands of antisemitic faith leaders. Thank you endlessly.

To study under professors who attended tier 1 research institutions as preparation for PhD programs.

Pursue a PhD focused on the Hebrew Bible, history of Judaism/Christian perspectives of the Bible, and antisemitism of Christians.

Academia has been an inescapably expensive endeavor. My family did not have a lot of extra money for my undergraduate studies, so all the funds came from working, scholarships, or student loans. Likewise, as I have pursued graduate studies, I have faced the constant challenge of making the process financially feasible.

I am profoundly grateful for the opportunity to pursue higher education. My grandpa, who emigrated from Ecuador at a young age, worked hard to give his family chances he never had. My dad, his son, started having kids at 20 and never finished an undergraduate degree. My sister and I have both graduated from college, but I will be the first of my parents' kids to earn a master's degree. I am excited by this prospect as I honor the sacrifices of the generations before me, and truly appreciate the financial help offered by this scholarship from The Alliance and the OCF Joseph E. Weston Public Foundation.

I believe that what I am studying adds something good to the world and am deeply grateful for any financial help I receive in pursuing this degree. I want to give a deep and heartfelt thank you for the generous scholarship funds. They go a long way toward helping me pursue my academic, personal, and professional goals.

I chose to pursue a Master of Divinity degree because I have a deep love for the Church and a conviction that what I am studying offers deep hope in some of the most hopeless places in our world. I want to serve as a pastor-theologian, and the MDiv is a perfect starting point. I hope to go further and earn a PhD in Theology as well.

I chose Western Seminary because they encourage diverse viewpoints in classroom discussion, strengthening the academic process, while not sacrificing central convictions of Christian orthodoxy and biblical authority. I was encouraged by the caliber of leaders and thinkers coming from the institution, and I wanted to attend. It also did not hurt that Western is in the stunningly pretty Pacific Northwest.

serve as a pastor while chipping away at further academic study. I would love to earn a doctorate and serve as a pastor-theologian, caring for others while keeping one foot in academia.

With this scholarship, I can further my education with confidence. I grew up with parents who never had the opportunity to access a higher education. It was difficult for us to find ways for me to access higher education, as well. This scholarship allows me to further my education and pursue the career I desire. With this scholarship, I am able to go and learn every day. I am so beyond honored and blessed to have been chosen and I can’t say thank you enough.

This scholarship relieves my anxiety regarding paying for my tuition. It helps fund my choice to pursue nursing as a career. I am very thankful.

After graduation, I plan to take my NCLEX exam and begin working. I would like to focus on operating room nursing or working in the NICU. I might go back to school and get a master’s in nursing or become a nurse practitioner.

Not only is this scholarship helping me to financially afford attending university, but it’s also something that has made me recognize my own academic achievement and potential. Thank you!

After graduation, I plan to work as a nurse and take the time to explore higher education, such as a master’s degree, after a few years of experience in nursing. I want to pursue surgical nursing or become a research nurse.