OU scholarship donors helping single mothers
Women receive $2,000 for Empowerment of Spirit award

JAMES S. TYREE Comments 0
Published: June 10, 2009

NORMAN — Disappointed in not receiving a $4,000 scholarship for single mothers with good grades, University of Oklahoma student Peace Ossom briefly left the Women’s Studies program’s awards ceremony with her 6-month-old son.

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Empowerment of Spirit

EOS stands for "empowerment of spirit;” Eos also was the Greek goddess of the dawn. The scholarship is for single mothers with a grade point average of 3.0 or higher and a "demonstrated commitment to their academic and parenting goals.”

"I went to the restroom to feed my son and someone came in and said, ‘Hey, we need you out here,’” Ossom said.

It turned out Ossom won a scholarship after all. She, along with Rebecca Karnes, Yok-Fong Paat and Eulonda Rushing, received EOS scholarships.

That wasn’t the night’s only surprise. Donors Cindy Merrick and Ally Richardson decided to increase the amount from $100 to $2,000, which wasn’t announced until the May ceremony.

"When I got it, I just thanked God and cried,” said Rushing, who learned of her scholarship after the ceremony because she couldn’t attend. "I thought it would be for $100; to hear it was $2,000 is such a big difference.”

Rushing is scheduled to graduate in December 2010 and plans to attend law school after that. Empowered by her own experiences and survival, she wants to work with nonprofit agencies that work with battered women.

Paat is a nine-month instructor at OU, so the scholarship will help with summer bills. She is pursuing a doctorate in sociology and plans to do research on women and children who are neglected.

"I used to be a child welfare worker, so I always feel like that population needs help,” Paat said.

Ossom is an honors pre-med student working to become a podiatrist, and Karnes is an anthropology major who last week gave birth to her second child.

Friends of the Women’s Studies program were asked to give $100 awards. When Merrick agreed, she brought home a stack of application essays and was struck by the "life stories of these women and how they catapulted themselves out of challenging experiences.”

So Merrick called her friend Richardson, who was equally impressed.

"We sat down and said, ‘$100 is so inadequate; it’s not sufficient for what they have accomplished,’” Richardson said. "They were told they were getting a $100 merit award, and to see the difference (the added money) made for them, it was a life-changing experience for me.”