Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative (OTEC) is proud to announce that 29 local students were selected to receive college scholarships.

Twenty-five of the scholarships, ranging from $2,500 to $5,000, were awarded to graduating high school students and returning college students. 

OTEC is also proud to announce the new class of recipients for the second year of The OTEC-EOU Rural Scholarship Program, which pays all tuition and fees at Eastern Oregon University (EOU) if the student commits to graduating from EOU. Four local students were awarded this scholarship.

“We are very excited about the second year of this partnership between OTEC and Eastern Oregon University,” Lea Hoover, OTEC’s director of administration and strategic services, said. “By allocating four of our scholarships to this program and leveraging a matched investment from EOU, we can invest into our local communities directly, support local students, and return value to OTEC member-owners through the internship projects that the students will complete throughout their 4 years at EOU.”

The OTEC Member Foundation, which Hoover manages, is a new 501c3 charitable foundation formed to further community support that now oversees OTEC’s scholarship programs.

Applicants for scholarships must be an active OTEC member in good standing with the cooperative or a dependent or tenant of such an OTEC member to be eligible for the scholarship. Scholarships are funded from interest earned on unclaimed capital credits.

“We congratulate all the 2021 scholarship recipients and are proud to reward the students for their academic success and dedication to their community,” Hoover said. “As a not-for-profit cooperative and 501c3 foundation, one of our guiding principles is ‘Commitment to Community,’ and we can’t think of a better way to give back to the communities we serve and encourage local students to be involved in their own community.”

Harney County’s scholarship winners

Graduating high school seniors: Victoria Purcella, Burns High School; Abbigale Yarbrough, Burns High School.

Returning college students: Sarah Letham, Treasure Valley Community College; Tea Recanzone, Boise State University.