Finding the right balance of academics, work and extracurricular activities can a be a difficult task for many students. For those whose financial need compromises the amount of time they can dedicate to serving the campus and community, there is the Beanie Drake scholarship.
Yesterday 17 students were awarded the Beanie Drake scholarship, which “provides funds that enable deserving students to participate in campus activites when need might otherwise make it impossible for them to do so,” according to the organization’s Web site.
“All 17 of the finalists have captured the Buckeye spirit and have demonstrated that they are the best of the best, both in and outside of the classroom,” said Patrick Klein, spokesman for Beanie Drake and a junior in finance and mathematics.
The Beanie Drake scholarship provides tuition and textbook scholarships to students who demonstrate active participation and service to the campus and community, leadership potential, financial need and academic achievement, according to the Web site.
Of the 17 finalists who were chosen from more than 270 applicants, six received a $2,500 tuition scholarship and 11 received a $600 book scholarship to CollegeTown.
“(I feel) really honored, definitely. I’m really excited,” said Sarah Reilly, Beanie Drake finalist and a sophomore in psychology. “The scholarship was really, really helpful.”
Elizabeth Schlarb said she also thought the scholarship was helpful.
“My dad is ill, so things can get hard,” said Schlarb, a sophomore in business management.
Keynote speaker Mabel Freeman spoke about her experiences at Ohio State. She said she became more involved with OSU and eventually was awarded a Beanie Drake scholarship, which was then called a “Student Leader Endowment Fund” scholarship.
She said the scholarship was for $300: enough to pay tuition for her junior year.
“That was all the money in the world back in 1964,” she said.
She said the scholarship made a huge difference in her life.
“That meant that I could go to school without having to work,” Freeman said. “But more than that, that scholarship said to me, ‘We think you’ve got something. We think you are making a difference at this university and have the potential to make even more of a difference.
“Each one of you is here because of the things that you have done so far in your life and because this university is saying to you ‘We have no doubt of what you have yet to contribute, here at Ohio State and beyond Ohio State.'”
OSU president Karen A. Holbrook also addressed the finalists, saying that the university is proud and appreciative of the students.
“You have taken initiative and seized opportunity to create a better university for yourself and other students,” she said.
She said the finalists and Beanie Drake share a common trait: student leadership.
The Beanie Drake scholarship is named after Edward S. Drake, known as “Beanie” by many of his friends. The nickname came from a fictional hero in the Henry A. Shule series of boy’s stories, according to the organization’s Web site.
“At one time (Drake) was an adviser to 10 student organizations simultaneously. He served the university for 33 years, 25 of those as manager of the Ohio Union. His service as an advisor to campus organizations covered more than 50 years,” it said.
The Drake Performance and Event Center was named after him in 1970. In 1963 he received the Alumni Association’s Citizenship Award, and in 1958 he received the University Distinguished Service Award.
