DAVID Derbyshire Schorlarship
There are many ways to donate:
1. Go online to The Dominion Fund HERE and pay by credit card... first enter the amount, select Scholarships in the “I would like my gift to support” and then enter “Derbyshire Scholarship" in the box below it.
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OR
2. Contact Barb Henley, Director of Planned Giving bhenley@odu.edu or 757-683-6565. Barb can
help with setting up a gift from a will, trust, or other vehicle.
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Since its’ inception in 2016 we have endowed the fund with
$38,000 which means this scholarship will now live on forever.
This year the selection committee along with three ODU faculty members who choose the recipient. The faculty members were very excited to be able to award a scholarship with leadership as
the leading quality, they indicated that this was a first for them. We had 12 or so applicants but quickly
selected two that were both well deserving candidates. There was much discussion about
candidates and the nice thing is the faculty members knew the candidates and
could vouch for their community activities and leadership qualities.
I am very happy to be able to present to you Ms. Rita Meraz.
Since its’ inception in ’16 we have endowed the fund with $38,000 which means this scholarship will now live on forever. This year I was part of the selection committee along with three ODU faculty members who choose the recipient. The faculty members were very excited to be able to award a scholarship with leadership as the leading quality, they indicated that this was a first for them. We had 12 or so applicants but quickly selected two that were both well deserving candidates. There was much discussion about both candidates and the nice thing is the faculty members knew the candidates and could vouch for their community activities and leadership qualities. I am very happy to be able to present to you Ms. Rita Meraz. Rita is an electrical engineering student planning on double majoring in electrical engineering and physics with a minor in mathematics. Her expected graduation date is spring of 2021. She is very involved and currently the vice-president of Engineers without Borders and she has held many other roles within this organization. She is also the Vice-President Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. She is the outreach lead for the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers. She is part of the Society of Women Engineers. She is joining Theta Tau the engineering fraternity. She is part of the Global Monarch Club and she mentors other students. She volunteers for Habitat for Humanity and Relay for Life. She was nominated for Monarch Citizen of the Year award. She works at the Library and still manages to maintain a GPA of 3.96. During her spring breaks she as gone to Guatemala to work on a project to bring a water supply to a small community. These are just some of her many accomplishments and community activities. One of her favorite quotes
from Mahatma Gandhi is “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others”. She states that this means...
“when you give yourself at the serving of others, you get to know a different version of yourself”.
