For Immediate Release
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Fourteen AFSCME Members and Families Win Coveted Union Plus Scholarships
WASHINGTON —Local 52 member Ronda Buckingham of Soldotna, AK and Local 1191 member Michelle L. Long of Waitsburg, WA, along with 12 children of other AFSCME members around the country, have been selected to receive 2006 Union Plus Scholarship awards. Buckingham won a $500 scholarship, and Long received one for $750. They are among 108 students from 44 unions who have been awarded a total of $150,000 in scholarships from the Union Plus Scholarship program.
The other AFSCME award winners are: Pedro Borrayo, Jr., son of Pedro Borrayo of Seattle, WA, and Local 1488 ($1,000); Amanda Margaret Chesnut, daughter of Richard Chesnut of Lake Peekskill, NY and CSEA/Local 1000 ($3,500); Sarah Elizabeth Furman, daughter of Cheryl Furman of West Berne, NY, and CSEA/Local 1000 ($1,000); Nicholas Paul Hilgeman, son of Michele A. Shepler of Whitehouse, OH, and Local 3794 ($1,000); Erin Elizabeth Hammond, daughter of Donna Hammond of Fairdale, KY, and Local 4011 ($1,000); Michael David Jones, son of Marilyn J. Jones of Gillett, Wisconsin and Local 778-A ($4,000); Seun Jones, daughter of Grace Naiyeju of Uniondale, NY and CSEA/Local 1000 ($1,000); Miranda K. Kaempfer, daughter of Sandra Kaempfer of Gratiot, WI, and Local 3813 ($1,000); Emerald Poon Katz, daughter of Ira Katz of Soledad, CA, and Local 2620 ($4,000); Andrew Jon Longnecker, son of Peggy Longnecker of Boone, IA, and Local 3004 ($1,000); John A. McReynolds, son of Vicki L. McReynolds of Moraga, CA, and Local 512 ($1,000); and Kaitlyn N. Nivins, daughter of Lynn N. Nivins of Port Jervis, NY, and CSEA/Local 1000 ($1,000).
More than 5,600 applications were received last year in the annual scholarship program which is offered through the Union Plus Education Foundation with funding from HSBC, the issuer of the AFSCME Advantage Credit Card.
All AFSCME members (as well as their spouses and dependent children) are eligible to apply for scholarships, and can also take advantage of the wide variety of AFSCME Advantage benefits — such as the home mortgage, travel and leisure discounts. Go to the AFSCME Web Site to find out which benefits are available to you and your family.
Families Benefit Twice
"It's a way for working families to benefit twice," says Leslie Tolf, president of Union Privilege, the AFL-CIO-founded organization that offers AFSCME Advantage benefits. "First they get the special protections and savings with our credit card and home mortgage programs and great discounts on a wide variety of other goods and services. Then, as icing on the cake, they have access to this program which, since 1992, has awarded more than $2.2 million in scholarships to over 1,500 union families," she adds.
"The Bush administration keeps slashing programs that help working families realize the dream of higher education as a path to a better life," says AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee. "The money goes instead to tax cuts for the very rich, while, even at state universities, tuition costs have skyrocketed over 25 percent, just since 2001.
"While we fight to restore the American Dream for all of working America," McEntee continues, "Union Plus Scholarships provide crucial help to many women and men in the labor movement seeking to realize their dreams."
The stories of AFSCME scholarship winners Michelle L. Long and Michael David Jones are exemplary.
Michelle L. Long
A scholarship from Local 1191 helped Long complete her high school education last December, 24 years after the rest of her class graduated.
Now, her Union Plus scholarship will help her fulfill a promise she made to herself long ago to go to college. Long, 44, will study sociology while she continues her job as an emergency dispatcher for the city of Walla Walla, WA.
Having worked previously in a non-union job for 11 years, her appreciation for AFSCME runs deep. "Over the years I've seen my union fighting for the rights of the members and have come to appreciate the protections," says Long, who stepped up to shop steward and bargaining committee member.
"Adding a degree in sociology to my life experience will make me an even greater asset to my job, my community and my union," she adds.
Michael David Jones
Jones has grown from adversity and learned how both working people and the environment need protection.
Having played high school football for four years, his team lost every game last year, but he says, "I learned more about self-respect and teamwork than [in] any other year."
And it was through severe hardship that befell his family that he learned to cherish the role of unions. Five years ago, his father was in a serious accident and underwent six months of rehabilitation, only to be fired just before returning to work. During the same period, his mother was downsized out of a job. He worked part-time to help, while medical and other bills ate up savings earmarked for his college education.
But, after six months, his mother got a new job "and was the first in our family to become a union member," he says. "We had been victims at my father's company. Now our family feels [the] security, fairness and representation that come with union membership."
Jones found time to become heavily involved in environmental work like testing river water and cleaning up parks and his dream is to become a wildlife biologist and a union member.
How the Scholarship Program Works
In addition to demonstrating academic ability, applicants are required to submit essays of no more than 500 words describing their career goals, detailing their relationship with the union movement and explaining why they are deserving of a union scholarship.
Individuals must be accepted into an accredited college or university, community college or recognized technical or trade school at the time the award is issued. There is no requirement to have participated in AFSCME Advantage programs in order to apply.
The challenging job of selecting the winners from a large and diverse field of highly qualified applicants was handled by a panel of education experts affiliated with the American Association of Community Colleges, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities and the United Negro College Fund.
2007 Applications
Applications for the next year's awards will be available in September 2006. To download the application at that time, visit www.afscme.org/about/aa-scho.htm. Or, send a postcard with your name, return address, telephone number and international union name to: Union Plus Education Foundation, c/o Union Privilege, P.O. Box 34800, Washington, DC 20043-4800.
The application deadline is January 31, 2007. Recipients of scholarships will be announced May 31, 2007. Due to the high volume of applications, only winners will
