Many of you likely now have the Valley’s annual membership renewal form on your desks and are getting ready to pay your dues. However, look carefully! There is a place on the form to donate to the Oregon Scottish Rite Educational Foundation. Many Brothers contribute each year to this tax-deductible fund for the Masonic purpose educating the youth of our Oregon communities. The work of this charity is directly impactful to our community and aligns with our Masonic tenant of becoming better men by virtue of our good works.
Annually, the Educational Foundation (EF) seeks worthy students across the Oregon to award with scholarship grants. It is desired and hoped that our humble investment in the students ultimately selected will assist them not just to earn a college degree, but possibly more importantly to develop the intellectual tools and habits that will foster a long and satisfying career and life.
In 2016, the Portland Valley EF committee selected four special students from over 25 applicants. Thirty-five high schools in our Scottish Rite Valley, which ranges from Portland to Astoria, were solicited. This year our first selection was Skye Meredith Gates Walker who lives in West Linn. Ms. Walker posed with her mother Gina for the picture below. Skye was awarded the Schmidt award for her academic excellence and exceptional extramural activities, especially for her demonstrated passion for theatre. Her long-term aspiration, possibly first fostered by a letter exchange in second grade with Pres. George Bush, is to make a difference and protect our ecosystem by developing a career in environmental and animal protection law and activism.
Mr. Dang Minh Duong is an exceptional young man. His academic record and extensive volunteer and work history are clear evidence of a purpose-driven life. He aspires to be primary family care physician serving a rural community, a choice not made in a vacuum. Mr. Duong has been a member of the Medical ICU under the Critical Care Academic Associate program at OHSU and was awarded the Benjamin Gilman International Scholarship permitting him to intern at the Center for Social Medicine in Loni, India. He will be the first member of his family to have a college degree, and excels in his pre-med program. In the photo below Mr. Duong receives our grant check from committee member Shaman Anderson, 32° KSA. Mr. Duong lives in Clackamas, Oregon.
It appears that West Linn produces many promising future leaders. Last year Mr. Bradley Olson won a SR grant, and this year his sister Leah Olson was awarded one as well. What is more, Ms. Olson and Skye Walker are school peers and friends. Leah Nicole Olson wants a career in public service, particularly to improve the excellence in education for all socio-economic groups, especially the disadvantaged. Leah is academically excellent and helped lead her team to win the state championship in the high school Mock Trial competition. She plans a law career where she can translate her passions into action and produce positive outcomes for our community. Leah poses with her mother Callie Olson below.
Our final selection was Mr. Brayden Tyler Pene, also remarkably from West Linn! It is ironic that we write this note during the 2016 World Series of Baseball because someday Mr. Pene may play in one. He is a gifted athlete, and received baseball scholarship offers from several colleges including two prominent ones located in this state. He is also an exceptional student, maintaining a 4.0 GPA. Brayden ultimately aspires to a career in medicine, stimulated in part by the surgical and healing process he experienced personally due to a sports injury. And, like the third leg of sturdy stool, his long cultivated spiritual reverence enhances his character and serves to balance his other personal strengths. These three facets of Brayden’s character make him an excellent candidate for Scottish Rite encouragement. Brayden and his mother and father, Misty and Steve Pene, are presented in the photo below.
We Scottish Rite Masons of Oregon should be proud to encourage these individuals and the mature citizens that will likely develop as they transition into their future careers.
Submitted for the Portland Valley Board, Wayne K. Ford, 32º KSA
Other PV Board Members: Paul Temple, 32º KSA and Shaman Anderson, 32º KSA