This year, on March 7, the applications for The Overmyer Achievement Award were due. The Overmyer Achievement Award is a leadership-based scholarship for sophomores and juniors with GPAs over 3.0. It is usually valued at one thousand dollars, but this year it was increased to one thousand five hundred dollars.

Emily Sonby, the chair of the Academics Committee for Student Senate, said, “The Overmyer Achievement Award is overseen by the Academics Committee of Student Senate in partnership with the Center for Philanthropy & Alumni Engagement.”

This “scholarship opens around the start of second semester and closes near the end of February/the beginning of March. The exact dates are determined by the Academics Committee. The dates this year were January 25th – March 7th. We are currently reading the applications deciding on a recipient,” said Sonby.

Sonby said, the recipient of this award “is typically revealed during the Honors Award Ceremony at Ovation, however due to changes with Ovation this year, the recipient will be named during the Student Life and Leadership Awards Ceremony on April 23, 2021.”

This scholarship is in memory of Robert “Bob” Overmyer and his wife Katherine “Kit” Overmyer, both graduates of Baldwin Wallace.

Sonby said, “He was a leader in the BW community and continued his leadership throughout the rest of his life, especially in his career at NASA. His family, who sponsors the scholarship, believes leaders in the community deserve recognition and that is what we hope to accomplish.”

“What we are always working on is advertising for this scholarship. We want to reach as many students as we can so they all have the ability to apply if they choose to. We are always open to recommendations and feedback,” Sonby said.

At the moment, the process of picking the recipient of the award is going well. “We had more applicants than we did last year which is a success in our eyes,” said Sonby.

This process starts with a meeting between The Academics Committee and their advisor, Jaime Yager, Director of Student Engagement, towards the end of first semester to plan their strategy.

There they decide on the dates the “application will open and close, what day [they] will have the recipient selected by, and a marketing strategy,” said Sonby.

Finally, said Sonby, they “select other student leaders on campus and ask them to sit on the committee to read the anonymous applications and select a recipient. Over winter break, [they] design advertisements to display during the period in which the scholarship is open. Once it closes, the committee receives the anonymous applications to read.”

“I am very happy to have a part in this scholarship and be able to recognize and value our student leaders who do so much for the community. I asked the other members of the Academics Committee if they had anything they wanted to add. Evan Kerr said, ‘It’s a good idea to recognize/emphasize who this award’s for and the work that these students have done,’” said Sonby.

To learn more about Robert Overmyer visit this website: https://libguides.bw.edu/c.php?g=1002685&p=7263997#Wiki58