Scholarships
Zonta Club of the Coos Bay Area Scholarships
Z Club Scholarship Applicant must be a current member of a Z Club at Marshfield High School, North Bend High School or SWOCC.
Memorial, Non-traditional Student Scholarship Returning student over 30 years old.
SWOCC Scholarship Must plan to attend SWOCC full time in next school year.
Trades Scholarship – Non – traditional Returning student 30 years or older. Any technical training accepted.
Trades – Any technical training accepted. Open to High school and college students.
The 2025-2026 Zonta Club of the Coos Bay Area Scholarship application can be viewed here.
Application deadline was April 1st, 2025.
Award selections will be made by the committee in April and announced in May of 2025.
Check back in December of 2025 for updates.
Zonta International Scholarships
Zonta Women in STEM Award
Zonta encourages women to pursue education in STEM through a pilot program. The Zonta Club of the Coos Bay Area will award $3,000 to a qualified applicant. Their application will be forwarded to the Zonta District 8 Committee for considerations for one of the Zonta International awards of $10,000 and a complimentary one-year supporting membership in Zonta International for the next financial year.
Zonta Young Women in Leadership Award
Zonta recognizes young women for demonstrating leadership skills and commitment to public service with up to 37 awards of US$5,000 each annually. The Zonta Club of the Coos Bay Area will award $1,500 to a qualified applicant. Their application will be forwarded to the Zonta District 8 Committee for consideration for one of the Zonta International awards of $5,000.
Patty J. Barton Memorial
Scholarship 2024 Awarded to
Gina Podesta
The Patty J. Barton Memorial Scholarship was established by the Zonta Club in 2018 after Patty’s passing from breast cancer. The club continues to raise funds annually which are matched by Jon Barton, Patty’s husband. The PJB scholarships has been awarded for the fifth time. The Scholarship fund is administered by the Coos Bay Area Zonta Service Foundation.
The Coos Bay Area Zonta Service Foundation is proud to announce that the fifth Patty J. Barton Memorial Scholarship is awarded to Gina Podesta of Brookings, Oregon. This is a $20,000 renewable award to be issued over qualifying terms as the requirements of performance are met. Gina is studying for her Bachelor in Science – Nursing Degree.
Gina completed the Nursing Program at the Curry Campus of Southwestern Oregon Community College this summer. She was very involved with the Student Government, focusing of supporting student needs including study groups, worksheets and basic food pantry supplies.
Gina’s passion for nursing and connecting with her patients is well recognized by her peers and professors.
We are proud to support Gina in her efforts to obtain a BSN – improving her knowledge and success as a nurse!
Prior recipients of the Patty J. Barton Memorial Scholarship include;
Nikki Wright 2020
Jasmine Herrarra 2021
Linda Robbins 2022
Courtney Jeffs 2023
Laura Lee Blenz Coos Bay Area Zonta Engineering Scholarship
Zonta is pleased to announce Abigail Warrick as the fourth recipient of the Laura Lee Blenz Engineering Scholarship.
Abby graduated from Marshfield High School in 2022, then completed two years at Southwestern Oregon Community College. She is pursuing her undergraduate degree at Lewis and Clark College in 2024 with intentions to attend OSU for her master’s degree in engineering.
Abby played volleyball at both Marshfield and SWOCC and has been an active volunteer with both the Egyptian Theatre and Pelican Harbor Food Bank. She was an impressive 4.0 student in both high school and college. Her goal is to work at NASA to design technology to improve space research and exploration.
The Laura Lee Blenz /Coos Bay Area Zonta Engineering Scholarship is funded by a generous family donation. In the 1930’s when Laura Lee was in high school, she would have liked to have become an engineer. That opportunity was not available to her due to her gender. The award has grown to $4,000 a year and is automatically renewable for up to four years if the student is in good standing.
Additional recipients include:
Payton Davidson in 2021, a Marshfield High School graduate. Payton’s excellent grades allowed her to receive a second scholarship in 2022. Payton graduated from George Fox University in 2023 with a degree in Civil Engineering. After working a little over one year for Westech Engineering in Salem, OR she returned to Coos Bay to work as a civil engineer for the Dyer Partnership Engineers and Planners.
Geneva Varga – a graduate of Winter Lake High School, Southwestern Oregon CC and Oregon State University. She is currently employed as a civil engineer for the City of Coos Bay.
Alhana McNutt, both a North Bend High School and Southwestern Oregon CC graduate. Alhana is currently attending OSU where she is a sophomore majoring in Ecological Engineering.
The Laura Lee Blenz scholarship is administered through the Oregon Community Foundation and pursuant to their rules, the selection committee can only have Zontians as a minority – since the outset, the selection committee has consisted of two Zontians Paula Bechtold and Anne Medhus Westbrooks and three local women engineers – Jan Kerbo, Barbara Negherbon and Shannon Souza.
Zonta International Fellowship
Amelia Earhart Fellowship
Apply directly to Zonta International
Globally, women make up around 25 percent of the workforce in the aerospace industry. In an effort to carry out its mission that women have access to all resources and are represented in decision-making positions on an equal basis with men, Zonta International offers the Amelia Earhart Fellowship.
The Amelia Earhart Fellowship was established in 1938 in honor of famed pilot and Zontian, Amelia Earhart. The US$10,000 Fellowship is awarded annually to up to 35 women pursuing Ph.D./doctoral degrees in aerospace engineering and space sciences. It may be used at any university or college offering accredited post-graduate courses and degrees in these fields.
Since the program’s inception in 1938, Zonta has awarded 1,638 Amelia Earhart Fellowships, totaling more than US$10.6 million, to 1,209 women representing 73 countries.
Our Fellows have gone on to become astronauts, aerospace engineers, astronomers, professors, geologists, business owners, heads of companies, even Secretary of the US Air Force.