Scholarships
2025-2026 Scholarship Program
For over 70 years the Zonta Club of the Coos Bay Area (CBA) has awarded academic scholarships to women. Our goal is to build a better world for women and girls – Education plays a critical role in achieving this goal. The 2026 scholarship opportunities include:
- Zonta CBA Z Club Scholarships – $3,000
- Zonta CBA Academic Scholarship – $5,000
- Zonta CBA SWOCC Scholarship – $2,500
- Zonta CBA Trade School Scholarship – $5,000
Completed application packets must be submitted electronically to zontayellowrose@yahoo.com by March 1, 2026.
Official announcement of the Zonta CBA scholarship recipients will be in May of 2026.
2024-2025 Club Scholarships Awarded
Patty J. Barton Memorial
Scholarship 2025 Awarded to
Kyla Bailey Wilson
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.
Kyla Bailey-Wilson from North Bend, Oregon is the 2025 recipient of the $20,000 Patty J. Barton Memorial Scholarship. Kyla is pursuing an accounting degree from Eastern Oregon University. She is not only a full-time student, but also a full-time mom and community volunteer. Her goal is to become a Certified Public Accountant. Kyla wants to set the example for her children that perseverance and hard work leads to success.
Prior recipients of the Patty J. Barton Memorial Scholarship include;
Nikki Wright 2020
Jasmine Herrarra 2021
Linda Robbins 2022
Courtney Jeffs 2023
Gina Podesto 2024
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.