SEMINOLE, Okla. – A new trust scholarship at Seminole State College in Seminole was established in honor of a Cherokee citizen who spent her life helping others.

 

Honoring the memory of his aunt, Galela Walkingstick, a long-time social worker in Seminole, Ben Walkingstick, has established a trust scholarship fund to provide financial assistance to female Indian students who attend SSC.

 

Walkingstick, of Chandler, Okla., is a former SSC regent and current trustee of the SSC Educational Foundation. He said he wanted to find a way to positively impact lives through a gift that would provide encouragement for students to complete a two-year degree.

 

He said “Miss Galela” Walkingstick was his inspiration for the endowment. He recalled as a young boy he would spend several weeks each summer with his grandmother and Aunt Galela in Holdenville, Okla.

 

He said his memories of those summers include going with his aunt to visit Indian families and their children. During the home visits, he said his aunt handed out clothing and groceries, shoes for the boys and high-topped buckled shoes for the girls.

 

“Miss Galela” was born in Tahlequah, Okla., in 1910 and excelled in her educational pursuits throughout her life. She graduated as valedictorian of her senior class at Okmulgee High School – the first Indian to receive this high recognition.

 

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, she was determined to get a college education and began classes at what is now Northeastern State University in Tahlequah. After completing two years of studies in a year and a summer session, she was awarded the Henry S. Morganthau Scholarship to finish her degree at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio.

 

Her love of the school and the promise of education led her to later establish “The Galela Walkingstick Scholarship Award for Minority Students” at Oberlin.

 

She continued her education at the school of social work in Minneapolis-St. Paul at the University of Minnesota. That educational experience sparked a career as a social worker, which spanned more than 30 years, primarily in Holdenville and Wewoka, Okla.

 

Students interested in applying for this scholarship must be residents of Oklahoma and full-time, regularly enrolled students at SSC. A condition for continuation of the award is that the student must maintain a minimum of a 3.0 overall grade point average and make satisfactory progress toward graduation. The recipient of the scholarship will also be required to submit a report of her activities during each semester to the donor. Members of the donor’s immediate family are ineligible for the award.

 

For more information about the scholarship, contact the SSC Financial Aid Office at (405) 382-9950.