PIQUA – In light of the recent emerging health crisis, The Edison Foundation at Edison State Community College looks to provide a sense of certainty among students through scholarship support. Accommodating Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s Stay-at-Home Order, The Edison Foundation has canceled its fourth annual Girls’ Night Out—Little Black Dress event, which provides scholarships to local female students.

Recipients of the scholarship are selected annually based upon their academic achievement and extracurricular activity. The most recent Little Black Dress scholarship was awarded to Teresa Hess, of Troy.

Hess is currently working toward a registered nursing degree from Edison State, works as a patient care technician at Upper Valley Medical Center, and is a mother to a two-year-old daughter.

“When I started Edison State’s nursing program two years ago, my daughter was about 10-months-old and I was working at least 20 hours a week. Now, my daughter is two-years-old and while I still work, I am able to work significantly reduced hours thanks to the Little Black Dress Scholarship,” said Hess. “This scholarship has been instrumental in my success in the nursing program by allowing me to replace previous work hours with study hours.”

Students at Edison State have had to readily adapt to the distance learning model that has been presented to them during this health crisis while also enduring disruption to their typical career and home lives.

“There are added stresses in everyone’s life at the moment,” added Hess. “I am grateful that the cost of my education isn’t one of them.”

Unity National Bank is leading the way in continuing to back the event by converting its premier sponsorship into a direct scholarship donation of $1,000 to go towards the 2020 Girls Night Out–Little Black Dress event.

“While we have a lot of fun with this event, the focus on women’s education is very purposeful: supporting women through full-ride scholarships at Edison State,” said Rick Hanes, executive director of The Edison Foundation.