NEWS RELEASE FROM:
SouthEastern Illinois Electric Cooperative, Inc.
Dustin D. Tripp, President/CEO
100 Cooperative Way, P.O. Box 1001
Carrier Mills, IL 62917
Phone: 618-273-2611

For Immediate Release:
September 19, 2024

Seventeen 2025 IEC Memorial Scholarships Available

SouthEastern Illinois Electric Cooperative’s President/CEO, Dustin Tripp has announced that the Illinois electric cooperatives will award seventeen scholarships in 2025.   Sixteen academic scholarships are available to high school seniors through a memorial scholarship fund designed to financially assist deserving students in the “electric cooperative family.”   In addition, a seventeenth scholarship – to assist with costs in attending an electric lineworker school – will also be offered.

The seventeen scholarships of $2,500 each will be awarded in 2025 through the Thomas H. Moore Illinois Electric Cooperatives (IEC) Memorial Scholarship Program.

Ten scholarships will be awarded to high school seniors who are the sons or daughters of an Illinois electric cooperative member receiving service from the cooperative. An eleventh scholarship, the Earl W. Struck Memorial Scholarship, will be awarded to a student who is the son or daughter of an Illinois electric cooperative director or employee. Five additional scholarships are reserved for students enrolling full-time at a two-year Illinois community college who are the sons or daughters of Illinois electric cooperative members, employees or directors. The deadline for applications to be submitted online is December 31, 2024.

The seventeenth scholarship, the “LaVern and Nola McEntire Lineworker’s Scholarship,” was created in 2011 to help pay for costs to attend the lineworker’s school conducted by the Association of Illinois Electric Cooperatives in conjunction with Lincoln Land Community College, Springfield, Ill. LaVern McEntire served as a lineman for McDonough Power Electric Cooperative from 1949 until 1991. He and his wife, Nola, endowed the new scholarship to financially assist deserving individuals in becoming trained lineworkers. Sons and daughters of co-op members; relatives of co-op employees or directors; and individuals who have served or are serving in the armed forces or National Guard are all eligible for the lineworker’s scholarship.  The deadline for applications to be submitted online is April 30, 2025.

“We hope to assist electric cooperative youth while honoring past rural electric leaders with these scholarships,” says Dustin Tripp. “SouthEastern Illinois Electric Cooperative and the other Illinois electric cooperatives are always seeking ways to make a difference in our communities. One of the best ways we can do that is by helping our youth through programs like this one.  In addition, we are very pleased to offer the electric lineworker’s scholarship.  It will benefit not only electric cooperative youth but also those fine men and women who have served their country through their military service and may now be wanting to become a trained lineworker.”

For IEC Applications you may fill out your application online at https://aiec.coop/iec-scholarship/?coop=SEE.  For McEntire Lineworkers Scholarship please fill out your application online at LaVern & Nola McEntire Lineworker’s Scholarship. For more information regarding scholarships contact Sunday Whitlock at 618-297-9710 or sundaywhitlock@seiec.com