First-year student among the first to recieve new national scholarship

Abby Dreyer, a first-year student majoring in business administration, is one of 10 students nationwide to receive the inaugural Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) Scholarship.

Among the considerations for receiving the scholarship, students must demonstrate leadership experience and a commitment to community involvement.

According to Dreyer, she was an active member of various programs before joining Eastern and plans to continue her extracurricular involvement through clubs and community service.

"I'm not in any clubs yet aside from the honors program; however, all throughout high school I was a part of many clubs, and I look forward to joining some at Eastern," she said.

Dreyer emphasized volunteer work as a major goal for her time at Eastern and post-college, saying that the scholarship will be beneficial to her as she explores career options.

"While I'm not exactly sure what profession I would like to go into, as someone with a disability I'm very passionate about giving back to my community," she said. "I feel that volunteer work is very important, and I look forward to helping my community in any way I can at Eastern and beyond."

She continued: "Having a disability comes with a lot of hidden expenses, for example, my wheelchair alone costs about as much as a car. So having this scholarship is useful to me, as it offsets the cost of college and makes one less expense to worry about.

"Overall, this scholarship will alleviate some of the stress associated with costs and allow me to focus on being the best I can be in college to set myself up for a successful and productive future."