Like bees to honey, the Central Ohio Beekeeping Association (COBA) is accepting applications for its annual youth and veteran beekeeping scholarship.
For young people aged 11-17 or U.S. veterans, prospective beekeepers can apply to participate in the four weekly February beekeeping classes by the Dec. 11 deadline. Recipients will be able to attend beekeeping classes, and an award includes all the needed equipment for beekeeping — including the bees.
For individuals who don’t qualify or are not selected for the scholarship, they can pay between $100 and $120 to take the classes, depending on the time and location between the Ohio State beeyard and the new Marysville apiary started this year through a partnership with Scotts Miracle-Gro.
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To register for a class, individuals can sign up on COBA’s website, centralohiobeekeepers.org. There, individuals can also print the scholarship application to fill out and return.
Co-chair of COBA’s scholarship committee, Eileen Bolton said the group holds a weekly dinner and is comprised of a “very eclectic and welcoming group” of veterans, students, hippies, farmers and retired people.
In each of the weekly classes, bee students learn how to take care of the bees, with everything from how to feed them to bee safety.
A retired pediatrician who took the beekeeping class herself when she stepped away from medicine, Bolton said both beekeeping itself and helping coordinate the scholarship have appealed to her love for science and education.
“When I retired, everyone was like, ‘What are you going to do?’ and I was like, ‘I’m going to be a beekeeper,’ and they were like, ‘What?’” she joked.
The scholarship is a two-year program for the veterans, according to Bolton. For the students, there is an added element of needing a parent or guardian present, making it a family commitment.
As of mid-November, there were already 35 applicants for the military scholarship, but COBA is still recruiting students for the five to six youth slots for the scholarship.
While the program is seeking more student applicants than veterans, she said the goal of the scholarship is to serve the community. There are proven benefits of the vibration of bees to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, she said.
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“For the vets, there have been studies about PTSD and how the sound of the vibration of the bees in the hive is very soothing, so it is super interesting to talk to the vets,” Bolton said.
Metro Early College High School senior Ava Muncy was selected for the beekeeping scholarship last year. Passionate about science and insects since she was a girl, she first learned about the opportunity through interviewing a beekeeper for a school project.
She was immediately excited to put her interests into action and build an experience that she could take into college, where she wants to study entomology.
“It’s not just something that I’m interested in; it’s something that I’m actively doing and am a part of,” Muncy said.
“Even if insects aren’t your main thing, anyone who is interested in science, nature, agriculture, anything like that, this would be great for them.”
Sophia Veneziano is a Columbus Dispatch reporter supported by the Center for HumanKindness at The Columbus Foundation. She may be reached at sveneziano@dispatch.com.
