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by Samantha Holm, KATU Staff
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PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) — Serah Judd, Howard University sophomore, received the Avel Louise Gordly Scholarship for Oregon Black Women. She received a $3,500 scholarship to fund her education.
Judd graduated from Beaverton International High School in 2024. There, she was an active member of the Black Student Union. Her role there earned her a spot as the student member of the Oregon Department of Education's Black Success Committee.
She is studying at Howard on the pre-law track with ambitions of going to law school and becoming a judge. At Howard, she is a member of the College of Arts and Sciences Council and serves as a Junior Resident Assistant. Outside of school, she plays violin in a church orchestra.
Judd is one of three siblings in a single-parent family for whom paying for college was a challenge.
READ ALSO: Scholarship honors Oregon's first African American woman senator
"We were unanimous that Serah was the top candidate from a strong pool," said scholarship committee chair Carmen Thompson, PhD.
Dr. Thompson is a historian and a previous Visiting Scholar in the Black Studies Department at PSU.
She and her PSU colleague Patricia Schechter, PhD, worked together to establish a scholarship in honor of Avel Gordly, the first African American woman elected to the Oregon Senate.
The Avel Louise Gordly Scholarship provides four years of financial support to a Black female graduate of an Oregon high school. The funds can be used at any institution of higher education in-state or any of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the U.S.
