Avel Louise Gordly Scholarship for Oregon Black Women

Welcome students!  

Here you will find information about how to apply for the Avel Louise Gordly Scholarship for Oregon Black Women.  This award offers four years of scholarship support for you and a new laptop (courtesy of Free Geek) for use at any institution of higher education in the state of Oregon or any of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities of the United States. Winners are also eligible for a paid internship with AetnaCVS/Health. In other words, this opportunity is more than a scholarship. It jumps starts your future and links you to a legacy of Black women's achievement in our state.

The only way you can apply for this scholarship is through the Oregon Community Foundation website at this URL: https://oregoncf.org/grants-and-scholarships/scholarships#ocf

Applications OPEN in November 2025 and CLOSE on 2 March 2026

On this blog, you can learn about this scholarship's namesake, Avel Louise Gordly. She was born and raised in Portland and grew up to achieve many things, including becoming the first African American woman in Oregon to be elected to the State Senate in 1996.  Avel Gordly is a graduate of Girls Polytechnic High School (now Benson) and Portland State University. Her life is a testament to the transformative power of education.  Read on for more inspiration!

above: Avel Gordly with Antoinette Myers-Perry, Ed.D, when Toni was a Grant H.S. student

About the scholarship...
The Avel Louise Gordly Scholarship for Oregon Black Women will be given out for the 4th time in the spring of 2026 for students enrolled in the following fall. Scroll down to see past winners! Scholarship winners receive up to four years of support. Awards are approximately $2,500 per year.  All applicants will submit materials through the Oregon Community Foundation application portal.  The application will ask for four short (150 word) answers to the following questions:

1. What are your specific educational plans and career goals and why? What inspires you to achieve them?
2. What have you done for your family or community that you care about the most and why?
3. Describe a personal accomplishment and the strengths and skills you used to achieve it.
4. Describe a significant change or experience that has occurred in your life. How did you respond and what did you learn about yourself? 

Financial need is a consideration for this award but personal motivation, promise for academic success, and evidence of community involvement will be given priority by the award committee.  Applicants will be asked to submit their high school transcript and, if available, College Entrance Test scores. Evidence of community service or engagement is required.

About Avel Louise Gordly...

Avel Gordly received an honorary doctorate from Portland State University in 2017

Avel Gordly was the first woman in her family to graduate from high school.  She married and became a mother while still a teenager.  She was a single parent when she matriculated to Portland State University in the early 1970s.  Avel Gordly knows first hand what it is like to seek higher education as a non-traditional student and as a Black woman coping with racism and discrimination.  She wrote a memoir about her life that tells the fuller story: Remembering the Power of Words: The Life of an Oregon Activist, Legislator, and Community Leader (OSU 2011).

Watch a C-SPAN Book TV interview with Avel Gordly that describes her life and her memoir. Learn about the Avel Gordly Center for Healing at OHSU.

Find out more about Avel Gordly's achievements in educational reform, mental health access, and civil rights advocacy in the online Oregon Historical Society Encyclopedia. 

Avel Gordly has been widely recognized for her achievements and is an active mentor in the community.

How to support the Avel Louise Gordly Scholarship for Oregon Black Women...

Want to get involved? Donate online at the Oregon Community Foundation. Share this video about the Avel Louise Gordly Scholarship for Oregon Black Women for inspiration!  Thank you!

 

Kiasia Baggenstos (left) of Park Rose High School was the inaugural scholarship winner in 2023. 

Kobi Flowers (center) 2024 winner, a graduate of Grant H.S.
Serah Judd (right) 2025 winner, graduate of the International H.S., Beaverton