Kersey/Oglesby Family Scholarship Fund

The Kersey/Oglesby Family Scholarship will be made annually to a deserving high school senior who is preparing to enter college and to major in elementary education including early childhood education. Priority will be given to male applicants from the Midwestern and Southeastern regions of the United States. The recipient is selected by the PDK International scholarship selection committee from applications received through the prospective educator scholarship program.

Shortly after being named PDK International's fifth executive director, George Kersey, Jr. established the Kersey/Oglesby Family Scholarship fund. The scholarship honors six important persons in Dr. Kersey's life – his parents, George Franklin and Mary Oglesby Kersey; his maternal grandparents, John Childress and Lottie Wilson Oglesby; and his paternal grandparents, James Clayborne and Jennie Copeland Kersey.

George Kersey, Jr. was the first member of his family to earn a college degree. Like many World War II baby boomers, he chose a career in education. He credits his parents and grandparents with instilling in him “the value of an education.” None of his grandparents completed high school, but all of their seven children did, in the turbulent years prior to, during, and just after World War II. Dr. Kersey's parents, aunts, and uncles all graduated from the public schools of Nashville and surrounding Davidson County, Tennessee. Many of their children went on to complete college degrees.

The Kersey/Oglesby Family Scholarship honors the important role that families play in communicating the value of schooling to each succeeding generation.

Apply for a Prospective Educator Scholarship