Mariana Perez Flores, a 2022 graduate of Columbus St. Francis DeSales High School, is this year’s recipient of the Wendy O. Ward Foundation memorial scholarship.
Ward’s husband, Chris, a graduate of Columbus St. Charles Preparatory School, established the scholarship in 2015 in memory of his wife, a Hilliard resident who died of breast cancer on May 18, 2012, after a 10-year career as a writer and public relations consultant.
The scholarship is awarded to a graduate of a Columbus diocesan high school who has been involved in school, community and parish activities and has demonstrated academic achievement, particularly in language arts.
The recipient receives $5,000 for first-year college expenses and is eligible to apply for a $1,000 renewal award for three subsequent years. The Ward foundation pays the scholarship money directly to the institution the recipient plans to attend.
At DeSales, Perez Flores was a member of the National Honor Society and the French National Honor Society; made the honor roll in all 16 quarters of her four years at the school; had a poem published in the Thurber House’s teen literary journal Flip the Page; and took part in the state level of the JustWrite Ohio competition in her junior and senior years.
Activities in which she was involved include the Writer’s Club, Student Book Club, Battle of the Books competition, Math Club, Astronomy Club, Autism Awareness Club, French Club, Students for Social Justice, Asian and Pacific Islander Student Association, Art Club, Mind Over Matter Club, junior varsity cross country team and the Luv Michael volunteer organization for autism awareness.
She will attend Northwestern University in the fall and hopes to earn bachelor’s and graduate degrees in English and to be an English professor at a college.
In her scholarship application, she said she wanted “to teach the next generation of students the power of language and writing skills in our lives, the world and throughout history.” Her parents emigrated to the United States from Mexico, and she will be the first member of her family to attend college.
Wendy Ward, a graduate of Bishop Luers High School in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and of the University of Dayton, was grateful for her Catholic education and always said she counted herself lucky to do something not all English majors can – to use her skills and write every day for her company, Constructive Communication, Inc., where she was vice president.