Scholarship Criteria:
- Junior or Senior status
- 3.0 GPA or higher
- Majoring in Special Education
- Must attend an accredited college or university
- Graduate of a Scioto County high school
The Brenda Musser Memorial Scholarship Fund was established by Eric Musser to honor his mother who died on January 12, 2011 after a long, four-year battle with lung cancer.
To be eligible for the Musser Scholarship, a student must be a junior or senior enrolled at an accredited college or university majoring in special education with a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale. Students must have graduated from a high school located in Scioto County.
Brenda Sue Musser was born February 14, 1953, the daughter of Goldie Wireman Griffith and the late Paul W. Griffith. She was a 1971 graduate of Portsmouth High School and a faithful class reunion organizer. She earned a BS degree in Special Education in 1975 and a MA degree in Economics Education in 1981, both from Ohio University.
A cancer educator and advocate of children with special needs, she retired from the Portsmouth City School District in 2008 as the Facilitator of Special Needs. She was an active member and past president of the Portsmouth City School Teachers’ Association. She was also the Local District Representative to the Ohio Education Association for 25 years.
“Mum may have gone into special education due to its higher demand, but she never liked the derogatory tone in people’s voices when they called her students names,” said Eric when remembering his mother. “She saw the potential in her kids that other teachers would ignore.”
“She would take the extra time and effort to help children with dyslexia learn to overcome their difficulties. A friend of mine who was one of her former students commended her as the only teacher to ever take the time to teach him how to read despite his dyslexia,” Eric recalled.
“Throughout school, when I would talk with her students on the playground or in the halls, when they found out I was her son, the story was always the same: ‘She's your mom! She's tough! I feel sorry for you.’ After I graduated when I would run into her former students, they always had similar stories but it was much different from school. ‘She's your mom! She was the only teacher I learned from. She was my favorite’,” Said Eric.
“I hope the future educators who qualify for this scholarship go into the field looking to empower the children they will come into contact with as my mum did. I hope they impact the lives of their students in such a way that their children hear similar stories on the playground and after graduation that I did,” concluded Musser.
Additional information about the Brenda Musser Memorial Scholarship Fund or other scholarship funds invested at the Scioto Foundation may be obtained by contacting the staff at (740) 354-4612 or by visiting the SF website at www.sciotofoundation.org.