The Ocean Park Civic League has for many years offered a scholarship in honor of George and Louise Lyon. This scholarship recognizes student achievement and encourages community volunteerism. It provides a yearly grant of $1500 for up to four years to the selected student who must be graduating from a Virginia Beach high school and who will attend a college or university, nursing, or accredited post secondary career/vocational school in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The scholarship is awarded based on need for financial assistance, overall qualifications and a record of community service by the applicant. Additional consideration is given to residents of Ocean Park.
Here are the Applications for the 2025-2026 year.
2025 Scholarship Winners
We are pleased to announce the recipient of the Louise and George Lyon Memorial Scholarship is Betty Anne (Annie) Stephenson. Annie is graduating from Cox High School with a 4.09 GPA and will be attending James Madison University in the fall. Her volunteer activities were varied and included work with Operation Smile and with Beach Buddies, where students are paired with a special needs student to spend time with and assist with their activities. She is currently in her second year of the dental assisting program at the Virginia Beach Technical and Career Education Center. She has also been working at a dental office for over a year and assists chair side. Annie plans to attend dental school after completing her B.S. in Biology at JMU.
We are pleased to announce the recipient of the Lyon Family Scholarship for the 2024-25 school year is Maggie Tu. Maggie is graduating from the International Baccalaureate Program at Princess Anne High School with a GPA of 4.63 and will be attending Brown University in the fall. The Lyon Family Scholarship has a particular emphasis on volunteering. Maggie volunteered for over 700 hours at various organizations including Eastern Virginia Medical School, Virginia Department of Health Youth Advisory Council, Our Lady of Perpetual Help Nursing Home, Tidewater Chinese School, and as a private tutor in advanced math subjects. She has shadowed a nurse practitioner, a physician’s assistant and a cancer researcher at EVMS. Maggie will be pursuing a degree in public health and aspires to be a doctor.
A big thank you to Blair Valdivieso and Natalie McIntyre for their time and insights in making these selections. Applications average 8-10 pages in length and include any number of deserving students. I appreciate the time spent reading, evaluating, and discussing each applicant’s application.
2024 Scholarship Winners
The Scholarship Committee is pleased to announce that the 2024 recipient of the Louise and George Lyon Memorial Scholarship is Logan Guerra of Princess Anne High School. Logan is graduating with a 4.27 GPA and will be attending Old Dominion University in the fall. His volunteer activities included work with Families of Autistic Children (FACT) and Church of the Holy Family, as well as activities with the National Honor Society and SCA at Princess Anne.
The 2024 recipient of the newly-created Lyon Family Scholarship is Jenny Vu of Ocean Lakes High School. Jenny is graduating with a 4.65 GPA and will be attending the University of Virginia in the fall. She has indicated interest in the medical field with a focus on neuroscience. Jenny logged over 400 volunteer hours, including at Sentara Princess Anne, the Virginia Aquarium, and the City-wide Kid2Kid program.
Betty Dierstein, Chair of the Scholarship Committee: “We had a good application response for both scholarships and I want to thank the committee members for the time and energy spent reading and assessing each application, and the thoughtful discussions that took place in selecting the recipients. A big thank you to Natalie McIntyre, Blair Valdivieso, and Kate Lewis!”
Over the past few months, we have been working with members of the Lyon family who expressed interest in starting a second scholarship for graduating high school seniors. Susan Lyon, George Lyon, Jr., and Ann Lyon Ackiss have provided funding and guidelines for the Lyon Family Scholarship offered for the first time this year. They have asked the OPCL Scholarship Committee to administer the scholarship. While similar in its focus to the original scholarship, there is an added emphasis on community and volunteer activities. We are grateful to the Lyon family for creating this opportunity and are pleased to partner with them in the review of applications and award of the scholarship this spring.
GEORGE AND LOUISE LYON MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP
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- The Lyons were lifelong members of the Ocean Park Civic League and dedicated a good portion of their free time to serving the community in which they lived. They were especially committed to supporting the Ocean Park Volunteer Rescue Squad which was the first all volunteer rescue squad established in Virginia Beach and that is still in operation today on Shore Drive.
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The OPCL Scholarship Committee is pleased to announce the 2023 recipient of the Louise and George Lyon Memorial Scholarship is Coren Huff.
First of all thank you to this year’s volunteers on the Scholarship Committee: Natalie McIntyre, Rachael Beutler, and Blair Valdivieso from committee chair Betty Dierstein. She says, “We had 20 applications and it takes time to read and evaluate each packet so I appreciate the time they spent in helping make this selection. This year’s recipient is Coren Huff who is graduating from the Global Studies and World Language Academy at Tallwood High School. She will be attending Virginia Tech in the fall majoring in International Relations and Spanish with a minor in Ecological Cities. She has a 4.233 grade pt average and volunteered over 400 hours with her church and other groups. She also works a part-time job, is a member of the Global Studies Honor Society, participated in the US Youth Ambassador Study Abroad Program, the Junior World Affairs Council at Tallwood, was a member of the National Spanish Honor Society-just to name a few of her activities. Some of the awards she has received: AP Scholar of Distinction, Future World Language Educator Award, Virginia Seal of Biliteracy in Spanish and English and the Global World Studies Butterfly Effect Award. In her essay, Coren mentions the Butterfly Effect ” the idea that small, seemingly trivial events may ultimately result in something with much larger consequences.“- a fitting characterization of the effect achieved by volunteer service. In her essay she stated: “I hope to one day enter a field that contributes to sustainable development in Latin and South America that will serve communities for years to come.”
Betty attended the Tallwood Awards Ceremony on Tuesday, June 10 to present the scholarship award to Coren. She reports that “Coren is a personable, polite and very grateful student!” Congratulations to Coren!
Thank you note from Coren Huff:
Dear Sponsors of the Ocean Park Civic League’s George Lyon Memorial Scholarship,
I would like to share my deepest gratitude for your scholarship. It will help me greatly in the years to come! Money has been the greatest hurdle for my family to send me to college. I am deeply touched by your generosity to us overcome this obstacle. I am thrilled to start the next chapter of my life studying at my dream university, Virginia Tech, and carry the values of service and community into my studies and future endeavors.
Rest assured that, with your help, I will one day sit in your position and provide my own scholarship to students like myself, Thanking you again, Coren Huff
In early June of 2022, Betty Dierstein, OPCL Scholarship Committee Chair, presented Carly Lundgren with the 2022 Louise and George Lyon Memorial Scholarship at the First Colonial High School Awards Ceremony. Carly will be attending Roanoke College in the fall pursuing a degree in Environmental Science. She is graduating with a 4.0 grade point average and was captain of the First Colonial Girls’ Volleyball Team. She will also be playing volleyball for Roanoke College. One of Carly’s varied volunteer experiences was serving an internship with Lynnhaven River Now last summer. She assisted in developing a curriculum for young campers to help them see the important of caring for the environment.
Recipients of the 4 year scholarship:
- 2024 Jenny Vu attending University of Virginia
- 2023 Coren Huff attending Virginia Tech
- 2022 Carly Lundgren attending Roanoke College
- 2021 Taylor McOrmond attending James Madison University
- 2020 Hanna Swickard attending Old Dominion University
- 2019 Amberly Butler attending Virginia Tech
Ocean Park Civic League 