Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative is proud to announce that five local students have earned scholarships to attend either a trade school or lineman school.

Luke Barnes and Tristain Pogue, both from Baker City, were recently each awarded a $5,000 OTEC scholarship to pursue a career as a lineman.

Cole Furtney, of Baker City, Opie McDaniel, of John Day and Tayler Wood, of Baker City, were each awarded a $2,500 OTEC scholarship to attend trade school.

Scholarship winners are selected by the cooperative’s Board of Directors from a pool of candidates from OTEC’s service territory in Baker, Grant, Harney and Union Counties. Scholarship funds come from unclaimed capital credits.

“We are pleased to award these scholarships to help support these students as they pursue their career paths”, said Joseph Hathaway, Communications Coordinator at OTEC , “Cooperatives are, by their very nature, community partners and we have always been proud to support the educational goals of students and give back to the communities in our service territory.”

Read more about OTEC’s trade and lineman school scholarships in the upcoming July issue of Ruralite.

Applications for both trade and lineman school scholarships are open year-round. You can apply at www.otec.coop/scholarships.

About the cooperative

Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative (OTEC) is a not-for-profit, member-owned electric cooperative that serves over 60,000 residents in four counties in Eastern Oregon. Headquartered in Baker City, OTEC has district offices in Burns, John Day and La Grande.