(Salem) - A workplace accident can be life changing for any family, especially those with children. Losing a parent or having a parent suffer a debilitating injury can significantly affect a student’s ability to pursue dreams through higher education.

An Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services (DCBS) program provides an opportunity to help surviving family members reach their educational goals. Oregon OSHA is honoring seven Oregon students with Workers’ Memorial Scholarship awards for the 2012-2013 academic year.

Oregon OSHA will honor the award recipients at a 2 p.m. public ceremony on Thursday, Sept. 6, 2012, in Room 260 of the Labor and Industries Building in Salem.

The recipients include:
Kelly Dewey, Hermiston
After graduating from Hermiston High School this year, Dewey is planning to attend Blue Mountain Community College and work toward a degree in elementary education. Her father was killed four years ago in an explosion while doing truck repair. Dewey is receiving a $750 award.

Diane Maldonado Dominguez, Wilsonville
A 2012 graduate of Wilsonville High School, Maldonado Dominguez is attending Portland State University, with aspirations to become a medical doctor and use her bilingual skills abroad. In 2006, her father lost both arms in an agriculture accident. Maldonado Dominguez is receiving a $1,000 award.

Brittany Ford, Gresham
Ford is a senior at Oregon State University studying to become a registered dietician and is an avid runner. A 2009 graduate of Gresham Barlow High School, Ford lost her father when a machine crushed him two weeks after her seventh birthday. This is Ford’s fourth Workers’ Memorial Scholarship. She is receiving $1,500.

Steven Hanners, Brookings
A recent graduate of Brookings-Harbor High School, Hanners hopes to become a pharmacist and attend Southwestern Oregon Community College this fall. Hanners’ father, a volunteer firefighter with Coos Bay Fire, was killed in the line of duty in 2002. He is receiving a $750 award.

Marissa Parr, Jefferson
Parr hopes to earn a law degree and is currently studying anthropology and classics at Willamette University. Her father is wheelchair bound after an accident in 1991. This is Parr’s second scholarship and she is receiving a $1,000 award.

Andrea Webb, Eugene
The working mother of a three-year old, Webb is attending the University of Oregon and would like to become a physician’s assistant. Webb’s father died shortly before her second birthday in a workplace accident. A second time award winner, Webb is receiving a $1,000 award.

Ashley Yackamouth, Riddle
Yackamouth will attend Oregon State University this fall after two years of education at Umpqua Community College. She is studying to become a physical therapist. In 2006, Yackamouth lost her father to a logging accident. She is receiving a $1,000 award.

Award recommendations are made by Oregon OSHA’s Safe Employment Education and Training Advisory Committee, an advisory group with members from business, organized labor, and government. Oregon OSHA presents the awards annually to help in the postsecondary education of spouses or children of permanently and totally disabled or fatally injured workers. The 1991 Legislature established the Workers’ Memorial Scholarship at the request of the Oregon AFL-CIO, with support from Associated Oregon Industries.

The Workers’ Memorial Scholarship is open to any high school graduate, graduating high school senior, GED recipient, or current college undergraduate or graduate student who is a dependent or spouse of an Oregon worker who has been fatally injured or permanently disabled while on the job.

Applicants must be Oregon residents receiving fatality benefits, a dependent or spouse of a fatally injured worker, or the dependent or spouse of an Oregon worker who has incurred a permanent total disability and whose claim for workers’ compensation benefits has been accepted.

Interest earned on a DCBS fund derived from Oregon OSHA civil fines and penalties funds the awards.