Centra Credit Union and Centra Foundation are awarding a total of 35 scholarships, including a dozen in the Columbus area, to graduating high school seniors and adult students in the communities it serves.
The Loretta M. Burd Scholarship Program typically awards one high school scholarship per Centra branch location, a number of adult scholarships, and two internal scholarships. This year, an additional six scholarships are being awarded to celebrate Burd’s career and service to the Credit Union.
This year’s local recipients are Annabel Freeman (Columbus North), Alyssa Murray (Columbus East), Morgan Allen (Columbus North), Clare Gatewood (homeschool), Michelle Moore (homeschool), Annika Evenson (Brown County), Mallory Rupp (Columbus East), Alyssa Green (Columbus North), Josiah Linnemann (homeschool), Olivia Shoaf (Columbus East) and Lauren Ulrich (Columbus East). This year’s local adult student scholarship recipient is Christina Shaw of Columbus.
The full list of 2022 scholarship winners is available at online at Centra.org.
Loretta M. Burd began working at Centra in July 1965 and quickly learned multiple facets of the business. Throughout her career, she established many new departments within the credit union, including human resources, inventory control and facilities departments.
Burd became president/CEO in July 1987, when Centra had $123 million in assets. When she began working at Centra, the credit union had almost 7,000 members. When she retired in December 2012, Centra’s membership had grown to 126,291 members and $1.1 billion in assets. She continued to serve the organization on Centra’s board of directors, until her retirement from the board in March of this year.
Burd also served multiple community boards and organizations as well as state and federal credit union boards. Named in her honor, the Loretta M. Burd Scholarship Program is designed to invest in members’ futures.
“Loretta’s service to Centra Credit Union has been instrumental in guiding us to where we are today. Her passion and commitment to serving our members’ best interests has set the direction of our credit union and exemplifies our mission and vision. Loretta’s valuable contributions have been vital to our organization, the credit union industry, and our communities,” Centra CEO/President Rick Silvers said. “We’re honored to have had her expertise and guidance define Centra’s foundation.”
