Every year, the AFSCME Family Scholarship is awarded to 10 high school seniors around the country whose parent or legal guardian is an AFSCME member. This year, Madison Dryden – daughter of NAPE member Sean Dryden, an IT Business Systems Analyst for the Nebraska State Patrol in Lincoln – was one of those ten scholarship recipients.
Madison’s grandpa, a longtime member of AFSCME Local 251, knew about the scholarship and encouraged Madison to apply. She said the application was straightforward and taught her a lot about her family’s long history of union membership.
“A lot of my essay was about my grandpa, who was a member of his union for a very long time,” she said. “The process taught me a lot about what a union is and how members can benefit from it – like the ways that my grandpa’s union helped him when he got injured at work.”
Madison is planning on attending Bellevue University to study business administration.
“I take academic achievement very seriously and it’s important to me to put in the effort and do well,” she said. “I want to continue that into college, and I think not worrying so much about paying tuition is going to help with that.”
After completing her Bachelor’s degree, Madison wants to pursue a Master’s in Business Administration. She hopes to one day take on an administrative position at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha working in either conservation or animal science. Congratulations to Madison and her family for this great accomplishment!
