Michael J. Peluso, now in his senior year at Columbia University, has been awarded a $1,000 scholarship by the Union Plus program. Michael is the son of Long Island Rail Road Lodge 643 member Joseph Peluso of Floral Park, New York.
In addition to demonstrating academic ability, applicants are required to submit essays outlining their career goals, describing their relationship with the labor movement and then make the case for why they deserve to win a union scholarship.
Ever since he was a child, Michael told the judges, he has known that he wanted “a profession that would allow me to make a difference in the world around me” but his idea about what that career might be kept changing, even after he started his college studies. Now, however, he has found his calling–neuroscience and evolutionary biology, fields “in which I could combine my love of science with my interest in psychology and my continued desire to help others.”
All TCU members in good standing, their spouses and dependent children are eligible to apply for Union Plus scholarships. Applications for the 2007 awards can now be downloaded: for a regular pdf (small file version), click here; for a pdf you can type your answers into (large file size/longer download time), click here (if you are using the free Acrobat reader, you must print the form after you fill it out because you will not be able to save your information). For more informtion from Union Plus, go to www.UnionPlus.org/Scholarships.