T-L Photo/JENNIFER COMPSTON-STROUGH Attorneys Grace Hoffman, left, and Michael Shaheen, right, present a $750 scholarship to Ava Davis, who is standing next to Shaheen alongside her mother, Miranda Cordery. Ava, a graduate of Bridgeport High School who plans to attend Marshall University to study medical imaging. The lawyers provided the funds for the awards and presented the scholarship on behalf of the Belmont County Democratic Party.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Two local students received financial awards to help launch their college careers, courtesy of the Belmont County Democratic Party.

Ava Davis, a graduate of Bridgeport High School, and Delana Jenkins, a Barnesville High graduate, each received checks for $750 to be used toward furthering their educations. They were selected from among several applicants, who submitted essays in their efforts to win the awards. The essays were reviewed by a committee within the party, which selected the winners.

Attorneys and party leaders Michael Shaheen and Grace Hoffman provided the money to fund the scholarships.

“We appreciate all of the students who applied,” Shaheen said, noting that the essays written by Jenkins and Davis seemed to “stand out” from the pack.

Jenkins’s essay is titled “The Walls We Build” and focuses on the need for empathy and understanding rather than division. She wrote that she was 9 years old when she first heard that the United States was going to build a border wall, but at the time she did not understand what that meant.

Nine years later, she is disappointed to see immigrants being deported rather than being embraced. She worries about birthright citizenship and the lack of due process.

“My childhood innocence was shattered when I realized that the country I call home has completely failed us,” she wrote. “… This realization has fueled my desire to create a world where the walls we build are not of division, but of having empathy and understanding each other.”

Davis wrote on the topic of “Finding my voice,” describing her reasons as a young adult for choosing to align herself with the Democratic Party.

“One of the biggest reasons I have chosen the Democratic Party is because I believe in equality and inclusivity,” she wrote. “Our country was built on the idea that everyone should have the opportunity to succeed.”

Davis, the daughter of Miranda Cordery, plans to attend Marshall University, where she will study medical imaging.

Jenkins, the daughter of Summer and Bryan Jenkins, intends to run cross country and track at Rio Grande University, where she will major in communications with a minor in political science.