Morse High senior wins $35,000 VFW scholarship, earns national honor

Olivia Drewniak turned a local student essay into a national win with major stakes for Woolwich and Sagadahoc County: the Morse High School senior captured a $35,000 Veterans of Foreign Wars scholarship after her audio essay rose to first place among 28,000 entries.

Drewniak, who lives in Woolwich and attends Morse High School in Bath, was recognized at Woolwich’s annual town meeting on April 29, where town leaders presented her with a certificate before the meeting opened. The moment put a local government stage behind a national honor, with members of Bath VFW Post 7738 and the district commander present to mark the achievement.

The VFW identified Drewniak as representing the VFW Department of Maine and named her scholarship the T.C. Selman Memorial Scholarship. It also said she was presented as the first-place Voice of Democracy winner during the organization’s Parade of Winners on April 11 at the Union League in Philadelphia, where top winners were recognized in person.

Her essay, How we are showing patriotism for our country, matched the VFW’s 2025-2026 Voice of Democracy theme, How Are You Showing Patriotism and Support for Our Country? That connection mattered in a contest built around civic responsibility, with the VFW saying more than 60,600 students participate annually in its youth scholarship programs and that this year’s contests distributed more than $1.6 million combined at the local, department and national levels.

For Woolwich, the result carried an uncommon distinction. Drewniak was Maine’s first winner in the competition, and her $35,000 prize stood as the top national award in the Voice of Democracy contest, ahead of second-place winner Kylie Saltzman of Cape May, New Jersey, who received a $21,000 scholarship. In a field that large, the scale of the win underscored just how rare it is for a student from Sagadahoc County to break through at the national level.

Drewniak’s background also fit the civic-service message at the heart of the competition. Maggie Webbert and Nicholas Hamlin of Bath VFW Post 7738 sponsored her, and Drewniak is an active member of the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve. That combination of writing, service and public-minded commitment helped make the recognition resonate beyond the school auditorium and into the veteran community.

Drewniak plans to attend Boston College in the fall, and the scholarship will help launch that next step. For Woolwich, the honor put a local name on a national stage and tied a high school essay to the values of service, patriotism and public duty.