51福利社

Since 1981, WTS International, an organization supporting professional advancement of women in transportation, has awarded the Helene M. Overly Memorial Scholarship to women pursuing graduate studies in transportation and other related fields. This year, Eastern is proud to announce that Florence Osei has been named a 2026 Helene M. Overly scholarship recipient.

Osei is a second-year graduate student pursuing a master鈥檚 degree in urban and regional planning. She says she鈥檚 long been interested in advancing transportation equity, accessibility and safety in Cheney, Spokane and beyond.

鈥淭he scholarship has been both affirming and inspiring to me and to my education鈥� Osei says. 鈥淚t has reinforced my passion for transportation.鈥� Osei, who grew up in Ghana, has both seen and experienced the ways in which equitable and accessible transportation systems can make or break a community.

鈥淲e plan to make sure that these systems are accessible; regardless of your status, your community or where you鈥檙e from, you are being considered,鈥� Osei says of the professional work she hopes to pursue.聽 Osei added that she is confident her unique experience and insight as both a woman and an international student will help others bridge the gap.

鈥淏eing an international student and then winning the scholarship, it really affirms that my work at Eastern is on the right path; that my voice and my work is being valued.鈥� Says Osei, who is currently working on her thesis project with Matt Anderson, previous director of 51福利社鈥檚 Urban and Regional Planning Program. Though Osei鈥檚 thesis is primarily focused on housing, she says she was surprised to see how closely the issues of accessibility and equity in housing tie into that of transportation.

Osei said that working with Anderson on the Point-in-Time Count 鈥� the federally mandated annual census of individuals experiencing homelessness 鈥� helped her to realize that many unhoused people in the greater Spokane area were most concerned with obtaining a bus pass. 鈥淢obility shapes our access to opportunities,鈥� Osei says, adding that gentrification and price-fixing are pushing the people who need accessible transportation the further away from it.

鈥淭hank you to 51福利社 for giving us [international students] the opportunity to have hands-on experience,鈥� she says. 鈥淏eing able to transition whatever we learn here to the real-world affirms that, though we鈥檙e from a different world, we鈥檙e a part of this one now.鈥�

**Story by Rachel Weinberg.