Kate Walsh O’Beirne Scholarship
The Kate Walsh O’Beirne Scholarship will ensure that her legacy of feminine leadership will continue through the lives and work of the young women who benefit from an Oakcrest education.
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Kate Walsh O'Beirne
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Kate Walsh O’Beirne was a highly influential voice in culture, politics and journalism. She was a champion of political and religious freedom and left a distinguished mark on society through her work as a writer, policy expert and media personality. As impressive as her professional accomplishments were, her devotion to her family and community were of particular importance to her.
As the beneficiary of and advocate for all-girls education, she had a special appreciation for Oakcrest School. Not having daughters herself, she encouraged friends and family members to attend Oakcrest, and she was especially honored to be Oakcrest’s graduation speaker in 1996, the year her niece, Laura, graduated from Oakcrest. In the fall of 2017 her granddaughter, Charlotte '24, joined the first 6th grade class to attend Oakcrest’s permanent campus in Vienna, Virginia, and her granddaughter Maeve '28 joined a few years later.
Oakcrest’s mission is to graduate young women who have the ability to recognize and articulate truth and the courage to stand by it, making a difference in all they choose to do. These are characteristics that defined Kate Walsh O’Beirne’s life and legacy and ones that Oakcrest hopes to instill in many more young women in the future. To accomplish this goal, and in partnership with the O’Beirne family, we are establishing the Kate Walsh O’Beirne Scholarship Fund at Oakcrest. This fund seeks to support young women who would otherwise be unable to attend Oakcrest and put them on a path to become women who bring good to all sectors of society. Through the support of family and friends of Kate Walsh O’Beirne, we hope to raise a minimum of $1 million over the next five years ($200,000 annually) to fund this scholarship.
With the support of the Kate Walsh O’Beirne Scholarship Fund we will ensure that more young women are challenged to become what St. John Paul the Great so beautifully described: trustees of humanity. At Oakcrest that means that they have the following characteristics:
- An understanding of faith and a commitment to personal friendship with God.
- Academic excellence that drives her to pursue lifelong learning.
- The ability to recognize and articulate truth, and the courage to stand by it.
- Self-knowledge that informs her growth in virtue.
- A love for beauty in the world, and a sense of responsibility to sustain and create it.
- Leadership and a spirit of collaboration that inspire her to serve.
