When University of Oklahoma pre-med senior Peace Ossom was told she won a scholarship for single moms, she only expected to get $100.

She had taken a semester off school to have her son, and was looking for help with school costs. At the scholarship reception, she found out she'd been awarded a new scholarship for $2,000.

"They had an awards ceremony and they kind of surprised me," she said. She nearly missed the announcement because she was in the bathroom, but was pulled out for the special announcement.

"To me the biggest thing is to see people who want to give that much," Ossom said, adding that $2,000 is a lot of money. "That speaks a lot."

This is the first year for the scholarship, called the Empowerment of Spirit Award. Four women each received $2,000 scholarships: Ossom, Yok-Fong Paat, Eulonda Rushing and Rebecca Karnes.

Each single mom originally applied for another scholarship for single moms, the $4,000 Betty Baum and Norman Hirschfield Scholarships. There were too many applicants for three scholarships and they didn't receive that one. Staff at the Women's Studies Program, where the scholarship is administered, wanted to give them something. The women were outstanding candidates, said Jill Irvine, director of Women's Studies.

So faculty member Martha Skeeters asked Norman resident Cindy Merrick to consider giving $100 to the women. She gave Merrick the applications filled out by the four women, which included their personal stories.

"I took 'em home and I sat at my kitchen table reading them and I just cried," Merrick said.

She said she was impressed by their ability to move beyond their past and commit fully to both their children and their education.

"They had asked for $100, and I just thought that wasn't enough," Merrick said.

While she was sitting in her kitchen thinking that, she started opening up her mail. The first piece she opened was an $8,000 check from the Internal Revenue Service.

She said she immediately knew that she didn't need that money, but these women did.

"I was a single mom," Merrick said. "It's tough. It's tough -- they have some extreme financial needs."

Merrick also enlisted the help of her friend, Ally Richardson, to make the EOS scholarship a reality. The women also chose the name, which in addition to being an acronym for Empowerment of Spirit, also represents Eos, the goddess of the dawn that represents new beginnings.

Richardson said it was the recipients of the scholarship that really inspired its creation by their vulnerability in their applications.