A Hancock County sheriff’s deputy who served as a U.S. Army infantryman in Iraq will get help paying for his criminal justice degree, after Charles E. Boyk Law Offices named Kyle Russell of Findlay as its 2026 Boyk Law Veteran Scholarship recipient, the Toledo firm announced Nov. 11 in a release carried by ACCESS Newswire.
Russell will receive $2,000 through the firm’s annual scholarship program supporting veterans and their families as they pursue higher education, according to the firm’s announcement. He now works as a road patrol deputy with the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office while pursuing a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice at Tiffin University — a schedule that has him patrolling Hancock County roads while completing a degree in the same field.
Russell’s path to the scholarship runs through military service first, the announcement said. He served as an infantryman in the U.S. Army and deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S.-led mission against the Islamic State. He has since traded that deployment for a different kind of public service at home, working road patrol for the sheriff’s office in the county where Findlay is the county seat.
Now in its 11th year, the Boyk Law Veteran Scholarship supports U.S. military veterans and qualifying family members attending accredited colleges or universities, according to the firm. Established in 2015, the annual scholarship provides $2,000 toward tuition or other school-related expenses — the kind of costs, from textbooks to fees, that sit on top of tuition for a student who is also working a full-time public safety job.
The timing of the announcement, on Veterans Day, fits a week in which northwest Ohio communities have been finding their own ways to honor service. NewsForce247’s recent coverage includes Stark County naming a wounded Army veteran its Veteran of the Year and a UToledo Health drive aiming to fill 400 hygiene kits for Toledo families — different gestures, with the same thread of a community looking after its own.
Scholarships aimed specifically at veterans occupy a particular niche in paying for college. Federal education benefits cover a large share of tuition for many veterans, but students who are years past their service, studying part-time around a job, or pursuing a second career in public service can still face gaps — and a $2,000 award applied to tuition or school expenses can be the difference that keeps a semester on track rather than deferred.
Russell’s combination of studies and work is also increasingly familiar in Ohio law enforcement, where deputies and officers pursue criminal justice degrees while already serving, building credentials for promotion and for the investigative and supervisory roles that agencies need filled. A road patrol deputy finishing a bachelor’s degree at Tiffin University, a private university in Seneca County with a long-running criminal justice program, is following a well-worn northwest Ohio path.
That the award has run for eleven straight years also matters to its meaning. A one-year scholarship is a gesture; an eleventh-year scholarship is an institution, renewed annually by a firm that handles injury cases for the same northwest Ohio communities its recipients patrol, teach in and serve. Each year’s recipient becomes part of the argument that the program will be there for the next veteran, too.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on: What we know, from the firm’s Nov. 11 announcement, is the recipient, the $2,000 amount, Russell’s Army service and Iraq deployment, his current role with the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office, and his criminal justice studies at Tiffin University. What we are still waiting on is the practical detail every scholarship story leaves for later: when the funds are disbursed for his studies, and the opening and deadline dates for the next application cycle for veterans and family members hoping to follow him.
For other veterans considering the same route, the firm directed readers to its scholarship page at charlesboyk-law.com/boyk-law-veteran-scholarship for information about the program, eligibility and future application deadlines, according to the announcement. The program’s 11-year run means Russell joins a line of recipients stretching back to 2015.
What happens next for Russell is the work itself: road patrol shifts in Hancock County and coursework at Tiffin University, now with $2,000 of the cost carried by a Toledo law firm’s Veterans Day tradition. It is a small award with a specific job — and, for one Findlay family, a public thank-you that arrives with a check attached.
Photo: Mbrickn, CC BY-SA