Mayfield Village student wins full-ride scholarship in Ohio's 2nd Vax-A-Million drawing

(Governor Mike DeWine/Twitter)

By Collin Cunningham

(COLUMBUS, Ohio) For the second week in a row, someone has won Ohio's Vax-A-Million lottery close to The Land, with the Ohio Department of Health revealing on Wednesday that Mayfield Village resident Zoie Vincent had won the full-ride scholarship portion of the drawing.

In a tweet, Mayfield High School Principal Jeffrey Legan congratulated Vincent, who Cleveland.com reports is a 17-year-old rising senior at the school, Cleveland.com reported. "Congratulations to our very own, Zoie Vincent on winning a 4-year scholarship through the Ohio vax-a-million," he posted. "So awesome!!!"

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine also posted a photo to Twitter of him on a video call with Vincent, who will now be able to attend any state college or university for free, with room and board, books and supplies being covered as part of her academic grant.

“We literally walked into our hotel room and all of a sudden, my dad was getting a call from the governor,” Vincent, who was traveling out of the country with her family at the time, told Cleveland.com. “I was so confused. He kept saying, ‘Gov. DeWine,’ ‘Gov. DeWine,’ and I thought, ‘What do you mean?’ The vaccine lottery didn’t really cross my mind.”

Vincent hasn't yet made up her mind about which school she'll attend, but said she's considering the Ohio State University and Case Western Reserve University to further her goal of being a pediatrician.

Per 3 News, ODH said Vincent was one of 132,000 Ohioans aged 12 to 17 to participate in the drawing, giving her a roughly .00075% chance of winning. Odds were even slimmer for Toledo resident Jonathan Carlyle, who took home the other raffle prize of $1 million out of 3.2 million entries.

"I actually missed the call," the Amazon delivery driver told 13 ABC, adding that the raffle incentivized him to get the vaccine in the first place. "I was checking out from work, so I had to call him back. It’s overwhelming. I don’t know what to do. I’m still dreaming. I’ve got a lot of bills to pay. So that’s the first thing that’s going to happen."

Last week's winners included former Shaker Heights resident Abbigail Bugenske, who took home the $1 million prize, and 14-year-old Englewood, Ohio resident Joseph Costello. Three more drawings are set to take place for each prize before the end of June, with names drawn on Sunday evenings and then announced each Wednesday at 7:29 p.m.

DeWine first revealed the lottery program in May as an incentive for more of Ohio's residents to get vaccinated as schools prepare to let out and summer begins.

He's faced legislative backlash from Rep. Jena Powell, R-Miami, who has said that she's drafting a bill for what she's called a "bribe from our governor." There has been no word on the bill since May 22.

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