Woodridge Nursing Student Receives BenU Scholarship

from Benedictine University

A Woodridge nursing student is one of 12 at Benedictine University to be awarded a 2011-2012 Evelyn R. Simmers Scholarship.

The Eveyln R. Simmers Trust was established in 2009 to endow scholarships for students pursuing either a bachelor’s or master’s degree in nursing from the Department of Nursing at Benedictine University. A total of $32,850 will be awarded. 

The 2011-2012 scholarship recipients are: Mercy Chirpich, (Villa Park); Salithia March (Chicago); Sina Aiono (Lisle); Kristina Jones (Springfield); Sarah Aldred-Fleege (Villa Park); Linda Dinges (Hannibal, Mo.); Latisha Richardson (Joliet); Joy Jurasic (Woodridge); Kristina Strackaite (Bolingbrook); Julie Fountain (Schaumburg); Jennifer Hoffman (Downers Grove); and Tibessa Lawrence-Ellis (Broadview). 

Prior to their deaths, Evelyn Simmers and her husband, Wallace, who owned a small manufacturing company in Chicago, were well-known for their support of hospital activities and programs. Both succumbed to cancer.

 “Evelyn Simmers was a woman who truly believed in the philosophy of teaching one person and having them pass their education on to many more people,” said Meagan Daniel, Chief Grants Officer at BenedictineUniversity. “She had a passion for education, and especially for nurses, who have the opportunity to touch so many lives each and every day.”

Benedictine’s R.N.-to-B.S.N. (Bachelor of Science in Nursing) completion program provides registered nurses with the skills and knowledge necessary to undertake leadership positions where they work and further their education at the graduate level. The program is offered through a partnership betweenBenedictine, the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Triton College in Morton Grove and Memorial Medical Center in Springfield.

The fully online Master of Science in Nursing (M.S.N.) program at Benedictine is designed to prepare registered nurses at the master’s degree level for the rapidly changing face of health care. The program emphasizes interrelated academic preparation in areas of leadership, education, administration, and public and global health care.

The scholarships will help make the programs affordable to more students during a time when there is a critical shortage of qualified health care workers.