The Scholarship Committee has completed its work for 2020-2021. Our thanks to Sandy Camargo (Chair), Lori Choquette, Anne Heiles, Ann Long, Matt Macomber, Donna Offenbecher, Kathy Valdés, and Joyce Wright (Assistant Chair). Joyce and Matt will serve as Chair and Assistant Chair next year. Please contact Joyce if you would like to join the Committee.

We reconfigured our awards for this year. Our new offerings are the STEM Award, the Humanities/Social Sciences Award, the Isabelle Purnell Education Award, and the Global Focus Award. We are grateful to Judy Ikenberry for her continued support of the Judith Life Ikenberry Fine Arts Award.

The winner of the Isabelle Purnell Education Award is Alexis Martinez. Alexis plans to teach History in secondary school. She wants to inspire and challenge her students by teaching what she calls "holistic history."

The winners of STEM Awards are Jong Hwang, Ishita Rao, and Justin Wang. Jong is majoring in mechanical engineering with a concentration on soft robotics. Ishita studies computer science and linguistics with an eye towards improving the human interface with AI like Alexa and Google Home. Justin also studies computer science but is majoring in Mathematics and Statistics as well. His research focuses on making algorithms more functional, so that they can do more than advertise items someone thinks that we might want to buy.

The winner of the Humanities/Social Sciences Award is Adem Osmani. Adem is majoring in Political Science. His passion is Legal Humanities, an approach that studies the intersection of politics, culture, and history on the shape of the law.

The winners of Global Focus Awards are Enddy Almonord and Sophie Luijten. Enddy majors in Political Science and dreams of a career in immigration rights and helping immigrants negotiate what she calls the "bureaucratic labyrinth." Sophie majors in Global Studies and Spanish and is focusing on climate change and ethical concerns relating to workers rights.

The winner of this year's Ikenberry Fine Arts Award is Vincent Chang. The committee was blown away by Vincent's talent and by his thoughtful and articulate ability to explain the abstract qualities of music to those of us who aren't musically adept.

Each one of our winners is energetic, articulate, poised, and incredibly accomplished. We hope that you will attend our virtual Awards ceremony so that you can meet them.

Please consider contributing to The Illinois Club Scholarship Fund

The Illinois Club provides financial support to worthy University of Illinois students. You can donate securely online at http://theillinoisclub.org/donations.php OR by check made payable to University of Illinois Foundation. Mail to: PO Box 2782, Champaign IL 61825. Please write The Illinois Club on the memo line.

All donations go directly to U of I Foundation. They send a thank you and your form for your taxes. The funds are deposited in The Illinois Club Scholarship Fund as you have indicated on the form or with your check.

The Scholarship Committee is informed of the amount available for scholarships each year but not the name of the donor(s) or the amount(s). Any donation of any size is welcome.

Be comfortable and thank you for helping to fund more scholarships.

Scholarship Award Ceremony March 6, 2021

Watch our event video, on Mediaspace