St. Anthony's Medical Center Foundation Awards $161,000 in Scholarships

St. Anthony’s Medical Center Foundation, in partnership with the Greater Saint Louis Community Foundation, has announced the recipients of St. Anthony’s Medical Center’s Norbert Siegfried Scholarships for 2012. This is the seventh year for the scholarship program, which is named in honor of Norbert Siegfried, one of the founding fathers of St. Anthony’s Medical Center’s board of directors.

This year, 22 new scholarships, totaling approximately $161,000, were awarded – 18 through the St. Anthony’s Sons and Daughters of Employees Scholarship program and four through the St. Anthony’s Medical Center Foundation Academic Excellence Scholarship program, according to an announcement from St. Anthony's.  New scholarship recipients from both programs were honored at a reception at St. Anthony’s on June 20.

Norbert Siegfried, longtime former chairman of St. Anthony’s board, congratulated the scholarship winners and their parents and urged the students to set goals to help guide them through their college careers and lives.

“The difference between being successful and not so successful is what you achieve every day of your life,” Siegfried said in the announcement.  “Make a point of getting up every morning and figuring out your short-term goals for that day – deciding what you can do that day to meet your lifetime goals.”

Amelia Bond, president and chief executive officer of the Greater Saint Louis Community Foundation, also praised the scholars for their successes and St. Anthony’s for setting up the scholarship program seven years ago.  “You all have earned this award with your academic record, success and vision,” Bond said.  “But you would not be here today if not for the vision and goals of St. Anthony’s.”

In addition to congratulating the scholarship recipients, Jim Gardner, president and CEO of St. Anthony’s, credited the students’ parents who are employees of the medical center.  “I applaud all that you have done for St. Anthony’s,” Gardner said.  “You all live and breathe here to help make this medical center a great organization.”

The Norbert Siegfried Scholarships for Sons and Daughters of Employees are awarded to children of St. Anthony’s employees who are academically qualified with demonstrated financial need.  The Foundation Academic Excellence Scholarships are awarded to children of St. Anthony’s employees who have achieved academic excellence.  Students in both programs will receive support to pursue an undergraduate degree in any field of study at any four-year college or university in Missouri, Southern Illinois University or the University of Illinois-Urbana.

St. Anthony’s Medical Center Foundation provided funding for both scholarship programs.  The Greater Saint Louis Community Foundation accepted and reviewed the applications and selected the recipients. When this year’s awards are distributed, it is estimated that St. Anthony’s will be providing nearly $500,000 in scholarships in support of 71 students.  Since the inception of the program in 2006, the scholarship programs will have provided 193 students with approximately $2.8 million in scholarship support.

New recipients of the Foundation Academic Excellence Scholarships include: Toni Estrada, Sean Mechem and Stephen Ream of South County and Erin Thompson of Ballwin.

New recipients of the Norbert Siegfried Scholarships for Sons and Daughters include:

Hunter Beattie of Sparta, Ill.; Michael Bohnert of Festus; Jordan and Lindsay Ganter of South County; Emily Hartmann of South County; Jennifer Kempa of Hillsboro; Sadie Kinard of South County; Phillip Kosta of South County; Morgan Kotva of High Ridge; Kaitlan Lampe of Fenton; Emily Love of O’Fallon, Ill.; Grace Melton of Cedar Hill; Sara Murphy of Webster Groves; Kayla Ray of Imperial; Alexandra Schwartzkopf of Affton; Caitlin Stone of Byrnes Mill; Anushri Thakkar of South County, and Elizabeth Wedekind of Webster Groves.

St. Anthony’s established the scholarship program in 2006 as a way to invest in the future of the sons and daughters of the Medical Center’s employees through education. This program is one of the largest of its kind in the community and one of the best offered by an employer in the St. Louis area. For more information about St. Anthony’s, visit www.stanthonysmedcenter.com.

The Greater Saint Louis Community Foundation has been helping St. Louisans put charitable dollars to work addressing the issues most important to them in the communities they care about since 1915.  It is a nonprofit, charitable service provider, supporting more than 400 charitable funds totaling $190 million in assets and distributing $20 million in grants in 2011. Each fund represents a unique charitable giving partnership with an area individual, family or business. More information on the Foundation is available at www.stlouisgives.org.