The family of Roxanne Yagelski is pleased to announce that on May 14th 2014 the first bi-annual Roxanne Yagelski “Mom Returning to College” Scholarship was awarded to Erica Childress, at Ivy Tech Community College in Valparaiso, Indiana.
Roxanne who was a loving, caring, and devoted mom, took a break from school at an early age to raise her two children Holly and Joseph. After successfully getting them both off to college, she decided to return to college to obtain her sought after degree.
In December of 2009 Roxanne was diagnosed with breast cancer and had to again stop taking classes. In August of 2013, it was discovered that Roxanne had succeeded in earning enough credits for a degree. At a beautiful ceremony at Ivy Tech on August 20th 2013 she was awarded her Associates of Science Degree in Liberal Arts in front of family, friends, and faculty. At this time it was decided to begin a scholarship in Roxanne’s honor to be awarded to a “Mom returning to College” twice a year.
Unfortunately Roxanne passed away from cancer after a 3 ½ year battle on October 28th 2013, yet her legacy will live on forever. With donations from family and friends enough money was raised to support two $500.00 scholarships to be awarded in the spring and summer of each year for eternity!
Erica Childress our first recipient, who attends the Valparaiso Campus is pursuing a career in Design Technology. Erica accompanied by her daughter Izabella attended the check presentation at
Ivy Tech with Roxanne’s husband Chris, her mother and father Maryann and Jim Cross, Aco Sikoski Ivy Tech Valparaiso Campus President, and Cindy Hall Executive Director of Resource Development. We were so proud to award Erica the first of many mom returning to College Scholarships and we know Roxanne would have been so happy to see this occur.
For future considerations applicants must attend an Ivy Tech campus, be a mom, maintain a 3.5 GPA, and must have successfully completed 12 credit hours within their plan of study. The only other request is that each applicant write a brief essay as to their story and submit a picture of their family.