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Student Awarded First Ever Radiation Therapy Scholarship at SLU

Tabatha Sauer, a junior in the Radiation Therapy program at Saint Louis University, was recently named the first recipient of the Gordon Niethe and Lillian Lopez Memorial Scholarship. This scholarship is intended for a full-time student that is a junior or senior with a declared major in radiation therapy. This scholarship is the first at Saint Louis University to be offered specifically to radiation therapy students.

Sauer was awarded the scholarship in the spring semester and will receive $5,000 a semester every semester until the end of her senior year, which will total $15,000 in financial aid. Future recipients will be awarded in the fall semester, which brings the maximum potential value of the scholarship to $20,000.

Sauer was very grateful to learn that she had been named the first recipient of the radiation therapy scholarship.

“I was shocked when I read the letter telling me I would be receiving the scholarship…I felt an overwhelming sense of thankfulness,” Sauer said. This semester is the last semester I am eligible for most of the other grants and scholarships I receive, so the Gordon Niethe and Lillian Lopez Memorial Scholarship could not have come at a better time.”

Sauer made the decision to go into radiation therapy in order to help people – both her own family and others.

“When I became a single mother of four children, I needed to change careers so that I could provide for my family. I chose radiation therapy because it would enable me to help people in a time of need,” Sauer said. “My grandmother is a stage-4 lung cancer survivor. When she was receiving radiation therapy, she always spoke very highly of her therapists. They had a positive impact on her during a very frightening time in her life, and I want to do the same for others.”

This scholarship is the second that the family of Gordon Niethe and Lillian Lopez graciously fund at Saint Louis University. The family also awards the Gordon Niethe and Lillian Lopez Memorial Scholarship in Meteorology. The awardees for the 2017-2018 school year for the Meteorology scholarship are Alyssa Otten and Matthew Roark.

Learn more about SLU’s Radiation Therapy program