New Radiation Therapy Scholarship Supports Student's Need to Serve

When life took a sudden turn in a different direction than planned, Tabatha Sauer saw an opportunity to switch careers and to support others in their times of need. Her own family’s history was on her mind.

“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.”

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. The scholarship is awarded to a full-time junior or senior student with a declared major in radiation therapy. The scholarship is the first to be offered specifically to SLU’s radiation therapy students.

The scholarship was awarded to Sauer in the spring semester. She will receive $5,000 per semester until the end of her senior year. The award will total $15,000 in financial aid. 

“I was shocked when I read the letter telling me I would be receiving the scholarship,” Sauer said. “I felt an overwhelming sense of thankfulness. 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.”

Future recipients will be awarded in the fall semester, which brings the maximum potential value of the scholarship to $20,000.

This scholarship is the second that the family of Gordon Niethe and Lillian Lopez has funded at SLU. The family also awards the Gordon Niethe and Lillian Lopez Memorial Scholarship in Meteorology. Students Alyssa Otten and Matthew Roark received this year’s Niethe and Lopez meteorology scholarships.

Learn more about SLU's Radiation Therapy program in the Doisy College of Health Sciences here.