JACKSON WOMAN NAMED TO RECEIVE NURSING SCHOLARSHIP

J. Michelle Wren of Jackson has been named to receive a St. Francis Medical Center Auxiliary Healthcare Scholarship.

A student in the associate nursing degree program at Shawnee Community College, Wren is among 10 area residents pursuing health-related careers who have been named to receive scholarships from the auxiliary. Each scholarship is worth $1,000.

The scholarships are awarded annually based on a number of factors including financial need and the willingness of recipients to sign service contracts in which they agree to work at least one year on a full- or part-time basis as a health care professional at St. Francis.

The 10 educational grants have been endowed or named in honor of Dr. and Mrs. Raymond A. Ritter Sr., Dr. Mark F. Scully, the Sisters of St. Francis, the St. Francis Auxiliary, Mrs. Bess Estes, the late Juli Huttegger and Karen Scherer, the late Lucy Ellen Towse and the late Clara D. Newman.

Approximately $70,000 in scholarships have been awarded by the auxiliary since the first scholarships were presented in 1980.

"Many of the scholarship recipients from the past have become valuable members of the healthcare community here in Cape Girardeau," said Edythe M. Davis, executive director of the St. Francis Foundation and advisor to the auxiliary.

Davis noted that Connie Simmons, M.D., a pediatrician who began her practice in Cape Girardeau earlier this month, was recipient of the first Dr. Raymond A. and Lillian K. Ritter Scholarship in 1988.

Others named to receive scholarships were: Brian Ziegler of Kelso; Sandra Torbet of Cape Girardeau; Ronald Ethridge of Cairo, Ill.; Kimberly Klimowicz of Marion, Ill.; Therese Brown of Cape Girardeau; Jennifer Felter of Benton; Julie Caplan of Cape Girardeau; and Cathy Patterson of Cape Girardeau.