OGLESBY – Recent Illinois Valley Community College graduates Devanshi Patel of La Salle and Jacob Ritko of Streator are the recipients of full-tuition William and Dian Taylor scholarships to Northern Illinois University.
Patel won the Taylor STEM scholarship and Ritko the accountancy award. Each is worth more than $25,000 for the students’ junior and senior years at NIU.
After graduation, Patel plans to attend medical school and become a physician.
She was IVCC’s 2020 Frederick W. Matthiessen Award winner, 2020 Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) All-Illinois Academic Team member, former IVCC PTK President, 2019 IVCC Foundation co-21st Century Scholar, peer tutor and former emergency room volunteer at Illinois Valley Community Hospital in Peru.
Ritko will pursue NIU bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting before sitting for the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) exam. He hopes to eventually work for a Big Four accounting firm. An IVCC peer tutor, he also served as treasurer of both PTK and the Chem Club.
In his recommendation letter, IVCC accounting instructor Rick Serafini said Ritko was the best accounting student he has had in nearly 20 years of teaching.
Bill and Dian Taylor of Winnetka are graduates of IVCC and NIU. In 2013, IVCC honored their philanthropy by naming its new counseling complex The William and Dian Taylor Student Development Commons.
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