ChristinE (Reynolds) Ashburn: First Peoria Alumni honored by the UIS peoria Alumni Memorial Scholarship
With the Benefits of her MBA Ahead of Her...
Christine (Reynolds) Ashburn was a member of the first UIS Peoria MBA Cohort. She had previously completed her Management Degree through UIS' Peoria Program. Having achieved her goal of an MBA, Christine continued her career in the Business Intelligence Group at Caterpillar Inc., met and married a wonderful man, and then discovered she had a rare form of cancer. That cancer took her life in February 2008.
Through a scholarship funded by a group of Peoria alumni, Christine's memory will live on. Through this scholarship, another hard-working student, probably with a family and a job as well as a strong desire to improve his or her life, will receive a little help on the way to those dreams.
If you make a gift in Christine's honor, please make a note of this in the comment box on the online giving page, so we can honor your gift properly. Thank you!
To further honor Christine, we'd like to include a few memories of her kindness and gracious spirit. If you have a story about Christine, please use the link at left (Send Us Your Question) to send us your story. We'll add it to our page of memories.
Here's one such story from Susan Blocker, co-chair of the committee that initiated the scholarship:
Warm Hearted and Thoughtful
Christine and Susan Blocker were both in the first MBA cohort. As graduation approached, the cohort felt a degree of sadness. One of their group, which became very close during the two-year program, would not be able to attend the graduation ceremony. Weeks before the date, Tom Nieukirk was deployed overseas.
Christine had a solution. Working with Jana Wise, director of the Peoria Center and with staff in Springfield, she arranged for Tom’s five-year-old son, Brandon, to walk across the stage, carrying his father’s mortar board and accepting his father’s degree in his place.
“Tom was the only member of the entire class to get a standing ovation, and he wasn’t even there,” says Susan Blocker, a good friend of Christine’s and a graduate of the same MBA cohort. “Christine made that happen.”