The Kathleen S. Blahunka Resilience Scholarship Award

The Kathleen S. Blahunka Resilience Scholarship Award is given annually to a student at Central Michigan University who has shown extraordinary resilience to a personal or family health challenge. Qualified recipients must be students who have endured cancer (or other significant health condition) or supported an immediate family member with cancer. Kathleen Blahunka (Bank) attended CMU from 1979-1983 and received her Bachelor of Science in Education degree in 1983, with a major in Child Development and a minor in Reading. Kathleen was a two-time Hodgkin's cancer survivor by age sixteen, and despite her difficult health situation, she overcame her adversity and received her teaching degree with "extraordinary resilience." Kathleen had an incredible love for reading, and she was able to apply her expertise by teaching early literacy reading and writing skills to her first grade students. During her 20+ year elementary teaching career, Kathleen taught over 500 children to read and write. Her passion for teaching young children and her early literacy expertise inspired the lives of hundreds of her students. Kathleen was a friend to her teaching colleagues, a kind soul who loved children, and a loving wife and mother to her family. It is the hope of the donors that the scholarship recipients can use Kathleen's story as a source of inspiration as they complete their education and become productive citizens in our community. Kathleen passed away in 2020.