Taylor awarded a PEO Program for Continuing Education Grant
Chapter LS Program for Continuing Education grant recipient Abigail Taylor, left, and PCE Co-chairs Jane Denny, standing, and Pat Henderson, seated, right
Abigail Taylor, a School of Nursing student at SIU Edwardsville, was awarded a P.E.O. Program for Continuing Education grant by Chapter LS of the P.E.O. International Sisterhood, Edwardsville, December 3, 2021. She was awarded the maximum of $3,000 for the 2022 Spring Semester.
From Arthur, Illinois, Abby is enrolled in the Accelerated Bachelor of Science in nursing option, ABS, and will complete her degree Fall Semester 2022. She is the daughter of Michelle Schrock and Jeff Taylor and is a 2010 graduate of Arthur High School.
In 2015 Abby completed a baccalaureate degree in social services from Eastern Illinois University. As an undergraduate, she interned in a domestic violence shelter. Following graduation, she worked as a case manager for an Illinois early intervention program. Both positions were so rewarding in serving children and women that she considered continuing this work personally and professionally.
Encouraged to continue her education, Abby discovered the ABS option, an intense, three semester, curriculum, designed for students seeking a second baccalaureate degree. She enrolled in the program this past summer and reports that she cannot wait to become a nurse, a dream since high school. Abby’s enthusiasm and dedication to her ABS program, the pleasure and pride she expresses in her courses, and her longstanding dedication to serving women and children, are obvious. She looks forward to working in this chosen profession, nursing, immediately upon graduation. Abby intends to “obtain a position working as an OB/GYN nurse” because “serving other women” is something she is “so passionate about” and finds “extremely rewarding.”
The P.E.O. Program for Continuing Education is a highly competitive grant that assists women whose education has been interrupted or delayed. With specific eligibility requirements, it is intended for education-related expenses and careful consideration is given to the needs of each candidate.
The Philanthropic Educational Organization was founded on January 21, 1869, by seven students at Iowa Wesleyan College in Mount Pleasant, Iowa. True to the mission of promoting education opportunities for women, education continues to be the primary philanthropy of the P.E.O.
