Bonnie Norway Keeley ('58) Scholarship

Bonita Lou (Bonnie) Norway Keeley was a Western Illinois University honor graduate, receiving her BS in Education in 1958. Having majored in Kindergarten to Primary, upon graduation Bonnie was recruited to teach in Southern California before marrying James Keeley in 1959 and raising a family of five children as a military wife.
At Western, Bonnie made lifelong friends, including her Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority sisters. Raised in the small farming community of Annawan, Illinois, she was the first in her family to complete a bachelor’s degree. Bonnie’s education would not have been possible without extraordinary efforts on the part of her mother and extended family members to raise the funds to cover her expenses.
After substitute teaching at various military bases while her children were young, Bonnie spent most of her full-time teaching career in grades K-2 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, retiring in 2000 after 20 years of service. Bonnie was a stellar teacher, receiving the Teacher of the Year award from Mountain View Elementary in 1990. Bonnie was included in Who’ Who in American Education. She received her Master’s degree in Computers in Education from Lesley College in the 1990s.
This scholarship commemorates the positive experiences Bonnie enjoyed at Western and her dedication to teaching in elementary education. Bonnie’s legacy of love of learning and academic work ethic continues through her 18 children and grandchildren, most of whom have completed a bachelor’s degree, with several master’s and doctorate degrees included. The scholarship donors hope to assist other students in their pursuit of higher education and service to children through an Elementary Education career.

CRITERIA:

• Full time Junior or Senior
• Major in Elementary Education
• Financial need
• Submit a brieft statement of the applicants’s motivation for pursuing a career in elementary education