EIU Women's Studies

Scholarships

Fall Deadline... December 10, 2021

The Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program is excited to announce the endowment and official naming of the Amelia Daddazio Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Fund (formerly the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Empowerment Fund). This fund is named in honor of Amelia Daddazio, a “real, tough woman who made it through a hard life with grace and style.” Money from this fund will be awarded for student projects that aim to lessen the effects of inequity or injustice, either locally, nationally, or globally. Projects whose mission are gender-focused will be prioritized. The recipient(s) will be full-time undergraduate students in good standing at Eastern Illinois University, enrolled in the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program and/or working with Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies faculty members on their projects.

Amelia Daddazio, born in 1926, was the mother of longtime Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies faculty member Carol D. Stevens. She married her high school sweetheart in 1943, bore two children before the age of 22, and a third when she was in her 40’s. After 32 years of marriage, she found herself divorced with no source of income, serious health issues, and a toddler to raise on her own. She coped. She raised three very independently-minded children, including two strongly feminist daughters. She taught her children to respect themselves and others and to place a high value on their formal educations as well as good common sense. She believed her daughters needed Erector Sets as well as dolls and tea sets, and that her son needed cuddly toys and boy dolls as well as trucks. She was both strong and very caring, sharing whatever she could even during times when she had very little. She welcomed her children’s friends as she did all guests in her home, regardless of race, color, sexual orientation, beliefs, or any of the other distinctions some still use to create division. She loved laughter and feeding people, preferably at the same time. She always cooked “extra,” so that no “drop-in” who came to her door would ever be allowed to leave hungry. She maintained a clear-headed independence until she died in 2011 at the age of 85. She met death with unfailing courage, dignity, and a sense of humor, joking with her children and other visitors, doctors, nurses, and staff. The Amelia Daddazio Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Grant honors this brave and funny woman by allowing students funds for projects that better the lives of women and children everywhere.

Amelia Daddazio Women's Studies Fund Application (click here) 

Additional funding may be available to Women's Studies Minors