Doctors Roger and Carol Sheldon have deep regard for Illinois Wesleyan University for many reasons-the academic preparation they had to succeed as physicians, the relationships they formed with professors and classmates, and the financial assistance they received to make the IWU experience possible.

Now they are giving current and future students those same opportunities through financial gifts, including the establishment of the Dr. Roger Sheldon '64 and Dr. Carol Thompson Sheldon '65 Endowed Promise Scholarship.

As a student, Roger was a biology major and served as president of Student Senate, along with lending his bass voice to the Collegiate Choir and the Apollo Quartet. "For those of us majoring in biology, once we passed Dr. [Dorothea] Franzen's comparative anatomy course, we figured we were good for anything," Roger quips. After graduation in 1964, Roger received a full-ride scholarship to Northwestern University Medical School. "Anatomy in medical school was kind of a walk because we had such a solid background."

Even though Carol majored in math at IWU, she also took all premed courses. She says she, too, felt solidly prepared for medical school, and not just academically. "Dr. Franzen really encouraged me and the other women as well as the men," Carol recalls. She did not attend medical school at the University of Colorado until years after her graduation from IWU in 1965.

"Knowing our IWU teachers so well ended up being very important," Carol says. "Ten years after graduation, when I needed references for medical school, I could go back, call my IWU professors, and reach people who remembered me and could write a meaningful recommendation."

Those personal relationships are part of what motivates Carol to support Illinois Wesleyan with financial gifts. "It was nice to be in a small school where everyone knew you," says Carol, who served as secretary of Student Senate and has remained close to several Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority sisters for more than five decades. "I would like others to have that same experience."

During his long career as a physician, Roger practiced newborn intensive care or neonatology. The Sheldon family moved to Oklahoma City in 1979 after Carol completed medical school. Roger became section chief for newborn intensive care at the University of Oklahoma. Carol practiced general diagnostic radiology for many years. She then joined two radiology partners in starting a breast diagnostic center. The Sheldons retired and moved to Minnesota in 2010.

Roger notes that both he and Carol grew up in families of modest means. "We were really helped by scholarships from several sources, and so we feel that the benefits we received from that assistance should be paid back to others," Roger says.

The Sheldons have been donors to the annual fund for many years, but in 2015 they established the endowed promise scholarship that bears their names. "We're focusing on that giving right now," Roger says. "We want to help an individual or group of individuals who might not have as easy of a time affording Illinois Wesleyan without some financial assistance."

Like the Sheldons, you can make a difference in students' lives at IWU. Find out how by contacting Steve Seibring '81 at 309-556-3135 or [email protected] today.