Victor & Angelia Rezen Memorial Scholarship Fund
Criteria: (One $1,250 Award) The Victor and Angelia Rezen Memorial Scholarship will provide financial assistance to an undergraduate student who is academically excellent and is committed to continuing his/her education and becoming an audiologist. To be selected the student must meet all of the following criteria: be a student entering his/her senior year in the Communication Sciences & Disorders Department; is committed to pursuing his/her education and becoming an audiologist after completing his/her course work and degree at Worcester State University; submits a letter of recommendation from a member of the Worcester State University Communication Sciences and Disorders Audiology faculty attesting to his/her commitment to continuing his/her education to become an audiologist and his/her worthiness for selection for this award (Please send an original letter to the Financial Aid Office in Room 150 the Shaughnessy Administration Building.); and has a GPA of 3.5 or higher. However, a student with a lower GPA will be considered if his/her letter of recommendation from the Audiology faculty member indicates that the academic record will enable the student to obtain entrance to a doctoral program in audiology. Each candidate must submit an essay with his/her application describing his/her motivation and desire to become an audiologist.
Professor Emerita Susan V. Rezen, Ph.D., has honored her parents by creating a scholarship in their memory. Dr. Rezen, an audiologist in the Communication Sciences and Disorders Department, grew up on a 300-acre dairy farm in upstate New York. Her father, Victor Rezen, quit school after the tenth grade to help support his family. Although he started with little in terms of material advantages, his hard work and wise investments enabled him to accumulate substantial wealth. He was a town judge and member of the town board for twenty-seven years. He was also a self-taught musician, playing the violin as a young man and the organ in his retirement. He encouraged his two daughters to do their best in all they did, sometimes remarking, “That is wonderful that you earned an A, but could you get an A+ next time?”
Angelia Rezen was a high school graduate who worked beside her husband on the farm, kept house and garden, and raised their two children. She was involved in church and community activities such as 4H and was a Republican county committee woman for over twenty years. She wrote a booklet describing a committee person’s duties. She and Mr. Rezen enjoyed traveling, touring much of the United States as well as visiting Canada, Brazil, South Africa, and Europe with Dr. Rezen. Mrs. Rezen often told her daughter, “No matter what my body says, I will always be twenty or thirty in my mind.”
Dr. Rezen, who joined Worcester State University in 1980, worked on the family farm until the age of twenty. She earned a master’s degree from Purdue University and a Ph.D. from Syracuse University. She is married to Chris Debow, a retired Marine band leader and current piano technician. She notes, “Both my parents valued hard work, determination, education, and financial conservatism. In addition, they inspired my sister and me with their compassionate and giving natures. People always turned to them for help in times of need.”
This scholarship will be awarded annually to a full-time, undergraduate student in the Communication Sciences and Disorders department who intends to pursue his/her doctorate in audiology and a career as an audiologist. Rezen adds, “My hope is that this scholarship will help deserving students and perpetuate my parents’ values of determination, hard work, and academic excellence.”