NIU student Cassidy Sweeney was awarded the 2024-2025 Midwest Deans Association (MDA) Legacy Scholarship sponsored by the Association of Schools Advancing Health Professions (ASAHP). The Legacy Scholarship program was established to honor the legacies of current and former deans and directors of the Midwest Association of Allied Health Deans of Academic Health Centers and includes a $2,500 award. 
“Receiving this award is an incredible honor,” said Sweeney, who is majoring in health sciences. “I have always worked as much as I can to be able to afford tuition, and I really don’t have the words to truly express how much this scholarship means to me financially.”
Each year, the scholarship is awarded to students with at least one semester remaining in their undergraduate or graduate entry-level professional program who possess professional and interpersonal qualities that indicate that they are likely to establish their own legacies of excellence in service, teaching, and/or research in the allied health professions.
“Cassidy has consistently exemplified the scholarship’s core values of service, interprofessional collaboration, and leadership,” said Shondra Clay, interim chair, NIU School of Interdisciplinary Health Professions. “I have no doubt that she will leave a lasting legacy demonstrated in leadership and full of service.”
Sweeney will graduate in May and pursue her Doctor of Physical Therapy degree from NIU.
“I am beyond grateful to be staying at NIU for PT school,” Sweeney said. “Graduate school is expensive and knowing that I have this extra support early on means the world to me. It gives me the chance to put the time and level of dedication into my education that I’d like.”
She plans to pay the support forward, whether it’s by helping future students, mentoring others, or just being the kind of physical therapist who makes a real, lasting impact.
“Thank you for investing in me and my future,” Sweeney said. “It truly means the world.”
