“When we started this endeavor of honoring my uncle, we never dreamed we’d end up here.”
Four years ago, Kevin Keehle, his wife Sue Keehle ’07, and their family sought to keep alive the legacy of Kevin’s late uncle, Francis Wilcox.
While Francis never attended Utica University – he earned his bachelor’s degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and his master’s from Cornell – the University’s longstanding commitment to accessibility and social mobility paralleled with his own values. The Francis A. Wilcox Fellowship program, funded through Francis’s estate, was born of an idea to enhance Utica’s ability to recruit and enroll the most promising students regardless of financial need.
Today, the Wilcox Fellowship, the largest endowed scholarship fund in Utica University’s history, provides $5,000 scholarships annually to now more than a dozen current students. Last week, as they do every fall, Kevin and Sue, Francis’s sister Marilyn Keehle, and his sister-in-law Mary Wilcox, visited campus, where they were joined at a special reception with the Wilcox Fellows.
“When we started this endeavor of honoring my uncle, we never dreamed we’d end up here,” Kevin says, reflecting on the extraordinary impact the fellowship program has already had on so many students’ lives.
One of those students is Kaw Christ ’26. Christ was part of the first cohort of Wilcox Fellows, who four years later number 14.
“Being a Wilcox Fellow has been an incredible journey,” says Christ, a nutrition major. “Coming from a low-income household, pursuing higher education was a financial challenge. This program has lifted that burden. It allows me to focus on my education, grow, and make the people who have supported me proud.”
The following students were selected as Wilcox Fellows: Christ, Skylar Madison Conkling-Polovic (Biology), Cody Hyney (Physical and Health Education), Annabella Jayson (Business Administration), Hannah Loebbaka (Health Studies – Occupational Therapy), Trent Marinella (Physical Therapy), Lily Mazur (Psychology), Genna McCallum, Daija Morris (Biology), Taylor Quick (Occupational Therapy), Philtya Santos (Health Studies – Occupational Therapy), Jacob Sweeney (Physical Therapy), Emily Walther (Physical Therapy), and Ryleigh Williams (Biochemistry).
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