A total of 19 students have benefited from Bernie's scholarship since its inception
JACKSONVILLE, Florida – September 27, 2019 — The opportunity for seven aspiring theatre artists to pursue their college education is one step closer for those who have been awarded college scholarships from a fund honoring Bernie G. Yvon, a beloved Chicago-area actor who passed away in 2014. The scholarships are made possible through the Bernie G. Yvon Memorial Fund, which was established at The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida in 2015 by his parents and supported by contributions of hundreds of friends and colleagues.
Awards of $500 each have been presented to these outstanding performing/theatre arts students for the 2019-2020 school year.
PABLO ANTON of La Mesa, CA will attend Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA
ELENA CRAMER of Stevens Point, WI will continue at The University of Wisconsin in Stevens Point, WI
SAMANTHA JENKINS of St. Johns, FL will attend The Boston Conservatory at Berklee in Boston, MA
TEAH MIRABELLI of Lake Zurich, IL will attend Ball State University in Muncie, IN
AUSTIN NEDROW of Lancaster, PA will attend The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
MICHAEL SEMANIC of Naperville, IL will attend Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA
HANNAH TARR of Floyds Knobs, IN will attend The University of Evansville in Evansville, IN
“It’s so heartening to see how this scholarship has grown since it was established, and we are thrilled that nineteen students have now been touched by Bernie’s legacy,” his father, Professor Bernard Rene Yvon, commented. “As we said when we established the scholarship, Bernie had a happy life, and he made many other people happy. We want to give others the opportunity to do the same.”
The Bernie G. Yvon Memorial Fund makes scholarships annually in Bernie’s memory; to donate to the fund, please go to www.jaxcf.org/donate, type Yvon in the search box and follow the instructions.
About Bernie G. Yvon (1964-2014)
Bernie was raised in Old Town, Maine and after graduation from Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, quickly became a fixture in Chicago-area live theater. For three decades, he was the consummate song-and-dance man, performing in such classics as Cabaret, Mary Poppins, The Music Man, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. The majority of his career was in Chicago, but he played the role of Harry Houdini in the national tour of Ragtime, and also worked on Broadway and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.