Brilliant Futures
Alumna establishes scholarship for working mothers By Jessica Canlas
A
“When we arrived in Boston, the Red Cross gave us delicious powdered-sugar donuts,” Kirklys recalls. “I remember taking one—it was so good, and the lady handing them out told me I could take as many as I wanted. “We knew then we had arrived in America.” Shortly afterward, the family got on a train headed for Chicago where two other family members had already settled. When Kirklys began attending elementary school, she couldn’t speak, read or write English. “I liked math the best because English was not needed,” she recalls. “I always liked science and math much more than other subjects.” After high school and two years in junior college, Kirklys decided to pursue her love of science and 18 | UIC Pharmacist | Winter 2012 | pharmalumni.uic.edu
Courtesy of Therese Kirklys
native of Lithuania, Therese Kirklys, bs ’77, came to the United States in 1949 at age nine after having fled her home to escape the threat of violence and persecution during World War II. Before arriving in the United States, Kirklys and her family traveled through the rubble of Europe, living a survivalist, nomadic lifestyle for one year before transferring through three different displaced persons camps in Germany for the next four years. She, her two brothers, and her parents then boarded a British military ship for Boston.
enroll in pharmacy school. With two young children in preschool, she struggled to balance her life as a parent and student. With the help of neighbor friends who also had young children, Kirklys was able to secure care for her children, which afforded her time to attend class in the evenings, after the children went to bed. On the weekends, she offered cleaning services to a local Montessori preschool, which allowed her to enroll her younger son, tuition-free. “I studied very, very hard because I really wanted to be a pharmacist,” says Kirklys. “The College of