June 15, 2009

Notre Dame, Ind – For decades the Monogram Club has awarded thousands of dollars each year in scholarships to undergraduate students at Notre Dame through the Brennan-Boland-Riehle Scholarship. This spring, for the first time in club history, the Monogram Club has awarded two postgraduate scholarships to Monogram winners who will be attending graduate school in the fall of 2009.

The inaugural recipients of the Monogram Club Postgraduate Scholarships are volleyball player Mallorie Croal ’09 and football player Thomas Bemenderfer ’09.

The stipend for each Monogram Club Postgraduate Scholarship is a one-time, nonrenewable grant of $5,000, paid directly by the Monogram Club to the institution in which the recipient is enrolled for graduate study.

Early in the spring semester, the Monogram Club contacted all graduating Monogram winners to inform them of the new scholarship. The response the club received was tremendous.

“I am very impressed with the number of quality candidates who applied for the scholarship” Said Joe Restic, president of the Monogram Club, “The Postgraduate Scholarship will be a great tradition established by the Monogram Club.”

Croal, a two-time captain of the Irish volleyball team, graduated in May from the Mendoza College of Business with a 3.7 GPA while majoring in management consulting. In addition to her work in the classroom and on the court, Croal remained active on campus and in the community. She volunteered at Memorial Hospital, helped organize Fit For Fun Healthy Kids Day and served four years on the Student-Athlete Advisory Council.

Beginning this fall Croal will return home to enroll at the University of San Diego to pursue her master’s degree in nursing. Upon completion of her masters, Croal looks utilize both her nursing and business degrees.

“A dream of mine is to put my business degree from Notre Dame to use with my nursing degree.” Croal says, “One day I would love to work in hospital administration.”

Bemenderfer, a reserve offensive lineman on the Irish football team, graduated this May with a 3.8 GPA from the College of Science with a degree in science managment. He is a three-time member of the Dean’s List and made a 4.0 GPA for four consecutive semesters.

Prior to the 2007 and 2008 campaigns he was one of select group of walk-on players to receive a one-year scholarship from Coach Weis.

A two-time Monogram winner, Bemenderfer will enroll this fall at the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis. There he will study to become an orthopedic surgeon and one day he hopes to have his own practice but his ultimate goal is to interact with and affect as many patients as possible in a positive way.

“My ultimate hope is to be able to fall asleep every night knowing that I have actually helped someone improve the quality of his or her life.” Bemenderfer says, “Becoming a doctor has been an aspiration of mine for as long as I have dreamed, and as being such, I will do any amount of work necessary to fulfill this dream.”

While Croal and Bemenderfer each plan to attend different graduate schools, they both share an appreciation for the Monogram Club for providing them with their scholarships.

“It was an amazing honor to be selected among so many talented and nationally recognized fellow student-athletes of the class of 2009.” Bemenderfer said, “I am very thankful to the Monogram Club and all the supportive people that have been a part of my life.”

“I would like to thank everyone involved in making this scholarship possible.” Croal says, “I am truly honored to be a part of the first ever recipients of Monogram Club Postgraduate Scholarship.”