A scholarship fund that honors an Iowa family’s three generations of commitment to higher education has been awarded to two students from Iowa City and Spencer, Iowa.

First-year University of Iowa Doctor of Physical Therapy students Katherine Bird and Clare Goeken have been named the 2015-16 recipients of the Louis and Dorothy Laubenthal Memorial Scholarship. The scholarship, established in 2011, commemorates the Laubenthals’ belief in the value of education by providing financial assistance to first-year students in the UI Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science.

Louis and Dorothy Laubenthal were born and raised in Emmetsburg, Iowa. They had very limited educational opportunities while growing up in rural Iowa in the early 1900s. Though they were academically gifted, family considerations required them to enter the workforce and forgo higher education.

Thanks to the generosity of Louis and Dorothy’s grandson, Chris Laubenthal, this scholarship has been established to recognize the Laubenthals’ belief in the importance of education. The scholarship—the only of its kind in a department currently ranked fourth nationally by U.S.News & World Report among public institutions—is awarded to students in their first year of study toward a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree.

Both Katharine Bird, who is from Iowa City, Iowa, and Clare Goeken, who is from Spencer, Iowa, graduated from their designated colleges with honors and are excited to begin their journey in the physical therapy program.

The Laubenthal family has deep ties with the university and the UI Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science.