The graduate committee for the communication studies department has begun working to create a scholarship in the name of Leah Vande Berg.

Vande Berg was a professor in the communication studies department until the end of last semester when she died of ovarian cancer. She taught at Sacramento State since 1990.

&Leah was on the graduate committee and was very dedicated to helping graduate students,& said Peggy Allan, an administrative support coordinator for the communication studies department.

Allan is coordinating the project and said that she hopes to award the first scholarship during this semester.

Vice President of Academic Affairs Ric Brown said the scholarship will only be available to graduate students in the communication studies department.

Vande Berg&s husband, Nick Trujillo, a professor in the communication studies department, said the scholarship was &the idea of several of her colleagues who knew her and knew she was dedicated to the graduate students.&

&We&re hoping the scholarship fund will get to the level of endowment, which is $10,000, during spring,& said Chris Miller, the interim graduate coordinator for communication studies.

The scholarship began while Vande Berg was still living, so she was able to help write the requirements and the details, which included a stipulation that the scholarship be endowed before anyone can receive it.

Allan said there will not be a set amount for the scholarship.

&That way we are free to award more or less, depending on how much interest we get from the endowment account in any given semester,& she said.

&In lieu of flowers her husband Nick asked that people give money to the University of Iowa or to ovarian cancer research. This is just one more way for people who knew her to give,& Brown said.

Trujillo said the University of Iowa, where Vande Berg earned all of her degrees including her doctorate, has established another scholarship in Vande Berg&s name, as well as an annual lecture in media studies to be given by graduates of the university. The lecture will be presented with the help of fundraising.

&There is no better way to honor her memory than to support the students who are doing the type of work that she spent her life working for, and that&s what the graduate students are doing,& said Nick Burnett, another professor in the communications studies department.

To donate to the Leah Vande Berg Scholarship Fund students can send a check to the CSUS Trust Foundation or to the communications department to the attention of Peggy Allan.