Tricia E. Black Memorial Scholarship

Tricia Elaine Black was an extraordinary graduate of Indiana University. As a cherished student and friend, she is remembered for her courage, joy, and abiding message of hope that will inspire generations to come. Tricia's memory lives on in countless ways. With your help over the last 9 years, the Tricia E. Black Memorial Scholarship fund has provided an annual merit-based scholarship for graduating high school seniors at North Central High School.

We are now launching a fundraising campaign to create an academic scholarship in memory of Tricia at Indiana University (IU). Tricia’s fellow IU alumni and friends are dedicated to supporting emerging leaders who carry with them the academic talent and commitment to community action and public service Tricia embodied throughout her remarkable life. With your help, we can endow the IU scholarship and continue to honor Tricia's legacy.

This campaign is kicking off in celebration of what would have been Tricia's 40th birthday on April 24th. Tricia was always such a wise soul who had an amazing way with words. Never more so than as she bravely battled the cancer that would eventually take her life. 

This excerpt from a blog post she wrote on her 30th birthday continues to inspire: 

And to any of you feeling old out there, I insist you stop immediately. Consider the alternative. I have. Did I ever imagine at 30 I would be facing my own mortality so starkly? Never. But I also could not have imagined the 30 wonderful years I have behind me which have been jam packed with love, laughter, light, joy, and happiness. Admittedly, I am a victim of the rose-colored glasses of hindsight, but truly, until I was diagnosed with cancer nothing really awful had ever happened to me. I led a fairly charmed life. And perhaps that is why I was given this burden. Regardless, today I am 30 years old. I am married to the man I love and mother to a bright, healthy little boy. I am surrounded and supported by family and friends, and, through the generosity of that network and strangers alike have been able to make have some positive impact on the fight against cancer. As I said at the start of this journey...don't despair for me. My cup runneth over.               

Additional background on Tricia:

Tricia attended Indiana University-Bloomington for college, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. In 2001, Tricia graduated magna cum laude from Indiana University School of Law-Bloomington, where she was elected to the Orders of Coif and Barristers. Her law school class awarded her the "Outstanding Contribution to Student Life Award" for truly magnificent leadership and services to the law school community.

Tricia practiced law at the Chicago, Illinois law firm of Neal Gerber & Eisenberg before returning to Indianapolis in 2003, where she last served as a law clerk to the Indiana Court of Appeals. Tricia was diagnosed with stage IV metastatic melanoma in May 2005. Shortly after her diagnosis, she and her friends created Teb's Troops, a non-for-profit organization dedicated to providing funding for cancer research and treatment. Tricia chronicled her battle with cancer, oftentimes with brutal honesty, on her blog at www.tebspage.blogspot.com. For these collective efforts in her fight against cancer, she was named a Hoosier Hero by Fox 59 and was named a Torchbearer by the Indiana Cancer Center.