The Josephine, Petro and Maria Witkowicz scholarship fund was established by Maria Witkowicz, 1971 Pius X graduate, in honor and memory of her parents.

Poland, Ukraine, Germany, Australia, New York, Lincoln.

God loves each of us so much that He has a special, unique plan for each of us. Quite often that plan zigs and zags towards the destination He wants us to arrive at.  Josephine was born in Poland and Petro was born in Ukraine at the beginning of the rise of Nazi Germany. After only completing seven years of formal education, at the age of 15, Josephine was forcibly taken from her home and transported to Germany to work on a German farm as a slave laborer.  Shortly thereafter Petro, with only four years of formal education, was forcibly taken from his home and transported to Germany to work as a slave laborer in a German coal mine.  After the end of World War II, it took several years for the victorious Allied Forces to process the millions of displaced persons in Germany.  During this process numerous Displaced Persons camps were established.  It was in one of those camps that Josephine and Petro met and were married.  After marriage and two children later Josephine and Petro were given the opportunity to emigrate from Germany.  They decided not to go back to either of their homelands because their respective countries were being controlled by the Russians. The correspondence they received from those that chose to go back to their homelands encouraged them to go elsewhere.  They chose Australia but due to quarantine issues “missed the boat”.  After quarantine the next available boat’s destination was the United States.  In early 1951 they finally departed Germany and arrived in New York on March 3,1951. Departing that same day on a train, the family arrived in Lincoln, Nebraska just before midnight on March 5.

Maria was born in Lincoln Nebraska in 1953, attended Sacred Heart School and graduated from Pius in 1971.  In 1979 Maria graduated from the University of Nebraska Lincoln with an Accounting degree and in 1987 earned her MBA from UNL.  For the last 15 years of her working career Maria worked for the Nebraska Hospital Association.

Josephine and Petro felt that education was the key to a better life.  They were both blue collar workers and their jobs were physically demanding.  They felt that the more education a person had, the better chance that person would have a “good job”.  It is in honor and memory of their encouragement and emotional support that Maria established the “Josephine, Petro and Maria Witkowicz Scholarship Fund.”