Three Education students have won a $2,000 Isabelle Purnell Education Award for 2012-13 from The Illinois Club. The winners, their majors and hometowns are: Andi Michelle Bonner, Elementary Education, Wheeling; Jessica Michnowski, Elementary Education, Elmhurst; and Jeanne Zeller, English, with a minor in Secondary Education, Hoffman Estates.

The three students will be honored at an awards brunch on March 3.

Isabelle Purnell was a long-time Illinois Club member, a teacher, and an avid advocate of education and education causes. Before she passed away in 2006, she bequeathed more than $240,000 to the Illinois Club Scholarship Fund.

Founded in 1906, The Illinois Club began as a women's Tuesday Tea Club. Today, the club's membership comprises 25 percent men and it awards $20,000 in scholarships every year. The club strives to build the University of Illinois and surrounding Champaign-Urbana communities by promoting friendship and education.

Photo: left to right, Jessica Michnowski, Jeanne Zeller, Dr. Robert Easter, interim vice-chancellor for research; and Andi Bonner.