Amanda Rackauskas Ross received a Fr. Yunker scholarship in 2009, her last year at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, where she graduated with a B.S. in biology and a secondary degree in studio art. Drawing is her favorite discipline in the fine arts, and Creighton University has purchased and displayed several of her pieces.

Amanda is currently in her fourth year of medical school, also at Creighton. However, she was recently in Springfield completing a month-long “externship” in the SIU Medical School Department of Plastic Surgery. Now, she is serving a month-long externship in trauma surgery in Phoenix, AZ.

Following her graduation from medical school next year, Amanda will enter a residency in general surgery or integrated plastic surgery, with the ultimate goal of becoming a plastic surgeon in 6-8 years.

Amanda is the daughter of Mary Ann Rackauskas (formerly Ross) and the grand-daughter of Helen (Sitki) and George Rackauskas. She was attracted to Creighton University because it’s where her grandfather, George, studied business, graduating in 1939, exactly 70 years prior to her own graduation from Creighton.

Amanda was born and raised in Springfield, attending Chatham Glenwood K-8, graduating from Sacred Heart-Griffin High School in 2005.