Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce

(January 2006)--We are pleased to announce our partnership with the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce!  Scholarship Chicago will be the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce’s official scholarship organization.  With the help of James Rudwall, Merrill Lynch, who brought our organizations together, we will merge strategies and provide youth in Chicago with college-prep and internship programs to aid in their success.  Collaboratively we are going to combine our resources to make graduating from college and transitioning into the workforce for Chicago ’s underserved youth a reality.  We also plan on creating a model to stay dedicated to the young, future professionals with the long-term goal centered on workforce development. The Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce has a long history of working to improve the economic well-being of Chicago and its residents, a dedication of great importance to Scholarship Chicago.

Over the years Scholarship Chicago has successfully consolidated four separate scholarship organizations and now partners with many others including Bank One’s Saturday Scholars, the Mikva Challenge Foundation and the Abram D. Davis Family Foundation. This collaborative model improves student access to scholarships and college preparatory programs, reduces overhead, increases efficiency, and provides specific metrics to measure the effectiveness of programs.  Through working with the Chamber one of our goals is to continue to reach out to other organizations that have similar goals to our own. 

Scholarship Chicago is already busy at work with the Chamber’s Illinois College Access Network in trying to create a common scholarship application—an initiative which will make applying for scholarships more effective.  Through our partnership we will also be able to build a model for Chicago businesses to show their dedication to their community’s college-bound youth.  An educated workforce is of top priority and together we will create professional ties for Chicago ’s college-bound youth to the business arena.  As two organizations that are dedicated to diversity, our joint efforts will create more internships in a wide range of professional fields, so that youth from all communities in Chicago will be more prepared for their future careers. 

This is only the beginning of a long partnership together and we hope our coming together with a common goal will lead to more success for the youth of tomorrow!   

Starting from the left: Karen Foley, Tim Schwertfeger, Jamel Williams, Sara Nava Garvey, Jerry Roper, Peggy Luce

http://www.chicagolandchamber.org/home.asp