Law Project Director Laurene Heybach congratulates the 2009 scholarshipwinners (from left): Nissa Freeman, Priscilla Melendez, Nasia Smith,Vianca Avalos, and Jeffery Davis.
Chicago Coalition for the Homeless (CCH) has awarded $2,000 college scholarships to five Chicago teenagers who succeeded in school despite facing homelessness. The student winners include three who had to live on their own, without family, while finishing high school. They are among 2,916 unaccompanied youth who attended Chicago Public Schools this past year.
“These remarkable students should be commended for overcoming significant barriers to pursue higher education and their career goals,” said Patricia Nix-Hodes, associate director of the CCH Law Project.
The Law Project focuses its work on helping homeless children and teens access public schools in Chicago and the suburbs. Since the Law Project created the scholarship program in 2004, 21 students have received awards. During a scholarship awards ceremony on July 14, CCH also presented $1,000 renewal scholarships to seven past winners who are continuing through college.
Jeffery Davis is one of the 2009 Chicago Public Schools graduates who won a scholarship.
When Jeffery was a junior at Hyde Park High School, his mother moved away, then quit paying the rent. His best friends took him in, and Jeffery supported himself by selling advertising or working as a pharmacy technician. Despite these hardships, he graduated in the top quarter of his class and was active in school activities, including the Senior Boys’ Council and being elected vice-president of the senior class.
Jeffery will attend Northern Illinois University, where he plans to major in biology as preparation for a career as a paramedic.
“I will be a college student this coming fall, and that’s because I worked so hard for it and wanted it so badly,” he wrote in his scholarship essay.
Another honoree, Priscilla Melendez, plans to earn a bachelor’s degree in psychology, starting at Wright City College. Priscilla was only a freshman at Lake View High School when the aunt who raised her made her move out because she is gay. Her grades floundered. Priscilla eventually moved in with a friend’s family, and after her living circumstances stabilized, her grades improved. By her senior year, she earned straight As.
“Priscilla’s goal of becoming the first person in her family to go to college is now a reality,” her counselor wrote to the scholarship committee.
Nasia Smith was this year’s salutatorian at Youth Connection Leadership Academy. She was very active at her charter school, including being president of the Student Council and two school clubs, and drill team captain. She will attend Philander Smith College, a historically black college in Little Rock, Ark. She plans to major in chemistry and is interested in a career in forensic science.
A single mother, Nasia and her toddler son have had to live with different friends since Nasia’s junior year in high school. Their young family is preparing to move to Arkansas in coming weeks, after she finishes a full-time summer job at Youth Connection.
Also winning a scholarship was Vianca Avalos. A graduate of Lincoln Park High School, Vianca was involved in school clubs and the two-year captain of the girls’ soccer team. Throughout high school Vianca worked at a pizza place to pay the bills for her often-homeless family.
Vianca plans to attend Western Illinois University, where she may major in political science. She hopes to become a lawyer.
“After that, I can fly!” Vianca wrote in her essay.
Nissa Freeman was asked to be a speaker at her graduation from Uplift Community High School. She and her South Chicago family experienced homelessness “off and on throughout my high school years.” Admitted to Southern Illinois University, Nissa hopes to become a nurse who works with the elderly.
The 2009 scholarships were presented with help from writer Dan-el Padilla Peralta. Mr. Padilla earned a bachelor’s degree in classics from Princeton University and was named salutatorian of his 2006 class. He holds a master’s from Oxford University in England, and is starting a Ph.D, also in the classics, at Stanford University. Penguin Books has slated publication of Mr. Padilla’s memoir in summer 2010.
Mr. Padilla told the students how he had shared many of their experiences after his family emigrated from the Dominican Republic when he was 4 years old. He grew up in New York City, where his hard-working but struggling family experienced homelessness. His family moved 14 times as he grew up. Mr. Padilla admitted that he once envied classmates who enjoyed the same home, same neighborhood, throughout childhood. But as a young adult, Mr. Padilla realized he’d grown to appreciate his ability “to adapt to that sudden feeling of upheaval and transformation.”
He urged the students to use these strengths to help them as they progress through college and the pursuit of their careers.
“One of my favorite poets, T.S. Eliot, once wrote that, “Home is where one starts from.” Sure, in a way,” Mr. Padilla said. “But home is what we are in the act of constantly creating, for ourselves and for others, in that lifelong quest to become the people we want to be. And home is also when we come together, like this, to celebrate your accomplishments – to rejoice in the uniqueness of talent and ability that brings pride to the community that nursed it.”
Mr. Padilla’s complete remarks are available to read here.
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Until 2008, CCH scholarships were funded solely by generous gifts from several private individuals. Their support is now backed by generous grants from the OSA Foundation, the Alvin H. Baum Family Fund, Illinois Dollars for Scholars, and a $10,000 challenge grant from Elaine’s Hope, a fund managed by educator Rhonda Purwin.
CCH also thanks the private donors who have given generously to the 2009 scholarship program: Susan Kurland, Rhonda Purwin, Patricia Rivera, Jane & Howard Tiffen, Dr. Elizabeth Wiley and Stephen Nightingale, and Vicki and Russel Winick.
Chicago Coalition for the Homeless donates the costs of the scholarship event and staffing the program.
For more information, contact:
Anne Bowhay
Chicago Coalition for the Homeless
anne@chicagohomeless.org
(312) 435-4548
