PBKACA Awards First College Scholarship
PBKACA is proud to announce that Ramon Lee of Lincoln Park High School is the recipient of the first $5,000 PBKACA College Scholarship. Ramon will be attending the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign starting this fall with the goal of “being a doctor when I am 40.” Not a suburban doctor, but a member of Doctors without Borders, where he will have administered health care to people from every corner of the world- from the jungles of Panama to the beaches of the Philippines. He wants to heal patients physically, but “by creating strong bonds with my patients, I will heal their spirits as well.”
Ramon is the middle of three children. His parents came to Chicago in 1985. He foresees future study in both math and science with a liberal arts presence. His principal and counselor at Lincoln Park High see him as “appropriately self confident and a straight-out genuine force, with an upbeat spirit and a strong sense of community and family.”
The PBKACA Scholarship Committee (chaired by Emelda Estell and Jon Miller) worked closely with Danielle Cox-Jones, Scholarship Program Manager of the Office of High School Programs, and Chicago Public Schools in distributing and collecting information and applications and criteria to each CPS High School. The committee reviewed all candidates and interviewed four outstanding students for this award. Judi Strauss-Lipkin and Emelda Estell attended the CPS Scholarship Recognition Program at the CPS Board Meeting on May 24 where PBKACA was recognized as a new participant in the CPS Scholarship Family. The Association now joins other scholarship providers such as the Gates Millennium Scholars Program, the United Negro College Fund, the Golden Apple, Shore Bank and the Posse Foundation. A total of $11,269,200 in Scholarships was awarded to outstanding CPS seniors.
PBKACA is committed to continuing and expanding these scholarship awards. If you wish to make a donation in support of the scholarship, you may send a check to PBKACA, PO Box 64-2622, Chicago, IL 60664-2622, indicating Scholarship Fund in the note space on your check. We will also be accepting donations on our website in the near future.
In addition to the Chicago Public Schools $5,000 Scholarship Award, the Executive Committee approved giving $500 awards to PBK initiates at member chapters this spring. Congratulations to the following recipients Barbara Ouderkerk (UIC), Umair Jabbar (Loyola University Chicago), John Luporini (Lake Forest College), Alexis Joanna DiSilvertro (Valparaiso). No awards were given at Northwestern University or the University of Chicago, but both anticipate giving such an award in 2007.