Chicago Community Trust, as Trustee of the Cboe Empowers Fund, has established a scholarship program to assist current high school seniors attending a Chicago or Kansas City (MO or KS) Public or Private High School and current undergraduates who graduated from a Chicago or Kansas City (MO or KS) Public or Private High School.
The program is administered by Scholarship America®, the nation’s largest designer and manager of scholarships and other education support programs for corporations, foundations, associations, and individuals. Eligibility for individual programs is determined at the sole discretion of the sponsor, and eligible applications are reviewed by Scholarship America’s evaluation team.
Applicants to the Cboe Empowers Scholarship must:
Up to five (5) full-ride awards will be granted to Chicago students and two (2) full-ride awards will be granted to Kansas City students.
Awards are intended to cover the entire cost of attendance (COA): tuition, fees, books, supplies, room, and board less other granted aid. Award amounts will be determined based on the cost of attendance as determined by each recipient’s college or university plus stipends for books, supplies, and a one-time stipend for a laptop the first year they are selected as a recipient. Recipients must submit their cost of attendance before each academic year. If recipients have changes to their enrollment or living situation mid-year, their award amount may be adjusted.
Sponsor will donate laptops to all recipients and handle laptop distribution.
Awards are renewable up to three years or until a bachelor’s degree is earned, whichever occurs first, on the basis of satisfactory academic performance (maintaining a cumulative grade point average of 2.0 on a 4.0 scale). Award amounts will be adjusted on an annual basis based on each recipients COA.
Awards are payable to the college/university.
Preference may be given to applicants residing in the South or West region.
Awards are for undergraduate study only.
Recipients may be offered internships by Sponsor.
Award recipients will be given access for a year to WhichWay, a financial literacy tool with interactive financial education modules containing tools and tips that include the following topics:
Participation in Scholarship America’s financial literacy tool, WhichWay is offered to scholarship recipients. Recipients will be invited to register online to participate in financial education activities to help guide a student to financial stability and success.
Scholarship recipients are selected on the basis of:
Financial need will be considered. Recipients must demonstrate need.
Selection of recipients is made by Scholarship America. In no instance does any officer or employee of Chicago Community Trust play a part in the selection. Not all applicants to the program will be selected as recipients. All applicants agree to accept the decision as final.
All applicants will be notified in April.
Scholarship America processes scholarship payments on behalf of Chicago Community Trust. Payment is made in late July.
As part of your application, you must upload the following:
NOTE: If you are providing SAT or ACT test scores, and those scores are not listed on your high school transcript, you will need to upload an official copy of those test scores separately. If you are uploading a college transcript, those scores are not required.
Your application is not complete unless all required materials are submitted electronically.
