Scholarship List

This scholarship is for African-American high school seniors who are attending an HBCU, have a minimum of a 2.5 GPA, and demonstrate service and involvement.  You will need a resume, three letters of recommendation, a statement of your personal goals, and your official transcript.  You will be prompted to create an account with AKAEAF in order to apply. Click here for more information and to apply.

AKAEAF lists a number of scholarship and endowment opportunities for African-American students, which can be found here. 

Deadline: April 15, 2025

Each needs-based scholarship provides up to $20,000 for undergraduate or post-graduate college for children of the fallen, and up to $5,000 for children of veterans who have been given a disability rating of 50% or higher. Recipients may reapply for additional annual awards up to six times. Click here to apply. 

Deadline: March 26, 2025

 The Amici Club is offering a merit-based scholarship of $2000 to a graduating 2025 senior with some Italian ethnicity.  The application process requires a completed application, two letters of recommendation, a school transcript, and a brief essay.  Click here for more information and application instructions. 

Deadline: April 15, 2025

The AAA ERG Academic Scholarship awards needs-based scholarships in the amounts of $2,500, $1,000, and $500 to high school students pursuing a college degree in a STEM-related field.  Scholarship applicants must be US citizens, residents of Chicagoland or surrounding areas, received first-year admittance to a college or university and demonstrate the need for financial assistance. Click here for more information and application instructions.

Deadline: April 1, 2025, at 11:59 pm

• Evaluate Applicant’s: April 2, 2025, through April 30, 2025
• Winners notified of the scholarship: May 15, 2025

Each June, the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless awards renewable college scholarships to graduating high school seniors who succeeded in school while experiencing homelessness. Students from Chicago and suburban schools are eligible to apply as well as CCH youth leaders and former youth clients. Click here for more information. 

Deadline: April 11, 2025 at 5 PM central time.

The Chicago Roofing Contractors Association will award at least one $5,000 renewable scholarship to a high school senior who will enter college in August or September each year in the following programs – liberal arts and sciences, engineering, architecture or business. Click here to apply. 

Deadline to apply: March 19, 2025 3:00 pm CT

The Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) scholarship will provide financial assistance to low-income and disadvantaged persons of high academic
attainment or potential. Students must be income-eligible, DuPage County resident, enrolled or accepted at an Illinois accredited higher educational or occupational training institute,  and have a minimum GPA of 2.5/4.0.  Click here for more information.

Deadline: Friday, May 2, 2025

CRC is sponsoring a scholarship program for current high school seniors who relocated into the Chicagoland area at some point between grades 9 and 12. A one-time award of $2,500 will be presented to an individual Chicago-area high school senior this spring.

CRC will select the scholarship winner based on academic performance, extra-curricular activities and an essay response addressing the challenges associated with relocating to the Chicagoland area and a new high school.  Applicants must meet the following criteria:

* Relocated between grades 9 and 12

* Relocated more than 50 miles

* Changed schools due to relocation to the Chicagoland area

* Currently enrolled as a Senior in good standing at a high school in Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry or Will County

* Currently have a cumulative GPA of 4.0 (on a 5.0 scale) or higher

Click here for scholarship application details and then submit the completed application form.

Deadline: March 3, 2025

OpenDelta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. is an international, not-for-profit, public service organization comprised predominately of African American women. The Glen Ellyn Area Alumnae Chapter (GEAAC) of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. serves the western suburbs of Chicago. Over the span of 40+ years GEAAC has awarded more than $450,000 in merit-based academic scholarships and book awards to college bound students.

Scholarship applications are now being accepted from high school seniors who are of African and African American descent and who will continue their formal education at a four-year college or university during the 2025-2026 academic year.

Applicants must submit an official 6th semester high school transcript, essay, and two (2) letters of recommendation. Eligible students will also participate in a virtual interview with the GEAAC Scholarship Committee.

Students must create an account in the scholarship portal to access the online application. Applications and all supporting documents must be submitted via the scholarship portal.

Note: Children and grandchildren of current or former GEAAC members are not eligible for the Georgia L. Edwards Educational Excellence Scholarship or the Gary P. Carney Book Awards which are conferred by the Scholarship Committee.

Students must create an account in the scholarship portal to access the online application. Applications and all supporting documents must be submitted via the scholarship portal. Click here for more information.

Deadline: Now Open

Distinguished Young Women awards a number of Cash and College-Granted Scholarships to female students annually.  Click here to learn more about these scholarship opportunities.

Now Open

A number of scholarships ranging from $1500-$2500 are available to students interested in agriculture, nutrition or other fields of study.  Applications are currently being accepted. Click here for more information on the different scholarships. 

Deadlines: Now Open

To be eligible for a scholarship grant from the Foundation, students must be enrolled in or accepted for admission to a professional education or training program before applying, and they must exhibit a strong academic background in addition to financial need. Students in prerequisite and undergraduate curriculums (i.e. pre-med) are not eligible for Foundation scholarships. The number of scholarships granted and the amounts awarded vary each year. The average amount of each scholarship is $1,000. Click here to apply. 

Deadline: Scholarship applications are accepted from January 1 to April 30 of each year. 
 

Applicants will be judged on scholarship, leadership and financial need. Current high school seniors who are citizens of the Unites States should apply. Please click on this link for more information. 

Deadline: Now Closed

The Community Foundation of Northern Illinois is offering a new scholarship opportunity for students pursuing a career in engineering (specifically water, wastewater, transportation, and structural), landscape architecture, land surveying, geology, hydrogeology, assessment and remediation, or environmental health and safety. It is open to applicants who live in DuPage County. This is a $2,500 scholarship renewable for up to three years. Visit the CFNIL website for more details and to apply.

Application opening date: Nov. 1

Application closing date: Jan. 1

This scholarship is open to any student regardless of grade point average or financial need. To qualify the student must be a a US citizen, a high school senior and must have been accepted to and plan to attend an institution of higher learning within the United States. Click here for more information. 

Deadline: April 1, 2025

Open to all students pursuing degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) at historically black colleges and universities. Scholarship recipients can get up to $10,000 per year for four years. To learn more about the FOSSI scholarship, click here. To apply, click here.

Deadline: 2025 FOSSI applications will open on September 27,  2024. 

Important Dates

• September 27, 2024: 2025 FOSSI application opens
• January 31, 2025: Application due date
        Provide most recent, verifiable high school transcript (Subject to authentication) 
        Provide proof of acceptance at an HBCU (when available/confirmed)
• April 14, 2025: Scholarship notifications begin
• May 1, 2025: College Decision Day 
• September 2025: 2026 FOSSI application opens

$1000 award to applicant planning to enter a career directly related to preserving the natural environment. Must reside in Lake, McHenry, Kane, Cook, DuPage, Kendall, or Will County. Click here for more information and for instructions on how to apply. 

Deadline: March 31st

Winners announced in May 

The General Federation of Women’s Clubs has $12,000 in monetary scholarships for the academic fall semester of 2024. The scholarships available are in the studies of: Art, Civic Engagement, Drama, Music, and Vocational Studies. The applicant must be attending a vocational school, junior college, college, or university located in Illinois. More information can be found here.

Deadline: April 1, 2025

The Golden Apple Scholars of Illinois program is a teacher preparation and tuition assistance program for high school seniors who have the determination and drive to be highly effective teachers in Illinois schools-of-need. More information about eligibility, schools participating in the Golden Apple program, and the online application can be found here.

Priority Deadline: December 1, 2023 (eligible for Early Acceptance Offer)
Final Deadline: April 1, 2025

The Hagan Scholarship is a nationwide need-based merit scholarship, providing recipients with the opportunity to achieve their goals and graduate college debt-free. The scholarship provides $2,000 to help pay for essential items to attend college and up to $7,500 each semester for up to 8 consecutive semesters. For more details click here. To apply for the Spring Scholarship click here. Brochures can be printed from the HFS website at www.hsfmo.org.

Deadline: March 15, 2025.

IACAC has announced that they will award ten $1,000 scholarships to students who plan on pursuing a college or university education. These scholarships are awarded to deserving students who exhibit a commitment to learning and have demonstrated involvement in their schools, the community and/or service to others, with a motivation to achieve personal goals. More information and application instructions can be found here.

Deadline: March, 2, 2025 at 11:59 pm CT.

ICEF is awarding a $2,000 scholarship to a high school senior. Scholarship is open to students seeking degrees in chemistry, chemical engineering, environmental science or high school chemistry teaching.  Applicants need 2 letters of recommendation and must complete 2 essays. Additional information about the ICEF scholarship and application instructions can be found here. 

Deadline: Submit the following information postmarked no later than Friday, March 7, 2025, and received no later than Wednesday, March 12, 2025.

ICEF is awarding a $2,000 scholarship to a first generation Hispanic student from Illinois seeking a college degree. Open to all future Chemists, Chemical Engineers, Environmental Engineers & High School Chemistry Teachers. Applicants need 2 letters of recommendation and must complete 2 one-page essays. Additional information and application instructions can be found here.

Deadline: Submit the following information postmarked no later than Friday, March 7, 2025, and received no later than Wednesday, March 12, 2025. 

Several scholarships are available to students who have decided to major in nursing. Details on each scholarship and application instructions can be found here. 

Deadline: Applications are accepted from January to March 15 each year. 

Since its inception,  the Illinois Restaurant Association Educational Foundation has awarded over $3.2 million to deserving students pursuing Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management in post-secondary degrees. Click here for more information. Applications for the 2024 scholarship can be found here.

Deadline: The 2025-2026 Illinois Restaurant Association Educational Foundation Scholarship application will be available soon. Applications will be accepted until Wednesday,  May 7,  2025. 

The Illinois Sheriffs’ Association will be awarding over 100 ($500) scholarships throughout the State of Illinois to students wishing to pursue higher education during the 2025-26 academic year. Visit the youth outreach page of the Illinois Sheriff's Association website. Click here for the application. 

Deadline: March 14, 2025

Designed to aid students preparing for careers working with the water environment. IWEA may award two scholarships of up to $1,000 each year. Click here for more information and to apply.

Deadline: January 31, 2025

The Women's Division of the Joint Civic Committee is offering several 2,000 scholarships to young ladies of Italian heritage, who are graduating at the end of the 2023-2024 school year. Must have a GPA of 3.0/4.0 and planning to attend a 2 or 4 year accredited college/university. Click here for more information. Application can be found here. 

Deadline: April 5, 2025

Kids' Chance Inc. of Illinois believes they can make a significant difference in the lives of all children whose parent(s) were affected by a workplace injury by helping them pursue and achieve their educational goals. The goal is to award academic college scholarships to deserving children of workers seriously injured or killed on the job. Click here to for more information.

Deadline: Application Inaccessible

If you plan to teach at a nonprofit Illinois public, private, or parochial preschool, elementary school, or secondary school and you are of African American/Black, Hispanic American, Asian American or Native American origin or are a qualified bilingual minority applicant, then you may qualify for up to $7,500 per year as part of the Minority Teachers of Illinois (MTI) Scholarship Program.  Click here to apply (select MTI).

The Save Abandoned Babies Foundation works to raise awareness of the "Baby Safe Haven" Law in Illinois. The Morgan Jayne Hill Scholarship is an annual competition for Illinois high school seniors that is aimed at bringing awareness about Illinois’ Safe Haven Law.

This scholarship is open to high school seniors residing in Illinois and attending college or trade school in the fall of 2024. Students can submit either an Essay (up to 500 words) or Artwork to be used in social media and more.

This year, we will be awarding six scholarships: two $1,000 Scholarships for best Essay, two $1,000 Scholarships for best Artwork, one $500 Scholarship for best Essay Runner-Up and one $500 Scholarship for best Artwork Runner-Up.

The application and submission form can be found at https://saveabandonedbabies.org/scholarship. 

Deadline: Complete the online Scholarship Application by April 1, 2025.  All submissions will be reviewed by the Scholarship Committee.  Scholarship winners will be notified if they have won a scholarship by May 1st. 

The National Organization for Human Services (NOHS) is a nonprofit organization representing Human Service practitioners, educators, students and future Human Service Professionals. NOHS works to support all Human Service Professionals in their primary purpose to assist individuals and communities to function as effectively as possible in all major domains of living. In order to be considered for these scholarships, awards, and grants,  you must be a current member of NOHS. Click here for a list of all awards and to become a member. 

Deadline: September 1, 2025

This scholarship is for African-American high school seniors pursuing a career in engineering. You must become a member of the NSBE to apply.  Check their website for more information. 

Deadline: The Fall 2024 Scholarship Cycle is now closed. Please check back on April 1, 2025 for the Spring Scholarship Cycle.

The Soil and Water Stewardship Scholarship will be awarded in amounts up to $1,000 to students enrolled fulltime at a community college or university pursuing a career in a natural resource field.  Click here for more information and to access the application.

Deadline: This Scholarship has a rolling deadline.

The Organization of Latino Actuaries (OLA) furthers its mission of increasing the number of Latino actuaries by awarding academic scholarships to Latinos who will be attending a US college/university next school year and are interested in the actuarial profession.  Recipients are based on various criteria including, but not limited to, academic performance, commitment to pursuing the actuarial profession, exam progress, work experience, and leadership experience. Click here for more information. 

Deadline: January 1 to March 31 each year.

The Palumbo Family foundation is a local organization that serves to improve the lives of young adults by helping them to achieve their goal of a higher education through the scholarship program.  The scholarship program is limited to the Chicagoland area (Cook,  DuPage,  Kane,  Lake, and Will counties only).  Scholarships awarded are a minimum of $1,000 and a maximum of $15,000 per scholarship. 

Applicants must have a GPA of 4.0, on a 5-point scale,  or higher,  an annual adjusted gross family income of $65,500 or less and reside in Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, or Will county for at least six months.

Click here for more information and application instructions. 

Deadline: Applications will be accepted from January 1 - March 31st for the current year's scholarships. 

The FranCenter of Darien, Illinois has two scholarships of $750 each available to high school seniors with a diagnosed learning disability who are enrolling in a two or four year college or university, or trade school. Click here for more information. 

Deadline: Applications must be received via email or U.S. Mail by May 1st. 

Each year, the Township Officials of Illinois Scholarship Fund awards funds to graduating high school seniors to continue their education at Illinois colleges and universities. More information and application instructions can be found here. 

Deadline: March 1, 2025

This scholarship provides financial assistance, $1,500, to outstanding college-bound high school graduates in selected areas of the United States. Tzu Chi USA Scholars are selected on the basis of their financial need, academic achievement (4.0 on a 5 point scale or higher), and community involvement. Apply here.

Deadline: March 31, 2025

Wheaton Drama is offering scholarships for high school senior theatre students who are  involved in and continue to be involved in the arts.  The James Terrill-Liesz Memorial Scholarship is given in  memory of Wheaton Drama Lifetime Member, Jim Terrill-Liesz, who was both a teacher and active theatre member for decades. More information about Wheaton Drama and the scholarship please email wheatondramaeducation@gmail.com .  Qualified students can apply via the application submission form once they have the necessary materials. 

Any interested student must be actively involved in theater (performance, technical, or management), and planning to continue participating in theatre arts. Traditionally, we award two $2,000 scholarships.

• All scholarship applications must include two (2) letters of recommendation. Letters should be scanned and attached to the application. If they come to the student in a sealed envelope they can be mailed to the Education Governor at Wheaton Drama, 111 N Hale Street, Wheaton, IL 60187 by March 31, 2025.

Deadline: March 31, 2025

The Young Women in Public Affairs (YWPA)  recognizes young women for demonstrating leadership skills and commitment to public service and civic causes, and encourages them to continue their participation in public and political life. More information about Zonta and the YWPA scholarship, including application instructions, can be found here. 

Click here for Application & Deadline Information