Blog Archives

New Scholarship Fund Supports Students in the Field of Applied Design

6/12/2021

Senior Honors night at Maine West High School set the stage for awarding the first Maine 207 Foundation Schlanbusch Family Scholarship to Vanesa Arenas-Rubio. Vanesa is a 2021 graduate of Maine West and plans to attend DePaul University in the fall to pursue a career in graphic design.

Maine West's Vanesa Arenas-Rubio receives the first Schlanbusch Scholarship
for her studies in graphic design

Jill Schlanbusch von Dudley was the generous contributor who established the Foundation’s new fund to support Maine West students. Jill attended Maine West, along with her three sisters, and while there was inspired by a course she took on the history of furniture making. This led her to pursue a career in interior design, which became her life’s work.

Jill is not new to supporting Maine West students. She has generously donated over the years to its general scholarship fund, currently overseen by volunteer Jim Leis. About a year ago she came upon the idea to set up and fund her own scholarship program to honor her family’s legacy at Maine West, while helping students pursue their career dreams in the field of applied design. After contacting her attorney and speaking with Catherine Marquis at the Maine 207 Foundation, a scholarship fund agreement was drafted to Jill’s specifications and her goal of establishing her own family-honored fund became a reality.

Schlanbusch Family Scholarship applicants must meet two simple criteria: they must intend to pursue a career within the field of applied design and plan to attend a four-year university or college. Maine West counselor and scholarship coordinator, Shamoon Ibrahimi, assisted in promoting the new scholarship and identifying qualified applicants. A unique and exciting element about the Schlanbusch Scholarship is that once an awardee is named, they may continue to receive the same funding in each of the additional three years, so long as they are enrolled and in good standing at a 4-year institution and continuing their studies in the field of applied design.

Jill selected an excellent asset to use to fund her Scholarship, her qualified retirement plan, from which she made a tax-advantaged charitable rollover to the Maine 207 Foundation. This was a win-win for Jill and for the Maine West students who will benefit from her scholarship fund in the many years to come.

The Maine 207 Foundation wishes Vanesa all the best on the pathway to a career in graphic design, and to Jill, thank you for your generous heart and the tangible support you’ve made possible for Maine West students. And cheers to the Schlanbusch sisters!

Persons who are 70 ½ and above may make charitable rollovers from their qualified retirement plan fund. Contact your fund manager and request a gift be made directly to the Maine 207 Foundation or another 501(c)(3) tax exempt charitable organization. Charitable rollovers have two great tax-advantaged features - they are not taxable income to the donor and can be included as part of the donor’s required minimum distribution (RMD). Charitable rollovers are among the wisest planned gift donors can make. Those interested in establishing a privately funded scholarship or in making a charitable rollover to the Maine 207 Foundation, contact Catherine Marquis at (847) 977-1288.

2021 Peer Tutoring Scholarships Awarded

6/12/2021

Every year the Maine 207 Foundation awards one scholarship at each of the three District 207 High Schools to a graduating senior who has served as a tutor in their school’s peer tutoring program. The Foundation is pleased to announce the recipients of these scholarships for the 2020-2021 school year. Nelly Hadlaw from Maine South, Nell Jakoniuk from Maine West, and Prapti Patel from Maine East all demonstrated their dedication to peer tutoring, while also being involved in a number of other extra curricular activities.

Nelly Hadlaw - Maine South
Nelly was a student tutor throughout her four years at Maine South. She began tutoring in the math lab during freshman year and when she saw how students were benefiting from her help she made it her mission to continue tutoring for all four years. In addition to tutoring and maintaining a rigorous course load, Nelly was a member of the swim team. Nelly has a particular interest in computer science, which combined with her entrepreneurial spirit, led her to develop a virtual tutoring platform during the Covid-19 pandemic. This program is now expanding to all three District 207 high schools and beyond. Nelly will continue her passion for computer science when she attends Carnegie Mellon in the fall.

Nell Jakoniuk - Maine West
Nell participated in Maine West’s COACH tutoring program for three years. While she enjoyed helping other students learn and make improvements in their study skills, the experience as a tutor led Nell to feel more confident in her own education, communication skills, and her ability to support others. During her time at Maine West, Nell participated in a variety of activities such as Key Club, National Honor Society and the school’s Kpop/Hip Hop Dance Group. She also discovered her intrinsic passion for giving back through community service projects, which she looks forward to continuing beyond high school. Next year, Nell will begin her studies in Industrial Design at University of Illinois Urbana Champaign.

Prapti Patel - Maine East
Prapti was a tutor in Maine East’s COACH tutoring program for five semesters. During this time, she enjoyed connecting with students and giving them a safe and comfortable environment in which to ask questions. Being a tutor helped Prapti understand how she could use her strengths to have an impact on others. In addition to tutoring, Prapti participated in a number of other activities while at Maine East, including Feminist Club, Students Organized Against Racism, National Honor Society, and Orchestra. She also was a student in the school’s gifted Lyceum program. Prapti hopes to major in Sociology and pursue a pre-medicine path while attending University of Illinois Chicago honors college.

Foundation Hosts Record Breaking Benefit with Help of District Students

6/12/2021

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Contributors - Ally Sighete (Maine South senior and Maine 207 Foundation student intern)
Sandy Deines (Maine 207 Foundation trustee)

Behind the scenes at benefit video production day.

The Maine 207 Foundation’s 2021 Benefit was an enormous success, raising over $65,000 due to the generosity of alumni, parents, district teachers and staff, community members, and corporate sponsors. This year the Foundation enlisted the help of district students to produce a virtual benefit in the format of a pre-recorded video. Those who watched the benefit video were impressed by our student emcees: Maine West’s Belle Gerstmayr, Maine South’s Jimmy Cone, and Maine East’s Daniel Cho. Behind the scenes, the district’s videography intern, Maine South’s Ellie Compton, also contributed to the success of the video.

All four students are veterans of the performing arts. Belle shared that she’s been involved with theater and comedy since grade school, the sillier the role the better! An evil step-sister in Cinderella, Pinocchio in Shrek, and Kafka the monkey in All in the Timing stand out. “I love the reaction I get from the audience!” When not doing school musicals, V-show, Improv, or stand-up, Belle is playing French Horn or Mellophone in Band.

Daniel is active in music and theater as well, recently appearing in Stud Terkel’s Working this spring in Maine East’s first ever outdoor performance. “I liked playing Mike Dillard, an iron worker and retired firefighter in Working,” Daniel commented. “And performing with a stage and sound set up outside the Auditorium was definitely different. There were many challenges, including the weather!” In addition to serving as one of the emcees for the benefit video, Daniel’s beautiful duet, “Quando, Quando, Quando“ was featured in the video’s musical introduction.

Jimmy is also multi-talented, performing in choir, vocal jazz, band, and theater. He described how Maine South’s spring musical, The Theory of Relativity, was impacted by Covid. “Auditions were by Zoom, as well as callbacks and early rehearsals. When mandates were lifted, we were able to rehearse with social distancing and stream our final performances.” Watch Jimmy’s interview with our Foundation intern, Ally Sighete.

Ellie comes to the performing arts from behind the scenes on sound crew for the plays and musicals, as well as performing on stage in V-show, and broadcasting on WMTH. As an intern for district videographer Dan Kolen, Ellie worked on a variety of projects, including the C-Team and Gifted Lyceum features in the Foundation Benefit Video. “I enjoy how videography is a combination of different skill sets and ways of thinking,” Ellie explained. ”There is a creative side to it in making the choices of how things look, a problem-solving part to make things happen and look the way you want them to, and a big organization piece with keeping track of all the elements of a project. And no two projects are the same.”

When asked what they’d learned about the Foundation from their involvement in the video, each of the students admitted they hadn’t known much beforehand. Dan commented, “I really got a chance to learn about the positive impact the Foundation has in our community and on our schools.” “I got to learn about unique programs in the district, like the Gifted Lyceum and the School-Based Health Center,” shared Ellie.

Several of the senior students offered advice to underclassmen. Jimmy advised, “Do the things that scare you the most, because they are often the greatest things; you can always do more than you think.” A parting piece of advice from Belle, “Find the most joy in the things you do, and share that joy with others.”

We wish both joy and exciting challenges for our student emcees and interns in the years ahead. Next year, Daniel looks forward to being involved in Maine East’s Fine Arts program, hopefully full of in-person music and theater performances. Jimmy will be an Acting major and band member at the University of Illinois, Belle will be at the University of Kansas as a Theater Performance and Film & Television student, and Ellie is headed for DePaul University to study Film & Television. The Foundation’s intern Ally will also be at DePaul, studying marketing.

Thank you to all of our individual donors and corporate sponsors.