U-46 Educational Foundation
Page Navigation
- School District U-46
- Scholarships
- Scholarship Application
U-46 Foundation Application Scholarships
-
Using the U-46 Foundation Scholarship Application, you can apply for any or all of the scholarships listed here (depending on your eligibility) using just one application.
The application lets you save and come back to it as many times as necessary until March 3, when all scholarships are due.
Personal info and school history
Many of the required fields are pre-filled using information from U-46 Infinite Campus, which saves you the time of having to add it to multiple applications.
NOTE: You should still check the pre-filled information for accuracy and reach out to the U-46 Foundation if you find anything you feel is incorrect.
The application is designed to only let you apply for scholarships for which you are eligible – also a time savings.
Written and Essay portion of application
You will have to fill in your intended college info, as well as a list of your extracurricular activities, awards, and volunteer time.
All scholarships have required essay questions or prompts for written answers. If the essay prompt is the same for more than one scholarship, you will be able to use the same essay for both.
TIP: It’s always best to write your essays separately and copy/paste them into the application. There are character count limits for all written sections.
Good luck and reach out if you need us!
Scholarships
-
Superintendent's Scholarship
Ambitious. Driven. Creative. Compassionate. These are some of the words we see over and over again when we read the recommendation letters for our Superintendent's Scholarship applicants.
The Superintendent's Scholarship at School District U-46 supports first-generation college students as they pursue higher education. Since 2012, hundreds of U-46 graduates have received this prestigious award, including Nancy Cortez, Class of 2023, who told us that with the help of adults in her life, determination, and this scholarship, she felt able to achieve the goals she had set for herself. Today, Nancy is working on her time management skills while attending Illinois State University, with a double major in Psychology and Spanish.
Every year, generous donors like you partner with the U-46 Educational Foundation to help foster our students' dreams. Your support of the Superintendent's Scholarship will not only help a deserving first-generation student financially, it will let them know that their community is standing beside them as they take their first steps toward higher education.
You can make a difference in a student's life. Don’t miss out on this great opportunity to help build brighter futures for deserving U-46 students.
To Donate:
Click here. In the Donation Details, be sure to tell us that you would like your donation to go towards the Superintendent's Scholarship.
To Apply:
The application for the 2025 Superintendent's Scholarship is now open, and recipients will be announced in April. Be sure to follow the U-46 Educational Foundation on social media or visit our website to get all the latest updates.
-
David & Edith Cole Scholarship
David and Edith Cole were Elgin residents, Elgin High School alumni, and life-long educators, dedicated to students and teaching. Having no direct heirs when they passed, they left equal portions of their estate to their church, the Anti-Cruelty Society, Sherman Hospital, and Elgin High School.
The funds left to Elgin High School were to be used to create four $1,000 scholarships per year to be given to graduating Elgin High School students who will be attending college.
To date, the Cole Scholarship fund has given out more than $43,000 in scholarships to Elgin High School grads. And, because these funds are held as an endowment by the U-46 Educational Foundation, this scholarship fund is expected to live on in perpetuity.
Mr. and Mrs. Cole will be remembered for their commitment to education, their devotion to the Elgin community, and for being the inaugural members of the U-46 Educational Foundation Legacy Society. You can visit their gravesites in Bluff City Cemetery in Elgin.
Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Cole.
(The following article and pictures of David Cole are from the John Marshall High School, Class of 1957, website)
Mr. David Samuel Cole (Born: 6 June 1892; Died: November 1966)
Mr. Cole was principal at Marshall from November 1944 through June 1957. On 1 January 1955 he was 62 years old.Mr. Cole was born on 6 June 1892 in Harvard, Illinois, the youngest of the four children of Samuel W. Cole and Mary L. Ryan. He started early in school administration. On 5 June 1917 he was the principal in the Sedro-Woolley, school district north of Seattle, Washington. By 1920 he was back with his parents in Harvard, Illinois, and attending college.
In the 1920s Mr. Cole married Edith M. Samuelson. The couple does not appear to have had children. In 1930 the Coles were living with Mrs. Cole’s mother and sister in Elgin, Illinois. Mr. Cole was employed as a principal of a public school and his wife and his sister-in-law as public school teachers. In 1940 The Coles were living in Chicago where he was employed as a public school principal and she as a public school teacher.
In November 1944 Mr. Cole became the fourth principal of Marshall High. The first, from 1893 when the school was formed until 1926 was Dr. Louis J. Block after whom Marshall’s auditorium and assembly hall was named. In 1926 Dr. Block retired and Mr. George A. Beers took his place as principal. Mr. Beers retired in 1942. Mr. Thaddeus J. Lubera served as principal from 1942 to 1944 when Mr. Cole assumed the role.
On 6 June 1957, Mr. Cole’s 65th birthday, a retirement and birthday dinner was given him in the Walnut Room of the Bismark Hotel. His retirement took effect at the end of semester.
Mr. Cole died in Elgin, Illinois, in November 1966. His wife Edith, who was born on 5 November 1891, died in October 1973, also in Elgin.
-
Dual Language Portfolio Certification scholarship
-
EHS Maroons Leadership Scholarship
-
Elgin High School PTO Scholarship
See Foundation Scholarship Application Form for more details
-
Douglas Hoeft Scholarship
State Representative Douglas Hoeft was known for his wry sense of humor, but when he talked about education, his colleagues respected his opinion above all others. Representative Hoeft began serving in the Illinois legislature in 1993 but, prior to this, he was a history teacher at Elgin High School and the Kane County Schools Regional Superintendent.
Despite a long and celebrated career in elected office, Doug was a teacher first and foremost. He taught someone something every day. Most of all, he taught us that you can turn a past of “I can’t,” into a future of “I can!”
Doug faced any challenge he encountered head-on. When he struggled as a student in elementary school, he found ways to study and learn to overcome a reading disability. He eventually earned his doctorate in education, proving that you can accomplish anything through education.
The Scholarship
The Douglas Hoeft Scholarship was established in 2003 after the untimely passing of State Representative Douglas Hoeft.
Rep. Hoeft had just won his 8th term of office when he died. The money left in his campaign fund was used to establish this scholarship to help graduating seniors go to college. He always believed that education was the key to success, especially for students facing the biggest challenges. Since that time, more than 80 students have received this scholarship to help fund their education.
The Douglas Hoeft Scholarship provides financial assistance to high school seniors who have faced challenges in their lives. Scholarships are not necessarily given to the student with the best GPA or community service record, rather to students who have faced challenges and have overcome them.
Applicants must be School District U-46 seniors, entering their first year of a vocational/technical program or an institution of higher education.
Annual scholarship awards could vary in amount and number according to the investment earnings and the number of qualified scholarship applicants.
-
LEAD Academy Aspiring Leaders Scholarship
-
Lisa Mercado Memorial Scholarship for Bilingual Students
-
Dody Nesbit Scholarship
Even though Dolores "Dody" Nesbit ended up in Oklahoma, she never forgot where her love of learning began, in Elgin and at Elgin High School.
Dolores Ann Nesbit, known as Dody Kaplan when she graduated from Elgin High School in 1952, was active in her high school, participating in many clubs, including serving as president of the German club (see the circular picture.) After high school, Ms. Nesbit became a high school teacher and school counselor.
In 2019, the U-46 Educational Foundation received word that Ms. Nesbit left a portion of her estate to the U-46 Educational Foundation. It was her desire that these funds be used for a scholarship for Elgin High School students following a career path similar to her own. EHS seniors interested in pursuing a career as an elementary, middle, or high school counselor or teacher may apply. In 2020, The Dody Nesbit Scholarship Fund gave out its first award of $5,000 to an Elgin High School student. This endowment will continue to help future generations of school teachers and counselors for many years to come.
The U-46 Educational Foundation is grateful for Dolores "Dody" Nesbit's generosity, and we are proud to count her as a member of the U-46 Educational Foundation Legacy Society.
The number of scholarship awards for the Dody Nesbit Scholarship, as well as the award amount, varies every year.
-
Gilbert I. Renner Scholarship
Gilbert I. Renner’s long public life was about education. He always knew that one of his life’s greatest breaks was the chance to teach at Elgin High School.
He was born on a family farm to parents who had not even graduated from high school. But his family recognized that education was a key to the American Dream. Through their sacrifices, he attended rural, one-room grade schools, graduated with a class of 18 classmates from high school, and attended Eureka College from which he earned a degree in Chemistry.
Fresh from college and with no training or qualifications, Mr. Renner began teaching in the fall of 1928 at Timber Township High School in Glasford, Illinois. In a high school of some 100 students, he taught General Science, Biology, and Physics. The school did not offer Chemistry. He also coached their basketball, track, and baseball teams while being the faculty adviser for the yearbook and class play. He lived with other teachers in a nearby home without indoor plumbing. After two years at Glasford, Mr. Renner entered graduate school at the University of Illinois.
During his first year at Illinois, he learned of a sudden opening at Elgin High School. He eagerly applied and started teaching chemistry there in April 1931. He was the school’s youngest and newest teacher, and his experience was daunting. Elgin High had nearly 1500 students and an experienced faculty with degrees from major universities. But it was also exciting. He had become part of a school and a community that were fully engaged with all the challenges of the modern world. He had found the place to pursue his life’s career educating young people in the arts and technologies the modern world demanded.
Mr. Renner was on Elgin High’s Science faculty for 19 years while also coaching tennis and golf teams, managing intramural programs, and advising student organizations such as the Student Council and Girls Science Club. In the 1940s, he assumed administrative responsibilities while gaining leadership experience as an assistant principal and head of the Science Department.
In 1950 Mr. Renner left Elgin High to lead Elgin Community College. His experience at Elgin High had forged relationships that were crucial in establishing community support for the new college while building ECC’s first faculty and often providing lifelong friendships. He would serve ECC as its dean and first President for 21 years. After his retirement, he remained active in local educational initiatives until his death in 1998.
The Scholarship
The Gilbert I. Renner Scholarship honors a life in education and Elgin High School’s role in making that life possible.
Applicants must be Elgin High School seniors who have demonstrated outstanding academic performance in Biology, Chemistry, Geology, and/or Physics. Applicants must have plans to pursue STEM-related studies at a four-year college or university.
The annual scholarship award is $4,000 for one recipient.
-
Frances Turnquist Scholarship
The Frances Turnquist Scholarship
The Frances Turnquist Scholarship was established in 1988, to perpetuate the memory of Frances Schultz Turnquist.
Mrs. Turnquist was a member of the Elgin High School class of 1942 and a longtime supporter of School District U-46 programs and teachers. Besides her volunteer work for the district, she was formally recognized for her many years of service as a Sunday School teacher for Holy Trinity Church in Elgin.
Mrs. Turnquist met her husband Ralph at Elgin High School where he was also a member of the class of 1942. Though World War II broke out during their senior years, they kept up their relationship and were married three months after his discharge from the service in 1946.
The Scholarship
The money to establish the scholarship came from life insurance left to the family from her estate. In keeping with her appreciation for the value she placed on the work of educators, the scholarship was set up to benefit those going into education or a related field. Since its inception, the scholarship has benefitted over 30 students who followed this educational path.
-
Carolyn Van Slyck Memorial Scholarship
The Carolyn Van Slyck Memorial Scholarship
... was established in 2023 after Carolyn's untimely passing.
Carolyn was a lifelong Elgin resident, and Elgin High School graduate.
Her family wished to establish this scholarship to help U-46 graduating seniors go to college.
Carolyn had always believed in helping those less fortunate than herself, especially students facing obstacles in their lives.
The Scholarship
The Carolyn Van Slyck Memorial Scholarship provides financial assistance to high school seniors in School District U-46 that have overcome hardships, and are pursuing STEM-related studies in college. Selection for this scholarship will not necessarily be focused on the student with the best GPA or community service record, but rather, on students who have had to face more hurdles up to this point in their lives.
Applicants must be School District U-46 seniors, entering their first year of a STEM-related program at an institution of higher education.
Annual scholarship awards can vary in amount and number according to the number of qualified scholarship applicants.