Wauconda chamber scholarship winners

The Wauconda Area Chamber of Commerce announces the recipients of its 2011 scholarship awards.

Wauconda High School seniors Megan Buccola, Janelle DaCosta, Cassidy Kay and Karina Sanchez each received a $1,000 scholarship to the college or trade school of their choice.

The awards were presented by Chamber Executive Director Sandy Hartogh at the high school’s recent Senior Honors Night.

The chamber awards a minimum of $4,000 in annual scholarships to graduates of Wauconda Unit District 118, or immediate family members or employees of current Wauconda Area Chamber of Commerce members.

The number of qualifying applicants determines the number of individual awards and amounts given. A panel comprised of chamber members evaluates each application.

The scholarships are based on a broad spectrum of criteria including, but not limited to: character, initiative, academics, financial need, entrepreneurship, life goals, and philanthropic involvement.

The chamber seeks to reward those students who may not meet the traditional requirements of financial need or academic excellence.

“The chamber recognizes that the key to career success relies just as much on personal drive and contribution to humanity as do the standard measures of accomplishment,” stated Dave Hostman, the chamber’s scholarship fund chairman.

For the first time in the chamber’s history, a fundraising event specifically created for the scholarship fund was introduced in March. The chamber’s first candlelight bowl, appropriately themed “Education…Where the Sky’s the Limit,” helped raise enough money to fund the scholarships.

In addition, the chamber was able to offer some financial assistance to the high school’s Future Business Leaders of America Club, which will send a team to the national competition this summer.

“The future of our chamber rests on the younger generations,” Hartogh said. “We need to help build their future so we do not become a thing of the past.”