The History Of The HEAR Scholarship
While the origins of the HEAR Foundation lie far from Chicago (see below), its scholarship program began to take shape in 2009, based on the idea of supporting deserving young Chicagoans who had the ability, but not the financial means, to support a college education. Between 2009-2011, the Foundation tried various forms of scholarship support. In 2011, it initiated the current model: a $20,000 (renewable) scholarship in increments of $5,000/year for four years. That year, HEAR awarded its first scholarships to just four students. Initially, classes grew slowly as awareness of both the scholarship program and the need for donations developed.
In 2012, HEAR added another piece to the puzzle on the road to college success by introducing its Mentoring Program. The majority of HEAR scholars are first-generation college students with limited access to guidance on navigating college life. Studies show that students with a dedicated mentor have significantly higher graduation rates, particularly low-income and first-generation students. With this in mind, HEAR launched a mentoring program to support its scholars as they adjust to college.
In 2014, HEAR began a period of significant growth in the number of applications received on an annual basis, and in the number of scholarship recipients. By 2019, after several years of significant increases in HEAR class sizes and the overall scholar population, HEAR recognized the need to refine its mentoring structure. With the help of them Mentoring Chair and Board Director Patti Kelly, HEAR transformed its mentoring program. Now, each new HEAR scholar has a dedicated mentor who has passed a background check and completed training. Mentors and mentees communicate monthly through FaceTime, Zoom, Google Meet, phone, text, or email. Whenever possible, they meet in person twice a year, and mentors keep HEAR staff updated on their relationship via an online survey.
In addition to the mentoring program, in recent years, HEAR has also been developing partnerships with organizations in the Chicagoland area. These partnerships offer scholars relevant, paid internship opportunities. Over the last 12 months, these partnerships have also provided workshops for HEAR Scholars to learn important skills, including interviewing, résumé writing, and ensuring an appropriate online presence.
HEAR reached its goal of awarding 30 scholarships per year for the first time in 2019, with plans to maintain this enrollment level until it could expand its team. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted HEAR’s fundraising, requiring a temporary reduction in enrollment in 2021 and 2022. However, the Foundation is pleased to report that numbers have rebounded in the past two years. In May 2024, HEAR enrolled 29 scholars into its College Success Program, marking a commitment of over $4.5 million toward helping exemplary high school students in financial need access higher education.
The HEAR Mentoring Program is based upon the Elements of Effective Practice for Mentoring, developed by MENTOR|The National Mentoring Partnership. To date, our college success rate (both in terms of graduation and annual progression) stands at 100%. Our scholars hold a cumulative average GPA of 3.5.
To date, over 130 students have graduated from HEAR’s College Success Program, and the Foundation is proud of its impressive 98% four-year college graduation rate. Of our graduated scholars, many have gone on to (and in many cases completed) graduate school. Others are fully employed throughout Chicagoland and beyond. All have continued to be successful in their endeavors. It is the goal of the HEAR Foundation to continue this positive progression.
Above: The HEAR Class of 2023 at our 2019 awards ceremony.
Before We Were A Scholarship Provider
Although the HEAR Foundation today is primarily focused on providing academically exemplary high school students in financial need within the Chicagoland area an opportunity to attain a higher education, the true beginning of the HEAR Foundation lies far from Chicago: in Jalapa, Guatemala.
In 2006 several of our later directors traveled to Guatemala and visited an orphanage for girls where living conditions were absolutely appalling. Casa Hogar de Nuestra Señora de los Remedios, or Casa Hogar for short, had no sanitary fresh water, very little food, and barely a roof over the girls’ heads. The young girls and women lived on three corn tortillas a day and weak coffee; conditions were described later as “absolute squalor.” During the bus trip home, Director Emeritus Mark McManus stood up and declared, “We can’t go home now. We have to go back and make it better.”
Upon returning to Chicago, the Directors were determined to make a difference. After raising the requisite capital, they returned to Jalapa with more volunteers and, over the course of several years, constructed a dormitory (housing 125 women and children), renovated bathrooms, dug a well to provide fresh, clean water, broke ground for an agricultural project, and started to send monthly food relief to the orphanage. Other community members, outside donors and supporters followed. Today, thanks to the commitment of a small group of people, Casa Hogar is nearing self-sufficiency, growing several commercial and food consumption crops a year, and housing several buildings including a school. Gracia Inc., a Chicago-based non-profit founded by former HEAR Executive Director Clare Kunkel, continues its presence at Casa Hogar and provides some of the home’s young residents with entrepreneurial training and workshops. It has also built an extremely successful jewelry business in-house. HEAR is extremely proud to be one of Gracia’s supporters. We believe that providing real job opportunities is perhaps the greatest and most lasting stepping-stone out of poverty any non-profit can offer its constituents.
As of August 2017, the HEAR Foundation has withdrawn from its regular engagement with Casa Hogar, focusing its efforts entirely on our own great but troubled city. However, HEAR continues to stay in contact with Casa Hogar and will be there to help should an emergency arise.
HEAR Feeds
We feed, the body, the soul, and the mind.
Over the years, the HEAR Foundation has striven to make a difference in the Chicagoland area, where hunger is no stranger to many of the residents. Each year between 2008-2010, in partnership with St. Sabina Church on Chicago’s South Side, HEAR Foundation volunteers (many of them current/past HEAR Scholars) distributed 80,000lbs of chicken to the local residents. 2016 saw the HEAR Feeds volunteer program return to the same area and volunteers distributed 38,000lbs of chicken to local residents in two separate events. In addition to the Feeds program, HEAR volunteers have been involved in numerous other projects to help alleviate hunger.
The HEAR Feeds program has set itself the goal of bridging the gap between our two missions and bring both hunger relief and information on access to education to our most underserved communities.
Although the programs have changed and evolved over time, HEAR’s fundamental mission remains the same: Provide
HEALTH – for the body and the mind
EDUCATION – as a key to a better life, AND
RELIEF – because sometimes everyone needs a helping hand.