Kersten Family Endowed Scholarship Fund
We believe that education provides opportunity and have allocated our resources to providing access to quality
education for our next generation. While part of our work is focused on developing a scalable model of successful
urban education in Chicago, another important aspect of our work is the tangible reward of providing direct
opportunity for CPS students.
When we were asked to fund a community scholar our biggest concern was that we would only be helping one
student. We couldn't have been more mistaken! We wanted to provide a scholarship to a student who graduated
from High Jump – an academic enrichment program created by and housed at Latin for talented and driven but
under-resourced middle school students. Low-income, minority, and English-language-learning students are terribly
underrepresented at the highest levels of achievement and that excellence gap is growing. High Jump
narrows that gap by providing the tools for these students to attend the most selective high schools
in the City of Chicago and Latin prides itself on providing at least five four-year scholarships to
incoming High Jump ninth graders every year. Latin's commitment to aspiring students from
across the city fulfills its mission to achieve diversity of people, culture and ideas. All of our
students are enriched and we are honored to be able to support this mission through the
Community Scholars program and Endowment Campaign.
Priscilla & Steve Kersten
Scholarship Dinner 2018
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