Current-Use scholarships
Providing Scholarship Support Directly
Dennis Sedlak, UIS grad, had been giving to scholarship funds at UIS for seven years before he had the chance to attend our Scholarship Luncheon. At this luncheon, a favorite event for donors, Dennis saw how many named scholarship funds there are at UIS.
Dennis began to wonder how a named fund began. Did it require a huge gift? A long-term commitment?
Dennis met with a gift officer, Jill Bohn, who told him that a named scholarship fund for current use requires a minimum annual gift of only $1000. This gift can be renewed each year; it does not require a fixed commitment for the future.
The fund is called current use because the money is given right away—within the next year—to a student who meets the scholarship’s criteria.
Dennis’s response?
This sounded great to Dennis and with Jill's help, he began his own named scholarship fund: the Dennis Sedlak Scholarship Fund intended primarily forstudents in the Criminal Justice Department. 
You can also create a named scholarship
For only $1000 you can create a current-use named scholarship. You can give only once, or any year afterwards that you want to.
That’s only $84 a month, and the scholarship fund will bear your name or the name of a loved one or a person you seek to honor.
The Scholarship Luncheon
After you set up your scholarship account, you’ll be able to meet your scholarship recipient in person at our annual scholarship luncheon or in a specially arranged meeting. For many of our donors, this becomes a highlight of their giving experience—and you are not likely to meet a more appreciative recipient than a student whose dreams and goals are being helped along by you.
Adding to an Existing Fund
If you would rather give a more modest gift, you can contribute to any student assistance fund—named or otherwise—already in existence at UIS. These gifts add up quickly when enough people give and make a huge difference for the students at UIS.
Whatever your interest, we can help you find a fund. Do you have a background in writing? We have a scholarship fund for students specializing in writing. Art? Music? Computers? Accounting? Social Work? We have all those funds. How about underrepresented students? We have a fund for that. Women returning to school later in life? That one, too.
One of our most exciting initiatives is sending students on study-abroad service learning experiences, such as the trip Shana Stine took to Kenya to work in an orphanage. Supported partially by a UIS study-abroad grant, Shana came back to begin a not-for-profit agency to raise money to support the orphanage.
Change a life. Change the world!
With each gift you give, you can know that you are helping to create Brilliant Futures not just for our students but for the communities they will one day serve…possibly your own community!
For more information, please call the Office of Development.
