August 20, 2009
By ANGELA D. SYKORA asykora@pioneerlocal.com
Jessica Demski is a sophomore at Warren Township High School this year but she's already set her sights on college.
Guiding her academic aspirations is the Schuler Foundation, which offers academic enrichment programs to first-generation college-bound students to increase their odds of being accepted to a highly selective school, including Ivy League.
"This is a huge opportunity," said Demski, 15, of Gurnee. "You have to really want it and put all your heart into it."
This is the second year District 121 has offered the program.
Students are invited to become Schuler Scholars their freshman year based on criteria like academic standing and grade point average. The students must also commit to taking four years of core academic classes, including a foreign language, and enrollment in honors and AP classes.
Throughout the school year, on-site Schuler director Janell Cleland will provide the selected students counseling, tutoring and free ACT and SAT preparation.
The students will also visit colleges and even spend several weeks living on a college campus and taking college courses the summer before their junior year.
Demski is one of more than 20 Warren sophomores enrolled in the Schuler Scholar program this year. The next three years won't be easy, said Jack Schuler, a retired Abbott Laboratories executive from Lake Bluff who founded the Schuler Foundation about seven years ago.
Schuler met with this year's Schuler Scholars at the O'Plaine campus Aug. 13. The program, he forewarned, "is pretty rigorous."
"Not all of you are going to make it. We will have zero tolerance for lack of effort."
Schuler advised the college-bound students that they will become better people for having a drive to succeed.
"When you put a lot of effort into something over a long period of time and succeed, it makes you feel good, and you have an obligation to those who didn't get selected (to be Schuler Scholars)," he said.
The students are off to a great start having experienced 10 days at a wilderness boot camp in Wisconsin where they learned to work as a team and learned more about themselves.
"Camp was pretty powerful," said sophomore Christopher Gurtowski, 15, of Gurnee. "It helped me get out of my comfort zone."
Gurtowski said he isn't sure what he wants to do career-wise but he enjoys English and history and will be taking AP Government this school year. He is considering seeking acceptance into Stanford University or NYU upon graduation from high school.
Demski, who has a 3.8 grade-point average, wants to work with children either in education or social work. She said she might like to attend Notre Dame or Northwestern.
What she knows for certain is she plans to push herself to work harder and do her best.
Getting accepted into a highly-selective college will require a commitment to self-improvement, academic and social, said Schuler.
During the school year the scholars will be exposed to different cultural experiences be it attending an opera or learning proper dinner etiquette. The reason for this, said Schuler, is to give the students a foundation of experience that will set them up to be more comfortable in competitive and social situations.
"Our theory is if we can parachute you into a totally different environment, you will be forced to make connections."
The sophomores will have three years to become the perfect candidate for acceptance into a highly-selective college, said Schuler.
"We feel strongly that you try to strive to go to the absolute best school you can go to."
He also advised the students that private colleges typically offer larger if not full scholarships, compared with state schools which have less funding. The Schuler Foundation will also give the scholars $2,500 annually during college.
Acceptance into highly-selective colleges, said Schuler, will also benefit the students because they will be surrounded by other accomplished students.
"In my opinion, you can learn as much from your fellow students as you can from books and professors."
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