Annual First Choice Scholarship applications due April 11th

Planned Parenthood of Illinois
Offers Annual First Choice Scholarships 2008

Planned Parenthood of Illinois (PPIL) will award four graduating high school seniors from the eight county Heart of Illinois area a $250 scholarship to further their education in the 2008-09 school year. Applications are due April 11, 2008.

One of these four scholarships is the Doris Kolb First Choice Scholarship. Doris Kolb was a founder of Planned Parenthood in Peoria in 1965. She served as Executive Director and was a member of our Board for many years, serving as President of the Board for several years. In 1991, Doris was presented with our local Planned Parenthood’s Betty Osborne Award. This award is given for long standing achievement and commitment to the family planning and reproductive rights movement. Doris passed away in December 2005. Doris was an outstanding and award winning chemistry teacher. Thus, the Planned Parenthood Heart of Illinois Board of
Directors determined that we could best honor her legacy by designating one of our Scholarships as a Doris Kolb First Choice Scholarship.

“Through the First Choice Scholarship Program for achieving young people, PPIL wishes to support and celebrate young people’s success and their positive responsible choices. PPIL wishes to promote healthy mind and body concepts, to enrich the lives of young people, and to encourage goal setting and pursuits of excellence and contributing achievement oriented behavior,” states Joyce Harant, PPHOI’s former President & CEO. Scholarship applications are due back to PPIL’s Peoria office at: Joyce Harant, Planned Parenthood of Illinois, 705 NE Jefferson, Peoria, Illinois 61603 by April 11, 2008. The applications will be reviewed by a distinguished panel of citizen’s. The judging panel is independent of the students and school systems involved. The money is to assist students with cost of tuition, books and fees. To be eligible, the student must be pursuing education past high school; illustrate the value of extra-curricular participation in a student’s self-development and be supportive of the Planned Parenthood mission by making responsible choices and not engaging in destructive behaviors. The applicant must be a graduating senior attending high school in the following central Illinois counties: Peoria, Tazewell, Woodford, Marshall, Stark, Fulton, Mason and Knox.

Letters of scholarship criteria and applications have gone out to all of the eight county high school counselors and principals. It is hoped that these professionals will encourage and help their students make their applications. Interested applicants should contact their school counselors or principals for an application. Applications are also available for down loading on the PPIL web site—www.plannedparenthood.org/heart-ofillinois/ or by calling or writing for an application from PPIL—First Choice Scholarship, 705 NE Jefferson, Peoria, Illinois 61603, 309-673-0907 x 226. The scholarship recipients will be publicly announced.