Invest­ing In Our Youth

Friend­ship Senior Options Foun­da­tion has award­ed the 2020 Paul J. Schaffhausen Memo­r­i­al Schol­ar­ships to four out­stand­ing grad­u­at­ing high school seniors. Danz­cel Gerona of Bartlett and Erin Glea­son of Auro­ra received asso­ciate schol­ar­ships, which are giv­en to employ­ees or the chil­dren of employ­ees at Friend­ship Vil­lage of Schaum­burg and Green­Fields of Gene­va, respec­tive­ly. Danz­cel, a din­ing ser­vices asso­ciate at Friend­ship Vil­lage, will pur­sue a degree in nurs­ing from Con­cor­dia Uni­ver­si­ty. Erin, the daugh­ter of a CNA at Green­Fields, will pur­sue a degree in nurs­ing from the Col­lege of DuPage. 

Ele­na Brew­er of Pala­tine and Scott Brei­di­gan of St. Charles received com­mu­ni­ty schol­ar­ships giv­en to stu­dents liv­ing with­in the Schaum­burg and Gene­va area. 

Ele­na will be work­ing towards a degree in cre­ative writ­ing at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Illi­nois at Urbana-Cham­paign. Scott is pur­su­ing a degree in indus­tri­al engi­neer­ing at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Wisconsin-Madison.

All of the stu­dents will receive $1,000 awards.

Friend­ship Senior Options Foun­da­tion is an enti­ty of Friend­ship Senior Options which oper­ates Friend­ship Vil­lage and Green­Fields senior liv­ing com­mu­ni­ties. The Friend­ship Senior Options Foun­da­tion fos­ters an envi­ron­ment of phil­an­thropic giv­ing in order to enrich the lives of seniors in the area. Sup­port­ing edu­ca­tion is inte­gral to the Foundation.

For­mer­ly known as the Friend­ship Senior Options Foun­da­tion Schol­ar­ships, the awards were renamed in 2019 in mem­o­ry of Paul J. Schaffhausen, a long­time board mem­ber, and friend of Friend­ship Senior Options. He was known and respect­ed for his out­stand­ing lead­er­ship and integri­ty and ded­i­ca­tion to edu­ca­tion and life­long learning.

Each of the 76 appli­ca­tions for the 2020 schol­ar­ships was care­ful­ly eval­u­at­ed by the Paul. J. Schaffhausen Schol­ar­ship Com­mit­tee. This com­mit­tee is com­prised of res­i­dents of both Friend­ship Vil­lage and Green­Fields. The appli­ca­tions were scored on cat­e­gories includ­ing aca­d­e­m­ic achieve­ment, extracur­ric­u­lar activ­i­ties, com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice, work expe­ri­ence, recog­ni­tion and hon­ors, essay response, and can­di­dates’ embod­i­ment of FSO core val­ues. The Foundation’s Board of Direc­tors approves the funds each year.

The Paul J. Schaffhausen Memo­r­i­al Schol­ar­ships are an annu­al part of the Foundation’s efforts to impact its com­mu­ni­ties positively.