History

The Visitation Scholarship Program

Eighth-graders from Visitation Catholic School, located in the Englewood neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side, are given the opportunity to attend the Chicago Catholic high school of their choice if selected after completing a rigorous application process. Students committed to academic excellence and community service are chosen, and they earn their scholarships not only by maintaining a certain grade point average, but by doing community service in Englewood and around the city. They are also required to come back to Visitation School to take part in monthly group, individual and computer-learning meetings. Twenty-eight Visitation Scholarship Recipients attend 11 different Chicago and South Suburban Chicago high Schools.

The Visitation Scholarship Program Parent Component

The VSP Parent Component is a comprehensive curriculum designed to increase the VSP parents’ spirituality, responsibility and preparedness in raising their children. Parents and guardians of the Recipients are required to participate in the program to earn the scholarship as well. The Parent Component has been a part of the VSP since its inception in 1989, and has set the VSP apart from similar scholarship programs throughout the city. It was firmly believed by Founder Sr. Ellen Carroll, O.P that the success of the students was intrinsically linked to the dedication of the parent. Over the years that belief has proven true time and again.

The Junior Scholars’ Program

A part of the VSP since the mid-nineties, the JSP was designed to give Visitation School 5th through 8th graders the opportunity to experience the cultural diversity of Chicago. By exploring this diversity, the students become well-rounded people and students, and are thus more academically competitive with other city and suburban students when they reach high school.

Over the past nineteen years, the Visitation Scholarship Program (VSP) has given over 125 students the opportunity to pursue a quality high school education. It was founded in 1989 by Sr. Ellen Carroll, O.P., a Sinsinawa Dominican Sister, after seeing some of the graduates of Visitation School failing to reach their full potential at local public high schools. Visitation is located in the Englewood neighborhood, where 25% of the residents are unemployed and 43% live below the poverty level. Sr. Ellen founded the VSP to give students from this neighborhood a chance to better their lives through education, in hopes they will improve the community and change these statistics.
The program has continuously evolved to meet the needs of the recipients and their families and expanded the services that it offers. In 1994, the VSP officially obtained status as a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization. In order to enhance the educational experience at Visitation School and bolster the success of scholarship recipients, Sr. Ellen started the Junior Scholars Program (JSP) in 1996. The JSP serves as an enrichment program to prepare 5th-8th grade students for the rigorous curriculum of Catholic high schools.