ZAFEE Scholarship Program
Chicago Community Trust, as Trustee of the ZAFEE Foundation Fund, has established a scholarship program to assist current participants in Uniting Voices Chicago or Youth Guidance or recent refugees to the United States (within the last 10 years) who plan to continue their education in college or vocational school programs.
ZAFEE Scholarship Program
The program is administered by Scholarship America®, the nation’s largest designer and manager of scholarships and other education support programs for corporations, foundations, associations, and individuals. Eligibility for individual programs is determined at the sole discretion of the sponsor and eligible applications are reviewed by Scholarship America’s evaluation team.
Eligibility
Applicants to the ZAFEE Scholarship Program must:
Be current participants in Uniting Voices Chicago or Youth Guidance
OR
Be recent refugees to the United States (within the last 10 years)
AND
Be high school seniors who plan to enroll in part-time or full-time undergraduate study at an accredited two-year or four-year college, university, or vocational-technical school for the entire upcoming academic year
Have a minimum grade point average of 2.25 on a 4.0 scale (or its equivalent)
Dependents and immediate family members of donors and Chicago Community Trust employees are
ineligible.
Awards
If selected as a recipient, the student will receive a $5,000 award. Up to four (4) awards will be granted. Awards are renewable up to three years or until a bachelor’s degree is earned, whichever occurs first, on the basis of satisfactory academic performance (maintaining a cumulative grade point average of 2.0 on a 4.0 scale), and part-time/full-time enrollment. Awards must be used for consecutive years. Recipients may not receive an Associates degree, take time off of school and then request to renew their award for a Bachelor’s degree.
Awards are for undergraduate study only.
Notification
All applicants will be notified in May.
Notifications are sent via email. When setting up your account, avoid using a school or work email. Instead, use an active, personal email address that you will continue to have access to.
Please make sure to add studentsupport@scholarshipamerica.org as well as the program email address as safe senders in your email contact list.
Payment of Scholarships
Scholarship America processes scholarship payments on behalf of Chicago Community Trust, as Trustee of the ZAFEE Foundation Fund. Payment is made in August.
Selection of Recipients
Scholarship recipients are selected on the basis of:
- Academic performance
- Demonstrated leadership and participation in school and community activities
- Work experience
- A statement of career and educational goals and objectives
- Unusual personal or family circumstances
- An online recommendation
- A custom essay “Tell us about a difficult time/situation in your life and how you persevered” (1,000 characters).
Financial need, as calculated by Scholarship America, must be demonstrated for the student to receive an award. Selection of recipients is made by Scholarship America. In no instance does any officer or employee of Chicago Community Trust, as Trustee of the ZAFEE Foundation Fund play a part in the selection. Not all applicants to the program will be selected as recipients. All applicants agree to accept the decision as final.
Requirements
As part of your application, you must upload the following:
- Student name
- School name
- Grades
- Credit hours for each course and term in which each course was taken.
NOTE: If you are providing SAT or ACT test scores, and those scores are not listed on your high school transcript, you will need to upload a copy of your test score report(s) separately.
One online recommendation form must be submitted on your behalf no later than March 26, 2026 at 3:00 PM Central Time.
Your application is not complete unless all required materials are submitted electronically.
