About Us

The ELS Breaking Boundaries Scholarship was founded during the 2013-2014 school year. The scholarship is awarded to students with disabilities who have displayed exemplary effort and a desire for continued learning beyond high school. After a successful year of fundraising, we were able to aware two scholarships to graduating students who are now attending post-secondary programs in their areas of interest

Letter from the President

The establishment of Breaking Boundaries was inspired upon meeting a student with physical disabilities in my honors chemistry class. I was impressed by his continuous resilience, intellect and intrepidity. This student courageously deals with the daily challenge of staying in control of his muscles, while sitting in class, yet keeping up with the rigor and intensity of an honors class. Wanting to better inform myself about the education system for students with disabilities I asked for a meeting with an educator in the special education department at New Trier. I discovered the existence of numerous opportunities of post high school programs for these students. However, upon this discovery I was disturbed to find out that no financial aid from New Trier is provided for students with special needs to attend their post- high school programs, even though financial assistance is offered for students who want to attend college. The lack of acknowledgement of the equal importance of these programs compared to college and the lack of equal treatment among all students of varying capability upset me. Consequently, I created a scholarship fund for students with significant disabilities and established a fundraising board, Breaking Boundaries.

- Tamara