WAA Chicago Chapter

Each year, the WAA: Chicago Chapter awards scholarships to outstanding Chicagoland high school seniors who plan to attend UW-Madison. Every dollar of every fundraising event that we host goes toward this scholarship fund. Since 1937, we’ve awarded grants to more than 300 local students, totaling more than $3 million. Our scholarship program is fully endowed, meaning that each year’s scholarships are funded using only the income from a series of trusts professionally managed by the University of Wisconsin Foundation in Madison. This ensures that the program will never run out of funding. This doesn’t mean our work is done, though. The money we continue to raise is invested to generate more income in the future so we can increase the number and amount of our awards over time. Today, we are able to award four incoming freshmen each year with merit-based scholarships worth $6,000 annually for four years, supporting them throughout their entire undergraduate careers.