The Education for Children with Diabetes Foundation

By sheila | July 18, 2008

“EMPOWERMENT THROUGH EDUCATION…

LIFE WITHOUT DIABETES! Wouldn’t that be wonderful? Until that day is upon us, we need to give our children and families the tools they need to manage their diabetes. We, at the Education for Children with Diabetes Foundation, believe the best way for that to happen is through education.”

What you have just read is the primary goal of the Education for Children with Diabetes Foundation (ECWDF), which funds college and conference scholarships for children with Type 1 diabetes.

If you read my earlier post for July 18th, you will know that I recently had a serendipitous connection with Mary Podjasek, the President of ECWDF.

Over the past four years ECWDF has awarded almost 60 scholarships for families to attend the annual Children with Diabetes Conference .

Without help from ECWDF, those families would not have be unable to attend because of financial reasons. The conference affords individuals, impacted by diabetes, the opportunity to increase their overall knowledge of diabetes management, receive up-to-date research information and build a life long diabetes network.

This year ECWDF offered applications to Canadian residents and are bringing four Canadian families to the conference. They also added a young adult scholarship and will bring three young adults to the conference. In
addition, they will award scholarships for regional conferences in the fall.

Currently there are no scholarships available to students with Type 1 diabetes, except for a small tennis scholarship. Mary received almost 400 applications from students in 45 states. For the 2008/2009 school year the ECWDF was able to award 18 – $5,000 college scholarships, a total of $90,000.00, to incoming freshman.

Some of the schools the scholarship recipients will be attending are Yale, Dartmouth, Duke, Columbia, Vanderbilt and Northwestern University. Some of the applicants’ majors included pre-dental, pharmacy, biomedical engineering, engineering and business. Some of the 2008 recipients’ activities included National Merit Scholars, NHS Officers, athletes, Eagle Scouts, marathon runners and musicians. Reading the recipients’ testimonials will make your heart smile!

ECWDF student application are evaluated by looking at the individual, their grades, activities, volunteering, advocacy, letters of recommendation from both an endocrinologist and counselor, and an essay. Once the applications arrive, they were blinded and sent out to evaluators for review.

The ECWDF scholarship evaluators included endocrinologists, superintendents, teachers, dieticians, CDE’s and businessmen. Our recipients credentials include National Merit Finalist, National Honor Society Officers, AP Scholars, athletes, musicians,editors and Eagle Scouts.

The recipients are an amazing group of students. One of the student that did research with a professor in his senior year of high school, one that is a marathon runner and one student started the first JDRFwalk in his home state of Vermont and is now the walk chair. ECWDF’s future plans are to not only continue this program, but expand it to include internships for students with some of their Sponsors.

If you would like to apply for a Scholarship, make a Donation and/or become an Education for Children with Diabetes Foundation Sponsor, I know Mary Podjasek would be thrilled to hear from you! You can contact Mary at:

Education for Children With Diabetes Foundation
928 W. Hidden Hill Lane
Palatine, IL 60067
V: 847-991-8746
F: 847-991-8739
http://www.ecwdf.org/

Brava and Hats Off to you, Mary!

I respect and commend you for your dedication and determination to
offer educational opportunities to the children and families who live
the “highs” and “lows” of diabetes.

Sheila N. Glazov ~ Author ~ Speaker ~ Educator ~ Personality Expert Please, visit my website to learn more about your Brain Colors, my What Color Is Your Brain? book and workshops. 10% of the royalties from the sale of my book is allocated to JFRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation)