2026 Merit Scholarship Application for High School Seniors

The Junior League of Evanston-North Shore’s Scholarships are awarded to honor outstanding graduating High School Seniors who face financial barriers to pursuing a college education due to rising costs.

Our Slogan: Developing Women to Do a World of Good

Our Mission:  The Junior League of Evanston-North Shore is an organization of women whose mission is to advance women’s leadership for meaningful community impact through volunteer action, collaboration, and training.

Our Vision:  To train our members to support local needs in the community.

Our Values: To welcome all women regardless of age, race, religion, ethnic or national origin who demonstrate an interest in and commitment to voluntarism.

Our Impact Statement: The Junior League of Evanston-North Shore is a volunteer nonprofit that develops women leaders to strengthen our community.

Our Focus:  Women, children & families

Our Impact Areas: Food Security, Advancing Education, and Economic Stability

Eligibility Requirements

Individuals applying for a scholarship must:

• Applicant must be a graduating High School student who resides in or attends school in a city/town north of Chicago in Cook or Lake County
• Applicant must be accepted to and planning to attend a college or an institution of higher education in the award year
• Applicant’s biographical information may be shared for promotional and/or media releases
• Junior League of Evanston-North Shore, Inc. members and their families are not eligible
• The application deadline was March 2, 2026.

Scholarship Application Checklist

Applicants must submit the following information for scholarship consideration:

• General Information
• Essay (Explain why you are applying for this scholarship and share anything that will help us make our scholarship decisions. Please respond in 500 words or less)
• High School Transcript
• College Acceptance letter
• Letter of Recommendation (The letter must be from a non-family member and must include the writer’s name, position, and contact information. Letters should be emailed to jlensscholarshipsandgrants@gmail.com by March 2, 2026)

Applications for Scholarships are now closed for the 2025-26 League Year. All applicants will be notified by the end of April regarding their applications.