Local Bank Awards Scholarships To South Suburban Students

Marquette Bank recently awarded 57 graduating seniors college scholarships of $2,500 each. Scholarship recipient Lemuel Cartman (pictured) from Blue Island, recently graduated from Eisenhower High School and will be using his Marquette Bank Scholarship to attend Valparaiso University in the fall. Photo Credit: Provided by Marquette Bank
Marquette Bank recently awarded 57 graduating seniors college scholarships of $2,500 each. Scholarship recipient Lemuel Cartman (pictured) from Blue Island, recently graduated from Eisenhower High School and will be using his Marquette Bank Scholarship to attend Valparaiso University in the fall. Photo Credit: Provided by Marquette Bank

Local Bank Awards Scholarships To South Suburban Students

BY KATHERINE NEWMAN

For over 50 years, Marquette Bank has been awarding college scholarships through their Marquette Bank Education Foundation. This year, 57 graduating seniors received scholarships of $2,500 each including students from Blue Island, Alsip, Posen, Crestwood, and Evergreen Park.

Marquette Bank hopes that by investing in young people from the communities they serve, they will be able to make an impact on their own success as well as their surrounding neighborhoods.

Marquette Bank is one of the largest locally-owned neighborhood banks in the Chicagoland area with 21 banking centers, 2 lending services offices, and a corporate administrative center.

“We believe in making sure that our neighborhoods prosper because if our neighborhoods prosper, so do we. By giving back and allowing the community to be part of our business, we feel that it’s that much better of an opportunity for us to be here as a financial institution. We don’t want to just be another bank, we like to offer services that other institutions don’t do, like the scholarship,” said Manuel Jimenez, First Vice President and Community Resource Act (CRA) Officer for Marquette Bank.

Scholarship recipient Lemuel Cartman, from Blue Island, recently graduated from Eisenhower High School and will be using his Marquette Bank Scholarship to attend Valparaiso University in the fall. Overall, $140,000 was invested in the local community through scholarships this year and since it’s inception in 1967, the scholarship fund has awarded more than $3.3 million to seniors from the greater Chicagoland area.

“It was our 51st year this year and we really pride ourselves on being a neighborhood bank and a local bank. It is important to do that because as long as our communities thrive then we will continue to thrive so it’s just really important to us to help these students because a lot of them wouldn’t have the opportunity to go to college if it wasn’t for a scholarship. We just hope that they will remember us and maybe get their first checking account or their first mortgages here with us,” said Christie Cox, Vice President and Director of Neighborhood Initiative for Marquette Bank.

The banks 21 locations are surrounded by a total of 57 nearby schools and that is where the bank looks to when awarding scholarships to make sure that their community investment directly impacts the people around their various branch locations. Every year, they examine their list of schools to make sure that they are not leaving anyone out, according to Cox.

Coming up in September, Marquette Bank will hosts a golf outing as a fundraiser for the Marquette Bank Education Foundation in the hopes of expanding the scholarship program even further.

“This year we are starting what we hope will be our first, and with more to come fundraisers for Marquette Bank Education Foundation. We are planning a golf outing and if it’s a success, we will be able to expand the scholarship program in the future,” said Cox.

For more information about the golf outing and the scholarship program call 708-342-8410.

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