The Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund gives economically disadvantaged students financial and educational assistance so they can succeed.

The fund not only works with schools to identify and provide scholarships for 100 students each year, but they also provide critical support to their scholars, including:

• Bridge to Excellence: intense academic and organizational preparation the summer before 9th grade
• Tutoring: available throughout their high school career
• Mentoring: an adult role model who can advise and encourage
• Summer opportunities: housing and employment in suburban caddying programs, which qualifies the scholars to apply for a Chick Evans college scholarship
• College counseling: a full-time counselor to advise and assist throughout the process

DMSF was founded 23 years ago. “Daniel Murphy understood the importance of a good education in terms of lifetime opportunity,” says Executive Director Andy David. “His family and their friends decided to honor him by providing scholarships to young men and women who otherwise didn’t have the opportunity to attend a college preparatory high school.”

Please tell us one of your favorite success stories.

Ellen Yiadom became a DMSF Scholar in 1998 attending St. Ignatius College Prep. From there she attended Harvard, graduating with a degree in government in 2006. A year later, she entered law school at the University of Virginia, and received her J.D. in 2010. She is now working at the law firm of Vedder Price in Chicago.

“Without the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund I would not have enrolled in St. Ignatius or any other competitive private secondary school,” Yiadom says. “My parents simply could not afford it. Their desire to see me succeed and all my hard work and determination were simply not enough to get me past the finish line. I needed DMSF to get past the finish line.

“I am eternally grateful for the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund and for all its supporters. I would not have been able to succeed without that help.”

What else do you love about your work with DMSF?  

“I had the opportunity to listen to several of our scholars speak at an event, and also to interview some of the 8th graders who had applied for a scholarship,” David says. “Seeing the kids interest, and the kids who had been given this opportunity made me realize that this organization is truly making a difference. A lot of people talk about it, but we’re doing it.”

DMSF by the numbers

• 23 years in operation
• 1,900+ scholarships awarded
• 40 partnership high schools in Chicago
• 30 boarding school partners
• $5,000—average amount awarded by DMSF (the high schools award the remaining cost)
• 1,200 applications received this year
• 100 scholarships awarded annually
• $1 million raised through the Golf Classic, played on North Shore golf courses. This year’s event will be held June 3 at Northmoor Country Club, Shoreacres, Lake Shore Country Club and Conway Farms Golf Club.