Illinois State Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka recently announced the winners of the Bright Start Bright Dreams Scholarship grandparents contest. A total of $50,000 in Bright Start College savings accounts was awarded to 40 winners in five Illinois regions which included Cook County, Chicago suburbs, Northern Illinois, Central Illinois, and Southern Illinois.

After reviewing hundreds of applications, judges from the Illinois Retired Teachers Association selected the essays which best answered the question, “My grandchild will shape the future by…”

Irma Duncan of Du Quoin wrote on behalf of her granddaughter, Robin Duncan. Out of the entire southern region of the state, Duncan’s essay was chosen as the second place winner, giving her grandchild $1,250 for school.

Duncan says that writing the essay about her granddaughter, who is currently attending Eastern Illinois University and plans to enter the school’s nursing program, was easy.

“Robin has done a lot of great things,” said Duncan. “She went to Oklahoma and worked with the Indian children on a reservation. She traveled to New Orleans to help clean up after Katrina, and she went to Haiti this Spring to help the people there.”

The money, which Duncan says will be used next year, is placed in a savings account which goes directly to the school. While any grandparent can open an account and place money in it, the Bright Start Bright Dreams Scholarship is the only one of its kind that places money directly into the account from the treasurer’s office.

“The money placed in the account is non-transferable,” said Duncan. “So if she [or another scholarship winner] doesn’t use it, it can go to some one else.”

The Bright Start College savings account has been in place for six years. Contributions to the accounts are deductible from an Illinois resident’s state taxes and any interest that is earned on the account is exempt from federal taxes when the funds are used to pay for college-related expenses such as tuition, room and board, books, and supplies. Accounts can

be used at most accredited public or private institutions throughout the country. Over 135,000 Bright Start accounts have been opened since the program began in 2000, and over $1.8 billion has been invested.

Duncan says that while she was surprised to hear she was chosen as a winner, she was happy to write the 500 word essay.

“It was pretty neat. And I’m thrilled that I could help Robin with her schooling,” said Duncan. “I would encourage anybody to do it. It would be a great thing for any grandparent to do for their grandchild.”

Duncan added that writing the essay was easy once she realized how much work her granddaughter had done during her time in college so far.

“I had a lot of good stuff to say about her,” said Duncan. “It wasn’t what I did that helped me win this scholarship. It was everything that she has done.”

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 23rd, 2006 at 8:05 pm and is filed under Education, Scholarship. Tags: College, Scholarship. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.