Sue Coultas calls the Cardinal’s Scholarship Fund a “God shot.” Over the last two years, the Coultas household, like many across the Chicago area, has faced challenging economic times. Ed Coultas, the family patriarch and a veteran construction worker, has struggled to find steady work, while wife and mother Sue’s own home-based art business has similarly limped along. The lost income has forced many unwelcome decisions, including those regarding their two children’s education. Financial woes pressed Sue and Ed Coultas to transfer their oldest son from Brother Rice High School into the local public high school for his final two years. This past summer, the parents thought they might have to do the same with their daughter, Allison, who had just completed her freshman year at Mother McAuley High School. “We were stuck in a hard place,” Sue Coultas said. Though reluctant to share her troubles with others, Sue Coultas opened up to a friend, expressing her position and her fears. The friend urged her to call the archdiocese and pursue any avenues that might keep Allison enrolled at Mother McAuley, advice Coultas followed with a combination of urgency and determination. “I’ve seen Mother McAuley accent the positive in my daughter and give her a stronger moral compass that’s allowed her to grow,” Sue said. “I was determined to do everything I could to keep her in that environment.” In late October, just as the family feared it would be forced to remove Allison from Mother McAuley, the Coultas home received welcome news: Allison had been granted a $3,500 scholarship courtesy of the Cardinal’s Scholarship Fund. “Our whole world turned around with this news,” Sue said of the scholarship that will cover nearly half of the year’s tuition. Providing assistance The five-year-old Cardinal’s Scholarship Fund, which is one piece of a larger, school-supporting initiative called “Lessons that Last a Lifetime,” provides immediate emergency financial assistance to local parents struggling to keep their students in Catholic schools due to tragic factors, such as illness, death or job loss. In the fund’s brief history, more than 400 scholarships have allowed students to remain enrolled in local Catholic schools. Cardinal George has said that the scholarships “help ensure that no child, especially one whose family is caught in a financial emergency, will be denied the unparalleled benefits of a Catholic school education in the Archdiocese of Chicago.” The archdiocese currently claims approximately 93,000 students at over 250 Catholic schools located throughout Cook and Lake counties, many of the students and their families struggling to address hefty tuition costs, which hover near $3,500 and $8,000 for elementary and secondary schools, respectively. Keeping students As the economy’s turmoil continues impacting the enrollment and operating strength of the area’s Catholic schools while simultaneously forcing parents to assess their ability to pay tuition, the Cardinal’s Scholarship Fund becomes a vital piece in securing enrollment and allowing parents to keep their children in the Catholic school environment. “Though the scholarships are not given in large amounts, we can tap the fund strategically to keep kids in the Catholic school system who might otherwise be forced to leave in the event of fragile circumstances,” Catholic Schools’ superintendent Sister Mary Paul McCaughey said. “These are parents and students we do not want to see forced to leave our schools.” Bernie Beazley is one of the fund’s most ardent supporters. The 84-year-old Chicago resident, a parent of nine children himself, cites the faith and discipline displayed in the Catholic school environment as a primary reason he has pledged his support to the Cardinal’s Scholarship Fund. “I have an enthusiasm and interest in making sure our kids are educated kids,” Beazley said. “As I did with my own children, I want students to be as educated as their appetites and abilities will carry them because that’s the surest way to get ahead in this world.” On Nov. 22, representatives for the Cardinal’s Scholarship Fund, including Cardinal George himself, will be hosting the annual Capital for Kids reception at The Capital Grille in downtown Chicago.