The Club provides local scholarships specifically to Joliet area female high school and community college students wishing to better their future by pursuing a college degree. 

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Scholarships for Senior High School Female Students
Three $1000 scholarships are awarded annually to female students in Joliet area high schools for college expenses via the Young Women Public Affairs Scholarship. Students must apply for the scholarships and are selected by the Zonta Joliet Club’s Scholarship Committee. Each applicant is evaluated based on academics, service and their future career plans. Winners of the local scholarships have the opportunity to be eligible for district scholarships as well. 
 

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Inaya Gray is a freshman at Dillard University in New Orleans. Inaya is studying nursing with a goal to be a nurse practitioner.

Toleen Abdelrahim is a senior at Plainfield North High School; she's on a wait list for a couple of her college choices. Her aim is to attain a PhD in chemical engineering, and work in the pharma industry. Her goal is to help women gain access to medicines they need.
 

Georgia Sweeney is a senior at Minooka High School. She is undecided as to which school she'll be attending, but her goal is to be a social justice attorney with a focus on helping marginalized communities.

 

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Isabella Gourley is a senior at Joliet Township West who plans on majoring in public policy at American University in Washington, D.C. She plans on going to law school and hopes to become a legislator who specializes in gender-based economic inequality.
 

Maya McGrew (our first recipient to win two years in a row) is a freshman at Illinois Wesleyan University. She is majoring in secondary education and English literature with a minor in psychology, is a student senator and she hopes to work in educational leadership after teaching.
 

Inaya Gray is a senior at Bolingbrook High School where she is a member of the National Honor Society. She will attend Dillard University in New Orleans where she will major in nursing.

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Joliet Junior College Endowed Scholarship
Endowed and established in 1996, the Zonta Club of the Joliet Area Scholarship annually awards two scholarships of $1000  to two young women seeking a career in the business or professional field attending Joliet Junior College. 

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In 2018, the Sue Bornhofen Culinary Arts Annual Scholarship began awarding  $500 to a female student in the culinary arts, who maintains a minimum 2.50 GPA.

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In 2020, Zonta Club of the Joliet Area held the inaugural LunaFest film festival in order to raise funds to support these scholarships at Joliet Junior College. Since then, each year,  ZCJA's LUNAFEST fundraiser has raised more than $15,000 to add to the endowment. 

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In 2024, ZCJA hosted its own film festival, THROUGH HER EYES, to continue this new tradition of a film festival of women's films to fundraise for the JJC Endowed Scholarship which as of April 2024, is endowed with over $60,000 thanks to the four years of the film festival events.