Frequently Asked Questions

The PAA Scholarship is a scholarship offered to a Yorkville High School graduate who is choosing education for their potential college major.

Current Scholarship Award is $1,000 for this year. 

The scholarship goals are to be providing the winning recipient a minimum of $500 one-time, to a Yorkville graduate.  With additional donations we hope to give 5-10% of the total fund for over 20 years.  The current fund stands over $13,000. 

Those applying must be a graduating senior in the Yorkville, Il School District in good standing, and of course, wanting to be an aspiring teacher. 

Submissions: Start January 1st of your graduating year. 

     Submit the following to dougghome@gmail.com.

Basic Information: Name, Address, Graduation Date, Current GPA, Extracurricular/Volunteer Activities, College Attending, When, and Declared Major.

Include:

1) A letter of recommendation from a teacher, on why you would be an excellent teacher.

2) Attach an Essay AND/OR Video link on:  Why I want to become a teacher.

For more information contact the YHS college counselor or email above.

Submission Deadline: March 31.  Winner will be announced in May at Senior Awards Night.

We are so grateful that Ann Brown and Arlene Switalski will be involved in the selection process.   The winning check will be given when there is proof of paid college tuition.

Ann Brown currently resides with her husband Bob in Oswego.  Arlene resides with her husband Walt in Yorkville.  Peggy after retiring to Tuscon, Arizona, relocated again to Bentonville, AR to be close to her son.  She passed away on September 2, 2023.  If anyone would like to contact them, email dougghome@gmail.com

   Peggy attended Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois where she started her teaching degree and met her future husband, Phil. They settled in Yorkville, Illinois where Peggy, began to teach. Parkview students will long remember her special pet, Ollie, a three-foot green iguana. To the delight of the kids, Ollie was allowed freedom to roam the classroom and mingle among them! She was knowledgeable, creative, genuinely caring, funny and passionate about her job and the kids loved her for it. She aimed to give them the self-confidence they needed to reach their goals and believe in themselves. Her influence reached beyond the grade she was teaching which is why she was recognized three times by high school seniors with the Most Influential Educator Award. And in 2013, after she had retired, a former student, now a college senior becoming a teacher, honored her similarly through an award given by Baylor University.

She was actively involved in neighborhood events and helped organize the “Wackerlin Wackys” who dressed as clowns and entertained 4th of July parade goers for years. On special occasions at school, to the surprise of both students and coworkers, she dressed as a clown and roller skated in a performance that drew admiring applause. Peggy was always full of surprises, and just plain fun.

Peggy loved all animals, especially dogs, and she shared her lifelong passion for horses with her daughter, Elizabeth, who still enjoys riding today. She loved snow skiing with her sister Kathleen and planed many warm sunny vacations with family and friends. 

People loved her sense of humor, spontaneous joy to do the unexpected and optimism.
She will be greatly missed.  She loved her family and as a wife and mother she was at the top of her class. She loved Yorkville where she made many friends who stayed close even though she moved away.

Peggy Grant, beloved teacher and long-time resident of Yorkville, passed away peacefully in Bentonville, Arkansas, on September 2, 2023. She was genuine. Simply put, she was the real thing. Peggy may not be with us anymore, but she is in our hearts and memories and that lives forever.

Emphasizing the importance Peggy put on education and self-confidence, family and friends have established a scholarship opportunity through Yorkville School District for a graduating senior who wants to make a difference in children’s lives by becoming a teacher. More information available on www.paascholarship.org  In leu of flowers, donations to the scholarship fund would be appreciated. 

   My thoughts about becoming a teacher probably go back to fifth grade where I stayed after school helping the teacher put up bulletin boards! Fast forward to eighth grade, where I helped the kindergarten teacher on certain afternoons get the children ready for home! They were my motivating factors to enter the world of teaching, and, I have had no regrets on that decision. I graduated from Elmhurst College and took my first teaching job in Plainfield and that is where I eventually met Peggy! 

My life was never the same! She eventually took a job in Yorkville teaching fifth grade and, later, through her recommendations to the principal, I landed a job at Yorkville Grade School. The rest is history. For most of those years, we were in the same buildings and taught at the same grade level so we were part of a team. Peggy was an outstanding teacher who was full of energy and good humor in and outside the classroom. Through her, my friendship with Arlene Switalski developed and the three of us became close taking fun trips together and making those memories that will always be with you.  

My mom had wanted to be a teacher but back then many young people didn’t even graduate from high school. I’m sure that influenced my career choice. I graduated from Western Ill. University and taught 6th grade in a little town in Stronghurst, IL my first year. That summer I got married and we moved to Aurora where I taught fifth grade at Bardwell for two years. We then had three children, so I was a stay-at-home mom. First, I volunteered at St Mary’s School in Plano and then I taught there for 1 1/2 years. For the next 6 years I worked in learning centers but then my close friend, Peggy Grant knew that there was an opening at Parkview School in Yorkville, and she recommended me to the principal. I taught 4th grade at Yorkville until I retired in 2002. Peggy taught fifth grade in Plainfield and then Yorkville. She was a very dedicated and popular teacher. She taught for thirty some years. 

Yorkville has a non-for-profit foundation that was already established, and they generously offered us the ability to run our scholarship funds separately, but under their umbrella to save time and money.  If the Brick Legacy pops up when you access the PAAScholarship page, just X out of it.