Partnerships & Donors
Forging strategic connections
Through carefully curated external partnerships with corporate entities and nonprofit organizations, SCPS broadens its ability to reach motivated adult learners and creates compelling opportunities to facilitate personal and professional growth.
These partnerships enhance accessibility to SCPS’s transformative education, spur interactions with accomplished faculty, and feed curiosity and intellectual hunger wherever it may be.
Workshop series with Wintrust Financial Corporation
In the spring 2025 and fall 2025 academic terms, Dr. Dianne Dawson Daniels, SCPS professor of management, rolled out a workshop series in collaboration with Wintrust Financial Corporation, one of the Chicago area’s premier financial holding companies.
Daniels led the development of the customized workshop series designed for the financial holding company’s leadership teams. Called Collaborating Across the Organization, the lunch and-learn webinars aimed to foster collaboration and innovation across a broad enterprise boasting more than 200 community bank locations across multiple states. The novel program brought SCPS’s unique brand of adult education to an external audience and helped Wintrust strengthen its award-winning culture.
Partnerships to increase access to higher education
Hope Chicago provides high school graduates from select partner institutions free college tuition and multiplies its impact by extending the benefit to scholars’ parents as well. SCPS partners with Hope Chicago as an option for parent scholars looking to earn their own undergraduate degree.
One Million Degrees (OMD), meanwhile, supports City Colleges of Chicago students with academic, professional, and financial resources. SCPS continues building a pipeline for OMD scholars to transition into SCPS bachelor’s degree programs while also providing financial support to OMD-affiliated students.
And finally, SCPS has teamed with the national nonprofit Year Up to prepare young adults and recent high school graduates for careers and future education, including enrollment in SCPS’s technology-focused bachelor’s degree programs, such as its BA in information technology and its BA in web technologies. SCPS can accept and apply Year Up’s courses, which
are reviewed by the American Council on Education, as transfer credit toward a student’s undergraduate degree requirements.
Ginther scholars
Marie M. Ginther (BBA ‘87) lived a life defined by perseverance, resilience, and service to others.
After graduating from Loyola’s University College—now SCPS—in 1987, Ginther enjoyed a successful professional career as a corporate controller in New York City. When she retired at age 54, she shifted her focus to helping others. She volunteered at New York City soup kitchens and as an end-of-life doula at Mount Sinai Hospital. She committed herself to service projects across the world in places like Egypt, Cuba, Ethiopia, Vietnam, and Haiti. She also served on the boards of organizations determined to support vulnerable communities.
In the 2018–2019 academic year, the Ginther family established the Marie M. Ginther Scholarship to recognize the support Ginther received during her time at Loyola and to celebrate her selfless life. Ginther passed away in 2022.
“Earning her degree made all the difference in our family’s quality of life,” Marie Ginther’s husband, Ray, says. “We wanted to give back to nontraditional students who want to pursue their degree for the same reasons as Marie. We wanted to recognize her life of service and her genuine character, and, Marie, as an inspiration to these adult learners who will have the same opportunity of a college education.”
The Marie M. Ginther Scholarship provides enrolled students pursuing their first undergraduate degree a financial award to assist in tuition costs. But Ray Ginther knows the scholarship offers more than financial relief to SCPS’s adult learners: It provides hope, encouragement, and the opportunity for recipients to follow their dreams unburdened by the financial stress that often accompanies higher education.
“You cannot fix the whole world, but you can make a difference in a little piece of it,” Ray Ginther says.
"You cannot fix the whole world, but you can make a difference in a little piece of it.” Ray Ginther
Workshop series with Wintrust Financial Corporation
In the spring 2025 and fall 2025 academic terms, Dr. Dianne Dawson Daniels, SCPS professor of management, rolled out a workshop series in collaboration with Wintrust Financial Corporation, one of the Chicago area’s premier financial holding companies.
Daniels led the development of the customized workshop series designed for the financial holding company’s leadership teams. Called Collaborating Across the Organization, the lunch and-learn webinars aimed to foster collaboration and innovation across a broad enterprise boasting more than 200 community bank locations across multiple states. The novel program brought SCPS’s unique brand of adult education to an external audience and helped Wintrust strengthen its award-winning culture.
Partnerships to increase access to higher education
Hope Chicago provides high school graduates from select partner institutions free college tuition and multiplies its impact by extending the benefit to scholars’ parents as well. SCPS partners with Hope Chicago as an option for parent scholars looking to earn their own undergraduate degree.
One Million Degrees (OMD), meanwhile, supports City Colleges of Chicago students with academic, professional, and financial resources. SCPS continues building a pipeline for OMD scholars to transition into SCPS bachelor’s degree programs while also providing financial support to OMD-affiliated students.
And finally, SCPS has teamed with the national nonprofit Year Up to prepare young adults and recent high school graduates for careers and future education, including enrollment in SCPS’s technology-focused bachelor’s degree programs, such as its BA in information technology and its BA in web technologies. SCPS can accept and apply Year Up’s courses, which
are reviewed by the American Council on Education, as transfer credit toward a student’s undergraduate degree requirements.
Ginther scholars
Marie M. Ginther (BBA ‘87) lived a life defined by perseverance, resilience, and service to others.
After graduating from Loyola’s University College—now SCPS—in 1987, Ginther enjoyed a successful professional career as a corporate controller in New York City. When she retired at age 54, she shifted her focus to helping others. She volunteered at New York City soup kitchens and as an end-of-life doula at Mount Sinai Hospital. She committed herself to service projects across the world in places like Egypt, Cuba, Ethiopia, Vietnam, and Haiti. She also served on the boards of organizations determined to support vulnerable communities.
In the 2018–2019 academic year, the Ginther family established the Marie M. Ginther Scholarship to recognize the support Ginther received during her time at Loyola and to celebrate her selfless life. Ginther passed away in 2022.
“Earning her degree made all the difference in our family’s quality of life,” Marie Ginther’s husband, Ray, says. “We wanted to give back to nontraditional students who want to pursue their degree for the same reasons as Marie. We wanted to recognize her life of service and her genuine character, and, Marie, as an inspiration to these adult learners who will have the same opportunity of a college education.”
The Marie M. Ginther Scholarship provides enrolled students pursuing their first undergraduate degree a financial award to assist in tuition costs. But Ray Ginther knows the scholarship offers more than financial relief to SCPS’s adult learners: It provides hope, encouragement, and the opportunity for recipients to follow their dreams unburdened by the financial stress that often accompanies higher education.
“You cannot fix the whole world, but you can make a difference in a little piece of it,” Ray Ginther says.