Scott + Karen Dvorak

Scott Dvorak

“I’m a father of eight kids. They range from like kindergarten to high school and there’s really no way that we can afford to pay for eight kids in Catholic school. My wife is a teacher with the Diocese, and I work in sales, so the scholarships have really helped our family.

“They’re smart kids and they do really well in that school environment. It’s really good for them. It’s helped help them really grow academically and personally as well.”

“For our kids, Catholic schools are the best option available. So having the [Invest in Kids] scholarship has really helped us be able to afford it. We received it last year for Saint Andrews and that made it a little bit easier for us to be able to help get the other kids through Joliet Catholic this year.”

“Two of our kids made National Honor Society at JCA, which is an achievement.”

Scott Dvorak
Salesman
Joliet, Illinois

Karen Dvorak

“To be honest, I’ve taught in the public school system, private school system and we home school a little bit here and there as well. The best of all three of those worlds has been the Catholic school system in terms of the academics and the way they tend to care for our children in addition to their faith. It’s important to us to keep them in that kind of environment where they’re with other children who are comfortable to talk openly about their faith.”

“We feel it’s a secure environment for them to grow their faith surrounded by people who care about their growth academically, personally and spiritually. This is the best option for them, so we have them go through it as best as we can, and we’re grateful for those opportunities to be able to do so.”

“We have two sets of twins, so four that are in the same school. The scholarships are so important to us for the opportunities they afford us. It’s a double whammy when we try to do things, so having the scholarships means more to us than people even realize.”

“Especially with a family as large as ours, the scholarships are invaluable to provide us extra wiggle room not only for our day-to-day expenses, but also the things that come with our children growing up, such as driver’s educations or car insurance.”

“They help us take care of those incidentals. For example, I broke my arm recently and fortunately we don’t have to choose between paying for the recovery or our children’s education. It does still get tight at times. But again, we’re grateful that someone out there has made it a little bit easier for us to accomplish all this.”

“When we’re helped with scholarships, we see it as an opportunity and a gift and in turn we find ways to give back, not only to those schools but to the community however we can. So, we see the scholarships as an investment, too, because the kids are going to be good citizens beyond just schooling.”

“Scholarships have a greater impact beyond investing in the tuition, but they teach the students valuable lessons about giving back to help others.”

Karen Dvorak
Teacher
Joliet, Illinois