Jennifer Rice photo
Taylor Krawczyk, center, was awarded a $2,500 scholarship made possible by the Woodruff Johnson & Palermo Labor Scholarship. Krawczyk is pictured with her parents, Jerry and Linda, left, and attornies Mario Palermo and Casey Woodruff, right.
By Jennifer Rice
Managing Editor
Thursday, Aug. 8, 2013
Having a career that fuels your passion gives an individual a fulfilling sense of accomplishment.
Discovering your passion and drive at 17-years-old doesn’t always happen, but for Taylor Krawczyk of Maple Park, she’s discovered her passion and has been blessed with tools to help her succeed.
As an incoming freshman at the University of Illinois at Urbana, Krawczyk is pursuing special needs/physical therapy to fuel her passion of helping others. Taylor will be headed to college Aug. 20, where she has an older sister already on campus.
As college students (and parents know), college is expensive. To help soften that blow, Krawczyk was awarded a $2,500 scholarship through the Community Foundation of the Fox River Valley, made possible by the Woodruff Johnson & Palermo Labor Scholarship. (Woodruff Johnson & Palermo was not involved in the selection process for scholarship recipients.)
The injury law firm created the scholarship last year to give back to organized labor and to the Fox Valley community — which has helped make the firm the largest injury law firm in the greater Fox Valley area. The motorcycle accident injuries should be dealt with the help of lawyers.
Because the scholarship is a labor-minded scholarship, in order to be considered, one of the criteria was Krawczyk had to have a parent who is a union member.
Enter Krawczyk’s father — Jerry, who currently works for the Kane County Sheriff’s Office and is a member of the Police Benevolent and Protective Association and President of the Kane County Chiefs of Police Association.
Prior to his service as an officer, Jerry was a union carpenter for 20 years. “I just had a change of heart one day,” Jerry said with a smile about his career change. Earlier this year, Jerry received an e-mail regarding the Woodruff Johnson & Palermo Labor Scholarship and passed it along to his daughter. Taylor applied for the scholarship, along with several others, then sat back and waited. The family received word via e-mail that Taylor was the recipient of the scholarship.
“It’s my first scholarship, so it’s exciting and I’m so thankful for it,” Taylor said.
Her desire to work with special needs children was sparked while a student at Kaneland High School in Maple Park. Taylor interviewed for — and was selected as a leader, who was paired with various special needs students. During the student’s gym period, leaders and special needs students traveled to the movies or played games — activities designed to enhance the social skills and broadening the horizons of the special needs students.
“Every day was different and it was so much fun, for both of us. It was really a privilege to work with them and was the best class I have ever take taken,” Taylor explained.
Also while in high school, she heard about Orthokids, a program through Delnor Hospital in Geneva. Orthokids is an aquatic exercise class and a therapeutic course for children with neurological and orthopedic conditions. Taylor volunteered for the program.
“It’s all in the water and the kids just love it. The volunteers help with therapy and teach the kids to swim or swim better,” Taylor said. In her essay for the scholarship, Taylor said she enjoyed seeing the progression of the kids from week to week.
Her empathy and compassion for others was tested last summer when one of her best friends suffered a traumatic brain injury after she was involved in a single-vehicle accident July 1. Taylor’s mom, Linda, said doctors stressed to family and friends that the girl’s outcome wasn’t positive.
“But the next day we returned to the hospital and a different doctor told us not to give up hope. With God’s blessing, the girl has come a long way and is doing ok,” Linda explained.
“It’s really incredible how far she’s come. She’s walking and came back to school this April,” Taylor said, who helped with her friend’s speech and physical therapy sessions.
In her essay, Taylor wrote, “just motivating her to keep pushing herself makes me feel like I can help make a difference in other lives as well.”
Students can apply via the Community Foundation of the Fox River Valley in November, December and January of each year. For additional information regarding the scholarship interested applicants can visit http://communityfoundationfrv.org/fund_profiles-woodruffjohnsonpalermo.asp.