Glenbard North grad receives Bertram Scholarship

Newly minted high school graduate Amanda Friedman is heading to college in the fall with more than just hopes and plans for her future.

When the Carol Stream student enrolls at Northern Illinois University, she’ll be carrying a bit of support from a girl who didn’t get the chance to follow her own dreams.

Friedman, who graduated this month from Glenbard North High School, is the latest recipient of the Alexa Rae Bertram Scholarship through the Northern Illinois University Foundation.

Like Friedman, Bertram graduated from Glenbard North with plans to attend NIU. “Lexi” had laid out an academic path — she would major in psychology and minor in creative writing, then earn her master’s — that would lead to a career in clinical social work.

Bertram died unexpectedly just two weeks after her graduation in June 2008, moving her grieving family to launch a scholarship fund to carry her name and help other North graduates follow their own futures through NIU.

The first two scholarships were awarded last year — to Sara Sebastian and Amanda Sarlitto — as Bertram’s family continued raising money. From the outset, the goal was to raise enough for an endowment, allowing a $1,000 Alexa Rae Bertram Scholarship to be awarded annually, Bertram’s mother, Micki Krzywy said.

To create the endowment, the family needed to raise $25,000 in three years. They organized dine-out nights and shop-and-share days with area restaurants and stores, along with a range of fundraising events. They’d collected $28,000 by December, just two years and one month after they began.

“We are very proud that we reached this goal in memory of Alexa. Her legacy will continue at her high school, Glenbard North, and at NIU,” Krzywy said. “We thought it would have been harder and would have taken more time with the bad economy and unemployment, but we were pleasantly surprised by so much generosity.”

A panel at NIU chooses the scholarship recipients from among the North graduates enrolling full time at the DeKalb school. Applicants must submit an essay or poem of up to 500 words expressing their desire and determination to earn a degree from NIU, the only school Bertram applied to, her mother said.

Friedman plans to major in communications and minor in English, with the intention of becoming a journalist or photojournalist.