RECIPIENTS’ STORIES

Erika Walsh introduces Bernard Shaw at the
Brilliant Futures Kick-Off Event at Navy Pier

Bernard Shaw Prize Scholar Reflects on How the Award Transformed Her Life

In the 1990s, Erika Walsh was a single mother struggling to balance the emotional and financial demands of higher education with raising her daughter. She had no idea how her life would change after she was named the seventh recipient of the Bernard Shaw Prize. More than ten years later, Erika was thrilled to be selected to introduce Bernard Shaw at the Brilliant Futures Campaign Kick-Off Event held at Navy Pier on June 1, 2007. Below are her remarks on the magnitude in which the Shaw Prize transformed her life.

"Thirteen years ago, I began pursuing my undergraduate degree, eleven years after graduating from high school. My dream at that time, a dream which I have now realized: to become an attorney.

"I attended UIC when it was a universe of concrete, before its ‘facelift’ of green space and flowers.

"We used to joke that trying to find classrooms in the behavioral sciences building was itself a behavioral sciences experiment.

"I was a single mother during my time at UIC, trying to balance the demands of an infant and first time motherhood with the demands of my undergraduate studies with dual majors. I had a self-imposed requirement to maintain 21 credit hours in every semester while maintaining my grades so that I would be competitive [in applying] to the best law schools… and all the while trying to figure out how to pay for it all and not let my daughter starve or become homeless in the process.

"Nine years ago, during my senior year at UIC, the ripple effect caused by the incredible generosity of Bernard Shaw and the Shaw family touched my life with profound effect.

"The Shaw scholarship annually provides one exceptional student in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences with a full year’s tuition at UIC. 

Bernard Shaw and his seventh scholar, Erika Walsh, at
the Brilliant Futures Campaign Kick-Off on June 1, 2007

"I am proud and fortunate to have been the 1999 Shaw scholar, the seventh of fifteen recipients of the Shaw family’s extraordinary gift.

"How did this generosity affect me personally?

"On the most basic and fundamental level, it freed me from worrying about how to pay for child care while I finished my last year of studies. It freed other funds so that I could pay for my law school applications. It removed the pressures of worrying about financing my last year of undergraduate education while my attention turned (with great trepidation) to the daunting task of financing law school.

"However, the nuts and bolts of what bills were covered by the Shaw scholarship are minutae in comparison to how it has affected me personally and how Bernie and Linda Shaw motivated me to widen their ripple.

"I earned my doctor of law at the University of Chicago Law School, one of the finest law schools in this country. Just as the Shaws extended a helping hand to me when I needed it most, I have endeavored to extend my hand to others in need of my help. 

"Today, I am employed by Schiller, Ducanto and Fleck, the largest firm in this country whose practice is devoted exclusively to family law matters. Although our clients are typically professional athletes, CEOs, and celebrities, I have a personal policy to always have at least one active pro bono file on my desk at all times. 

"Bernie would tell me not to dwell on past accomplishments but to keep looking toward future goals. I only mention these awards as an illustration of how the Shaws have affected the lives of people whom they have never met.

"Bernie Shaw gives a plaque with a personal message to every Shaw scholar. On that plaque, Bernie says ‘To share is to live forever,’ a philosophy that has become both familiar and dear to me, because I know how wide the ripple created by Bernie and Linda Shaw is and how much wider it grows with each year."