what is the wheaton academy endowment?
The Wheaton Academy endowment provides ongoing support to WA’s mission and programs by using a set portion of the return generated annually from the original investment of a gift. Only the set portion of gain is spent while the principle investment stays intact and continues to grow.
The Wheaton Academy Foundation was created in 2012 to provide the means by which those interested in leaving a legacy at WA can make gifts—both current and planned—to grow Wheaton Academy’s endowment. This fund—currently valued at nearly $3.5 million and under the financial management of the Wheaton Academy Foundation Board—provides roughly $140,000 each year to support Wheaton Academy’s mission and programs.
To date, endowment gifts have been designated to the following areas:
- Need-based student scholarships
- Merit-based student awards
- Faculty growth and development
The vision of the Wheaton Academy Foundation is to grow the endowment to $7 million in current investments and a total of $20 million, including expectancies, by the year 2029. Reaching this milestone—providing $280,000 in annual support—opens up opportunities for ongoing ministry and impact. These opportunities include:
- An increased amount of scholarship aid for students
- More faculty members empowered to pursue opportunities for professional development
- Resources to care for our campus facilities
To that end, we have established a Foundation Board that is overseeing the efforts toward reaching this goal. We need your legacy support to make this goal possible. Your support is significant in helping us reach our $7 million goal.
Why give to the Wheaton Academy Endowment?
What can I do to ensure that Wheaton Academy continues sending well-equipped students around the globe to influence the world for Christ?
What can I do today that will continue to reap tangible benefits long after I’ve gone home to be with the Lord?
How can I help solve the problem of ever-rising tuition costs and ensure Wheaton Academy remains affordable for worthy students regardless of their socioeconomic status?
The Wheaton Academy endowment provides an answer to these questions! You can make a significant difference in the lives of generations to come by making a legacy gift to the WA endowment. We need your help to reach our $7 million goal by 2029. Will you join us?
a legacy celebrated and continued
In the heart of a typical Chicagoland winter, an envelope arrived that brightened the day. It contained a five-page letter penned by Christine (Nicolette ’75) Gonzalez. She wrote to share about the ways God used Wheaton Academy in her life, and she hoped to see the legacy continue. Her story was accompanied by the tremendous news that she was also joining WA’s Legacy Circle (recognizing those who have included Wheaton Academy in their estate plan and notified the school of this fact).
What follows are excerpts of Christine’s reflections – testimony of a life changed by Christ through the ministry of our school and a desire to invest in the future of Wheaton Academy to ensure the same opportunity remains available to generations to come…
Christine (Nicolette '75) Gonzalez's Story:
Recently, after making a financial contribution to Wheaton Academy, I was sent a copy of the beautifully compiled and fascinating Celebrating God’s Unfolding Story: 160 Years & Building. I woke early one morning and started reading it and couldn’t put it down.
What school has such a fascinating and God-inspired history? I eagerly sped through the book as I couldn’t wait to get to the part that included my four years there: 1971-1975…
And rather than just read about the period referred to as the “Dark Ages” in the life of Wheaton Academy, I feel motivated by God to share my story.
It was another difficult spring day for me in early April of 1971 in King’s Park on Long Island, New York. My mother had been seriously mentally ill since I was five, and I had endured years of great instability and duress… I lived two lives: my lonely private life at home where I never had a friend over, and grew up without a TV and only a few toys and books; and my public life, where I quickly learned that if I put a smile on my face each day like my loving dad did, some may forget that I was my mother’s daughter.
As ridiculous as it sounds, one of my highlights each day was picking up the mail from our mailbox as it was another way that revealed to me there was a life outside the darkness of my house. I was particularly lucky that day because a colorful copy of Moody Monthly magazine was in our mailbox…
It was the annual college edition and in the back there was a card that had the names of the colleges that were featured. All I needed to do was to put a checkmark next to the name of a school, and I would be sent free information on that school. Little did I know that checking a box would end up being one of the defining moments of my life.
I checked numerous boxes and then I noticed one last name at the bottom of the card: Wheaton Christian High School. Years later, I learned that WCHS had advertised just one time in Moody Monthly.
I’ll never know all the miraculous details of what happened, but a few months later I found myself in our Chevy sedan headed for West Chicago, Illinois…. I was 1000 miles away from home, so I quickly realized that nobody knew anything about my mom; I finally had a fresh start and could virtually be anything I wanted to be. With my dad’s constant prayer going up for me, I decided to make choices that would honor God rather than disappoint Him.
For the first time in my life I felt like my teachers knew who I was. I began to confidently contribute to class discussions and I quickly felt “smart” as I excelled in most of my studies. It was out of the classroom that my education and self-esteem grew the most.
Among my teachers and classmates alike, I felt like I was somebody, and the daily chapel and Bible classes helped me to know Whose child I also was.
Among my teachers and classmates alike, I felt like I was somebody, and the daily chapels and Bible classes helped me to know Whose child I also was.
My years spent at Wheaton Christian High School were anything but dark. I thank God that He miraculously worked in each detail, down to my placing a checkmark on a card tucked in the back of a magazine, so I could proudly be an alumna of WCHS/now Wheaton Academy.
The years I spent there simply were some of the brightest, most Divine years of my life.
Christine Nicolette-Gonzalez
