Willowbrook alumna named as 2021-22 Elyssa’s Mission Scholarship Award recipient

Willowbrook alumna Kalista Becker (class of 2022, pictured above) has been named as a 2021-22 Elyssa's Mission Scholarship Award recipient.

District 88 implemented the Elyssa’s Mission SOS Signs of Suicide program this past school year, which teaches students and staff how to recognize the signs of suicide using the ACT technique (Acknowledge, Care and Tell). SOS educates students on how to identify signs of depression and suicide in themselves and their peers, while training school professionals, parents and community members to recognize at-risk students and take appropriate action. For more information, go to https://elyssasmission.org.

Each year, juniors and seniors from high schools that partner with Elyssa’s Mission enter submissions demonstrating their knowledge and application of the ACT (Acknowledge, Care and Tell) message they learned through the SOS Signs of Suicide program. Winning entries are selected as recipients of the Elyssa’s Mission Scholarship Award.

Becker plans to attend Western Illinois University and double major in forensic chemistry and fire science.

“I am from a working-class family, and I am working toward becoming a pastor, which takes both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree,” Becker said. “This scholarship is helping me with the very heavy burden of student loan debt. Getting this scholarship is not just meaningful financially, but it also is meaningful because the program I used to help save a friend’s life is now helping me.”