Susie (name changed to protect privacy) is a very quiet eight year old who receives scholarship funding from Woodlawn Arts Academy. Susie started taking piano lessons about a year ago; in first meeting her teacher, Susie was extremely quiet and shy. Her shyness not only occurred in her piano lessons but encompassed her school and social life. As Susie started to learn the basics of piano while spending time with her teacher, she started slowly opening up and displaying her stunning personality. A year later, Susie is now not only speaking to her teacher but socializing in her classroom and with schoolmates and friends. Her parents credit this to Susie’s piano lessons, her desire to learn music, and her teacher. Without the financial assistance for scholarship to Woodlawn Arts Academy provided by the United Way of Whiteside County, Susie may not have been
able to overcome her shyness and begin to associate with her instructors, teachers, friends and classmates.

2013