A national nonprofit announced its largest-ever class of scholarship recipients, consisting entirely of military spouses and caregivers.
Hope For The Warriors awarded 20 scholarships worth $43,700 to military spouses and caregivers stationed around the United States. Each husband or wife is married to a post-9/11 service member or veteran who sustained a combat-related injury and/or has a 100% permanent and total VA disability rating.
“Life threw these recipients a major curveball with juggling the duties of being a spouse and caregiver, yet now they are working tirelessly while volunteering, being employed, being a parent, being all these things to better themselves for their family,” said Kristy Warren, Hope For The Warriors transition case manager. “I can’t think of anyone more selfless than the individuals who applied for this scholarship.”
Big dreams
Former Army wife Karla Seijas is one of them. As a fourth-year PhD student at the University of California, Merced, she won Hope For The Warriors’ $2,500 Honorary Scholarship for graduate or post-graduate students.
“I was surprised, excited and thankful when I found out I had won,” said Seijas, whose husband was injured as a medic in Iraq. “It’s a motivator for me to continue to bring awareness to military issues, spouses and caregivers.”
Seijas, a mother of two elementary-aged children, is studying political and cultural anthropology at UC Merced. Her research and dissertation focus on the effects of public policy on post-9/11 military families like her own.
“I tend to focus on military spouse employment, because I experienced that myself,” Seijas said. “I have a master’s in public policy, and I worked in government relations. But when I became a military spouse, that really didn’t translate.”
Earning her PhD, then, is a way to advocate for the military spouse and family community that Seijas said has become “near and dear” to her heart.
“At my university, I’m the only grad student who studies military issues on my whole campus,” Seijas said. “Looking at the research that goes on for military families, the stuff I was reading was in the voice of others, as opposed to the military families themselves, so I wanted to impact the way research was being done on the families in this community, to be able to create solutions for us ― because I’ve lived the experience.”
Help and hope
Seijas’ ultimate dream? To become a lobbyist for military-related issues sometime after she hopefully graduates in 2024. Winning Hope For The Warriors’ scholarship, then, is a small step on that journey.
“This scholarship helps financially support my education, which is great and less of a burden on my family,” Seijas said.
That’s the whole goal, said Warren, and a prime reason why Hope For The Warriors instituted the twice-yearly scholarship program almost immediately after the organization was founded in 2006. Since then, the charity has bestowed $554,907 in school monies to 212 spouses and caregivers in pursuit of higher education, including trade schools.
“Our mix of people we support are those who had to put their career goals on hold because their spouse was injured,” Warren explained. “It’s why we started this program to help them.”
Hope for the Warriors’ scholarship funds come from a mix of corporate and private donations. A committee of approximately 20 people grade each essay, which most recently included a prompt asking applicants about inspirational figures.
Warren knows who inspires her: the applicants themselves.
“In five years, I would love to hear that these scholarship winners have successfully graduated from their programs and are actively working in the career field of their dreams,” she said. “All of these men and women are just so exceptional.”
To apply for future scholarships, visit Hope For The Warriors.
