The Foreign Service Journal, March 2011

FSA’s Scholarship Pro- gram underwent sev- eral key changes in 2010 that have im- proved its ability to help Foreign Service youth. ■ Under the oversight of the AFSA Committee on Education, the AFSA Scholarship Programbestowed $35,700 in Academic and Art Merit Awards on 25 Foreign Service high school seniors. A total of 72 children of Foreign Serv- ice employees received AFSA need-based financial aid scholarships for undergraduate college study in the 2010- 2011 school year, amounting to $145,000. These programs allowed AFSA to assist 97 students with aid totaling $180,700. ■ The competitive Academic Merit Award’s scoring rubric was revised to better reflect the higher-level courses students take in high school. The new rubric will be im- plemented in the 2011 program. ■ In January 2010, the AFSA Scholarship Program hired Jonathan Crawford to work 20 hours a week as the scholarship assistant. ■ The Scholarship Program also approved its first gift acceptance pol- icy, giving donors and AFSA written guidance in making and accepting major gifts. ■ As of the 2010 Combined Fed- eral Campaign, we are now called “Foreign Service Youth Scholarships — AFSA” (CFC# 11759). This year we produced the first CFC Scholar- ship Program video aimed at increas- ing donations. ■ Two one-time-only financial aid scholarships were es- tablished and bestowed in 2010: the Stella Panagoulias Stutz Scholarship and the Foreign Service Retirees of Southern Arizona Scholarship. ■ In other developments, Stephen A. Hubler renewed the annual financial aid scholarship in his name. Eric D.K. Melby added to the perpetual financial aid scholarship in his parents’ name (Everett K. and Clara C. Melby), while Norton Bell and Ambassador Rozanne Ridgway added to the perpetual financial aid scholarships in their names. M A R C H 2 0 1 1 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 31 A FSA staffed phone banks in a successful ef- fort to increase retiree membership, and also continued to work on legislative efforts to eliminate the salary and hours caps on reemployed annuitants. In 2010, AFSA began to actively consider establishing a grave marker program to honor Foreign Service personnel, as well as a contractor job placement service for retirees seeking employment with national foreign affairs and secu- rity agencies. AFSA was successful in persuading the State Depart- ment to reverse a decision to automatically reduce sur- vivor annuities to satisfy the debt of deceased annuitants. Also, in response to its efforts, AFSA received assurances from the department that it would look into assisting re- tiree Foreign Service personnel who suffer from Agent Orange–related illnesses acquired while serving during the Vietnam War. Retiree Coordinator Bonnie Brown assisted retiree members with more than 400 benefits issues this past year and increasingly focused on federal benefits issues, both in the AFSA Retiree Newsletter and online. Alongside Leg- islative Director Casey Frary, she worked to increase coor- dination with other federal unions. Bonnie Brown and AFSA President Susan Johnson also traveled to Florida to speak to retirees and participated in several question-and- answer sessions at the Foreign Service Institute’s Job Tran- sition Program. ANNUAL REPORT American Foreign Service Association 2010 Retiree Services: A Very Busy Year ■ B Y B ONNIE B ROWN , R ETIREE I SSUES C OORDINATOR Scholarship Program Advances in 2010 ■ B Y L ORI D EC , S CHOLARSHIP D IRECTOR AFSA’s local Academic Merit AwardWin- ners were honored at a May 4 reception. A Michael Laiacona