The Foreign Service Journal, March 2015

56 MARCH 2015 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL AFSA NEWS The 2014-2015 AFSA Financial Aid Scholarship Recipients The AFSA Financial Aid Scholarship Program awarded a total of $199,300 in need-based financial aid scholarships during the 2014-2015 school year to 54 children of AFSA members. These scholarships, avail- able to current undergradu- ate students, range from $3,000 to $5,000 each. The 2014-2015 financial aid scholarship recipients are listed alphabetically. Each entry includes the names of the recipient’s parents, AFSA scholarship(s) the student received and the college he or she is attending. AFSA also sponsors an Academic and Art Merit Award Program, which is open to the children of AFSA members who are graduat- ing high school seniors. In May 2014, this program awarded scholarships of up to $2,500 to 28 students, totaling $48,500. The list of 2014-2015 winners was published in the July-August 2014 issue of The Foreign Service Journal . AFSA has given scholar- ships to 82 students totaling $247,800 over the course of the current school year. These two programs are run with the oversight of the AFSA Scholarship Com- mittee, which is comprised of volunteers from the Department of State, the U.S. Agency for Interna- tional Development, Foreign Agricultural Service and the Foreign Commercial Service. In addition, the merit awards program relies on volunteers from constituent agencies to serve as award judges. The AFSA Financial Aid Scholarship Program is administered by the AFSA Scholarship Committee and staff. These awards (both financial aid and merit) are not funded by membership dues. They are funded by donations from individuals and organizations, Com- bined Federal Campaign pledges, contributions from the scholarship fund’s annual appeal and a 5-per- cent annual withdrawal from the program’s endowment (currently valued at approxi- mately $6 million). Two sister organiza- tions—DACOR Bacon House Foundation and Associates of the American Foreign Service Worldwide—sponsor finan- cial aid scholarships in their names under AFSA’s Financial Aid Scholarship Program. These programs are a benefit of AFSA member- Spotlight on Scholarship Donors AFSA offered 115 different scholarships in its 2014-2015 academic year Financial Aid Scholarship Program. Some of these are highlighted on the following pages. The Norton W. Bell Perpetual Financial Aid Scholarship Norton W. Bell estab- lished this sholarship in 2007 after attending an AFSA Elderhostel (now Road Scholar) program on diplomacy. Though he was never a Foreign Service employee, he has always been fascinated by international relations. Bell has attended more than 40 Elderhostel programs and found AFSA’s program to be one of the best. He retired in 1986 from Hewlett Packard, where he was an engineer. After retirement, he became a transcontinental cyclist. AFSA has given scholarships to 82 students totaling $247,800 over the course of the current school year. 2014-2015 AFSA SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM FINANCIAL AID SCHOLARS ship. It’s not too late for students of AFSA members to apply for a financial aid scholarship for the 2015- 2016 school year. Applica- tions will be accepted until March 6. The deadline for merit awards is Feb. 6 each year. Please go to www.afsa. org/scholar for program details and applications. If you have any questions on applying or would like information on how to estab- lish a scholarship or serve as a merit awards judge, please contact Lori Dec, at dec@afsa. org or (202) 944-5504. n —Lori Dec, AFSA Scholarship Director Najee Agu Son of Edward and Wanda Agu. Recipient of Heyward G. Hill Memorial/DACOR Bacon House Foundation Financial Aid Scholarship. Currently attending University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Sarajin Ali Daughter of Karl and Nahid Fritz. Recipient of Anthony G. Freeman Memorial Financial Aid Scholarship, George and Mattie Newman Memorial Financial Aid Scholarship and Marc Grossman and Mildred Patterson Financial Aid Scholarship. Currently attending Virginia Tech University.