December 2, 2015 -- FORT LEE, Va. — Entering its 16th year, the Scholarships for Military Children Program will be accepting applications from eligible students beginning Dec. 15 at commissaries worldwide or on the Internet at www.militaryscholar.org.
Seven hundred scholarship grants, each worth $2,000, will be awarded for the 2016-17 school year. Those students selected for the honor will join nearly 9,000 who've been awarded more than $13.9 million in scholarship grants over the last 15 years.
At least one scholarship will be awarded at every commissary location where qualified applications are received. Additional recipients will be selected based on a prorated basis, so more scholarships will be awarded at those commissaries with larger numbers of applicants.
To qualify for consideration, applicants must be a family member, unmarried child, younger than 21 — or 23, if enrolled as a full-time student at a college or university — of a service member on active duty, a Reserve or Guard member, retiree or survivor of a military member who died while on active duty, or survivor of a retiree.
Applications must be hand-delivered or shipped via U.S. Postal Service or other delivery methods to the commissary where an applicant's family normally shops by Feb. 12, 2016, close of business. Applications cannot be emailed or faxed.
Applicants should ensure they and their sponsors are enrolled in the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System database and have military ID cards. An applicant must attend or plan to attend an accredited college or university, full time, in the fall of 2016 or be enrolled in studies designed to transfer to a four-year program.
Students who are awarded a full scholarship or receive an appointment to one of the military academies or affiliated preparatory schools are not eligible to receive funds from this program. A full scholarship is usually defined as one that provides for payment of tuition, books, lab fees and other expenses.
Fisher House Foundation, a nonprofit organization that helps service members and their families, administers the program. Scholarship Managers, a national, nonprofit, scholarship management services organization, manages and awards the scholarships.
The commissary's industry partners — vendors, suppliers and manufacturers — and the general public donate money to the program, and every dollar donated is applied directly toward funding the scholarships.
For more information, students or sponsors can visit www.militaryscholar.org. They can also call Scholarship Managers at 856-616-9311 or email them at militaryscholar@scholarshipmanagers.com.