The scholarship was created to honor Vincent Bennett, who was a Manager for Cisco Systems in Iselin, N.J. for 15 years, and an integral member of the First Responders Children’s Foundation’s inaugural Hero Awards Gala committee.
The scholarship offers an amazing award of $20,000 over a four year period.
However, to be able to use it over those four years at the university, the awardee must maintain all academic eligibility requirements.
The award will be sent directly to the appropriate office of the recipient’s school in two equal payments.
The second disbursement will be sent only upon official verification from the academic institution that the student has maintained the required GPA and is enrolled full-time and so as to receive the second award disbursement, it is the scholarship recipient’s responsibility to submit an official academic transcript no later than January 15th to the First Responders Children’s Foundation offices verifying GPA for the semester just completed as well as official proof of full-time enrollment.
We are here to help you gather all necessary information related to this scholarship, so what we have to offer you are the eligibility and application guidelines in order to be sure that you are the right fit for this award, prior to making a decision to apply.
The applicant must the child of a first responder, either biological, adopted, or step-child.
A child of a deceased first responder must have been conceived prior to the death or total and permanent disability of the eligible first responder.
An adopted child must have been adopted by the eligible first responder before the date of the death or total and permanent disability.
A stepchild must have been listed as a dependent on the eligible first responder’s federal and state income tax returns in the income tax years immediately prior to the death or total and permanent disability.
Furthermore, all candidates must be pursuing their first Bachelor’s degree, Associate’s degree, or Certificate at any accredited college, university or technical/vocational institution in the United States that participates in the federal financial aid programs offered through the U.S. Department of Education.
They have to be enrolled as full-time students and must maintain a 2.7 out of a 4.0-grade point average, or the equivalent as documented by the Office of the Registrar at the academic institution.
Satisfactory academic progress toward the completion of their program is required as well.
Last, but not least, the eligible candidate must be a citizen or permanent resident of the United States attending school in the United States.
Current First Responders Children’s Foundation officers and employees, and members of their immediate families are not eligible to apply.
The application submission deadline is July 1 and all documents must be sent to the scholarship committee by that date.