AREA Scholarships

AREA Scholarship Program: Calendar Year 2023

1. The dual purposes of this program are to provide (a) freshman year college/university scholarships to high school graduating students who (a) Are related to active, retired or deceased Exchange U. S. payroll employees and assigned military personnel, or (b) Work for the Exchange themselves and paid on the U. S. payroll. (See Personal Eligibility Criteria in paragraph 4.) This scholarship program is consistent with the AREA objective of community involvement.
   
   AREA plans on awarding $40,000 in scholarships to high school seniors graduating in the 2023. Individual awards are: 1 @ $5,000 and 10 @ $3,000. AREA reserves the option of awarding more or fewer scholarships in each of the categories. Only one application can be submitted per student per year.
   • See Student Academic Criteria in paragraph 5 below for further detail
   AREA Scholarship Links:
   • List of scholarship awards since program initiation
   • Download AREA Scholarship Application Instructions
   • AREA Scholarship Applications:
   • University
   • Scholarship Program Donation Form
   • AREA membership information

General Criteria

2. Eligibility for AREA scholarships is outlined in the AREA Scholarship Application Instructions and AREA Scholarship Application.
    
3. The completed AREA Scholarship Application with all requested information must be received by AREA via email or postmarked no later than noon CST March 31, 2023, the application deadline. Email the application and attachments to scholarships@aafesretired.com.

Personal Eligibility Criteria:

4. The following eligibility criteria must be met on January 1, 2023:
   1. Applicants must be permanent U.S. residents and be less than 21 years of age.
   2. Applicants must be natural, legally adopted children or custodial stepchildren of active, retired or deceased Exchange U. S. payroll employees or military personnel assigned to the Exchange.
   3. If an applicant's sponsor is a Military retiree, the Military retiree must have retired while on assignment with the Exchange and must be an active member of AREA.
   4. If the applicant's sponsor is a deceased parent, the parent must have died while an active Exchange employee or a retired Exchange employee or military assignee.
   5. One of the parents of the applicant must have had at least twelve consecutive months of Exchange employment, or in the case of military personnel, Exchange assignment. For a deceased parent, the twelve-month employment requirement must have been met at the time of death.
   6. If applying on their own behalf, the applicant must have twelve consecutive months of Exchange U. S. Payroll employment.
   7. If retired, the sponsor must be an active AREA member. An active member is one who is a member of the national AREA organization (not just a member of an AREA Chapter) and whose dues payments are current. AREA membership information.

Student Academic Criteria:

5. Students must...
   
   1. Be in their senior year of high school and scheduled to graduate in calendar year 2023.
   2. Any of the following test Scores are required to qualify:
      1. An ACT score of at least 23, or
      2. A SAT score of at least 1,200 for the two-part test.
      3. If SAT/ACT scores are not required by the institution being applied to, submit your high school grade point average. An average of a 3.5 (B+) on a 4.0 point scale is required to qualify.
   3. Plan on attending an accredited college, university, community college/ technical school, or one of the U.S. military academies for undergraduate studies in calendar year 2023.

Scholarship Awards:

6. Scholarship amounts can be used to offset costs for academic related expenditures only. Such expenditures include tuition, fees, books, computers and software, and other expenses. The money cannot be used for personal expenses, housing or transportation. Any balance left at the end of the term may be carried over and used to offset similar expenses during subsequent terms.

Scholarship Committee Responsibilities:

7. The Scholarship Committee consists of six members who are responsible for:
   1. Publicizing the availability of the scholarships through the Exchange Post, AREA Newsletter and other media.
   2. Administering the scholarship program by processing all applications, and identifying those which are eligible or ineligible.
   3. Evaluating and scoring the eligible applications.
   4. Making award recommendations to the AREA Board.
   5. Announcing scholarship awardees in the Exchange Post, AREA Newsletter and other media.

Scholarship Application Procedures:

8. The application submission period begins January 1, 2023 and ends March 31, 2023.
9. Completed applications with required documentation must be submitted to the Scholarship Committee by email no later than the application deadline. Time extensions are not normally made. The eligibility of each applicant will be reviewed and validated. It is the responsibility of each applicant to assure that all required information is received by the Scholarship Committee before noon (1200) United States Central Standard Time March 31, 2023.

Processing And Scoring Procedures:

10. As they are received, each applications and corresponding documentation are reviewed for eligibility.
11. Each eligible applicant's file is forwarded to Scholarship Committee members. The members score applications according to the ranking factors outlined in the AREA Scholarship Application Instructions. Scores are aggregated by applicant and ranked to determine awards. Awards are made from highest to lowest scores until the number of board-approved awards is met.

Scholarship Award Date:

12. Scholarship awards for 2023 will be announced by EOM May 2023. Student profiles and other scholarship information will be featured in Exchange Post and in promotional material.
13. By making application, the applicant allows AREA the use of his / her photo, biographic and application information in publications designed to promote the AREA Scholarship Program. Publication examples are the Exchange Post, the AREA Newsletter and the AREA Scholarship booklet featuring scholarship recipients. If an applicant is under 18, permission from the parent or guardian of the applicant allowing the use of information enumerated above must be provided. Scholarship applications and other submitted materials sent to AREA becomes the property of AREA and will not be returned.

Committee Members:

• Michelle Priester, Director
• Don Smith
• Bob Ellis
• Jacqueline Waelde
• Richard Sheff