Scholarship

The Cedar Valley Detachment of the Marine Corps League is pleased to offer a $500 Scholarship for the 2024 - 2025 school year.  This scholarship may be used for legitimate expenses, such as tuition or books, at any accredited college, university or trade school.

Eligibility Requirements

The applicant or the applicant’s sponsoring relative must be eligible for regular membership in the Marine Corps League.  The sponsoring relative may be a parent, sibling, aunt, uncle or grandparent.  This includes step-parents, step siblings and step grandparents.  Membership requirements can be found on the Recruiting page of the Marine Corps League web site or on our main page.

The applicant or the applicant’s sponsoring relative must actively maintain residence in one of the following counties in Iowa:  Linn, Benton, Buchanan, Cedar, Delaware, Johnson, or Jones.

Applicant must be currently enrolled or planning to enroll in an accredited college, university or trade school by the fall semester of 2024.

Applicant must be pursuing an associate's, bachelors, graduate, post-graduate or doctoral degree, or trade school certification.  Paid apprenticeships are ineligible for this scholarship.

Proof of Eligibility

Scholarship recipient must provide proof of eligibility at the time of selection.

Proof of eligibility generally means the following:  1) Proof that the applicant, or applicant’s relative, meets residency requirements.  Proof of residency can include, but is not limited to, State-Issued identification, high school transcripts, or recent utility bills.  2) Proof that the applicant or applicant’s sponsor is eligible for full membership in the Marine Corps League, such as current Marine Corps League Membership or DD-214.  3)  If the scholarship recipient is not self-sponsored, (such as a parent or grandparent) proof of heritage is needed.  Proof of heritage can be demonstrated through birth certificates, and marriage certificates in the case of step parents/grandparents.

*Proof of eligibility will be verified after selecting a winner, but before payment is processed.

*The Marine Corps League does not expect to retain copies of this information.

*The Marine Corps League does not necessarily require original documents.

*Personally identifiable information, such as Social Security Numbers, may be redacted if not directly needed for processing the award.

Proof of eligibility is the responsibility of the scholarship winner, and must be provided within 30 days of the award.

If the scholarship recipient cannot provide proof of eligibility, the recipient is considered ineligible, and the scholarship will be awarded to another applicant.

Scholarship Review Process

Applications will be reviewed by an internal committee, consisting of members selected by the Detachment.  The criteria for selecting a winner include core eligibility, written essay, grade point average (GPA), and involvement in extra-curricular or community/volunteer activities.  The subject(s) of the essay may change, and as such, are beyond the scope of this document.  The weighting of the essay, GPA and activities are also subject to change and beyond the scope of this document.

Marine Corps League detachment members are ineligible to serve on the committee if they are submitting or sponsoring an application.

Selection of the recipient is at the sole discretion of the committee.

The subjects of the essay, and criteria weighting are at the sole discretion of the committee.

2024 Essay Topic: Tell the story of a veteran in your family, and what it means to you personally.

Essay Review Process

Essay must be 500 – 1,000 words.

All essays must be original material, created directly by the applicant.  Plagarism or use of Artificial Intelligence (such as ChatGPT) will disqualify the applicant.  References must be cited.

Essays will be judged on the following criteria:

-Relevance

-Originality

-Unique writing style

-Quality of writing

-Style, clarity, flow, vocabulary

-Organization

-Structure, paragraphing, introduction and conclusion

-Conventions

-Syntax, grammar, spelling, and punctuation

All essays will become the non-exclusive property of the Cedar Valley Detachment.  Furthermore, the Detachment reserves the right to publish the essay in social media.  If this occurs, credit will be given to the author.

Awarding and Payment of the Scholarship

Scholarship recipient must provide receipts or invoices related to eligible educational costs as they are incurred in order to receive payment. Eligible costs include tuition, books, fees, school materials and/or some aspects of room and board as determined by us.

Scholarship recipient understands a photograph and name may be used on social media for publicity purposes.  Detachment will work with recipient to maintain reasonable privacy upon request.

Deadlines and Due Dates

Scholarship applications may be submitted between January 1, 2024 and April 1, 2024.  Applications received after April 15, 2024 will not be considered.

Scholarship winner will be notified by June 1, 2024.