Chronic Kidney Disease Scholarships

Chronic kidney disease scholarships are available to kidney disability patients to assist in the cost of pursuing a higher education.

kidney disease scholarships
Chronic Kidney Disease Scholarships

Chronic kidney disease scholarships are available to kidney disability patients to assist in the cost of pursuing a higher education. The National Kidney Foundation of Indiana provides The Larry Smock Scholarship to kidney patients who live in Indiana and who are pursuing a post-secondary education in either a monitored occupational or academic setting. To qualify for this scholarships, applicants must have received a kidney transplant or be on dialysis. Indiana residency is also a requirement.

The Kidney Foundation of Ohio also offers a scholarship to kidney patients as well. Each kidney scholarship application is carefully reviewed by a Medical Advisory Board. The goal of the scholarship program is to enhance the lives of individuals through personal success and education.

The Kidney & Urology Foundation of America Scholarship Award provides an educational scholarship as well as an awards program for urology and kidney patients. This award is given to college-bound students who are between the ages of 17 and 25 and who have kidney disease. Scholarship recipients receive up to $2,000 per year. This scholarship is renewable for a total of four years. The Foundation also awards the Covelli Family Achievement Award. This award is given to young patients to recognize them for having improved their life or academic skills. Recipients receive up to $500 along with a certificate of acknowledgement. The deadline to apply is May 25th.

The Neyhart Scholarship was created by Clara and Greg Neyhart and will award its first scholarship winner in July of 2012. Applications were made available in January and are accepted through April 15th. The scholarship was established to support patients living with kidney disease or children of patients with kidney disease. Clara Neyhart has spent her professional career working with patients with kidney disease in her work as a nurse with the UNC Division of Nephrology & Hypertension. Greg Neyhart is a college chemistry professor.

Patient rehabilitation kidney scholarships are also available to patients who are living with kidney disease. These kidney disease scholarships for disability students have helped to foster independence in patients since 1984. The deadline to apply is March 28th. In order to be eligible for these disabilities scholarships, applicants must demonstrate financial need and have a clear employment goal. The maximum yearly scholarship award is $3,000. Scholarship recipients are allowed to apply again each year until they have used a sum total of $6,000 in scholarship funds. All applicants must be a current patient of Northwest Kidney Centers or a past dialysis patient of the center who has received a transplant within the past five years. In addition, applicants must be a resident of Washington State and must be at least 18 years of age.

The Peter and Bruce Bidstrup Memorial Scholarship was originally established in 1984 by Carol G. Bombeck, who was Executive Director of the Arizona Kidney Foundation. The fund was established in honor of her two sons, both of whom did not survive kidney disease. This was the first scholarship program in the country to directly assist transplant and dialysis patients in achieving their educational goals.

The program is primarily funded by private donations and memorials. It was Carol’s dream to establish a source of scholarship funds that would be easily accessible to renal failure patients throughout Arizona. Ultimately, Carol hoped to improve the quality of life for kidney patients, while allowing them to become self-sufficient. Today the Bidstrup Memorial Scholarship Fund provides transplant and dialysis patients with tuition and books. Students receiving this scholarship have used their disability scholarships to study a variety of subjects while attending technical institutes, community colleges and universities.

The National Kidney Foundation serving Kansas and Western Missouri also offers the Culpeppeer Exum Scholarship. This is a $1,000 chronic illness scholarship available to individuals with kidney disease. Applicants must live in Kansas or Missouri and have a diagnosis of kidney disease. The scholarship was founded by Beth Whitten, a nephrology social worker in memory of her brother, a diabetic who was on dialysis prior to his death in 2002. Two scholarships will be awarded in 2012. The deadline to apply for these chronic kidney disease scholarships is May 11th.

 

Chronic Illness Scholarships for Disabilities

Chronic Illness scholarships for disabilities are available to students who are interested through institutions of high learning but living with chronic diseases.

Chronic Illness scholarshipsChronic Illness scholarships for disabilities are available to students who are interested in getting degrees through institutions of high learning but are also living with chronic diseases. The programs designed for this purpose are very often inspired under the hope that by providing some financial assistance students with chronic diseases will be able to better attend school with fewer worries on their minds. Students who have lived their entire lives with a disease, or some portion of a recurring and debilitating illness, have often struggled quite enough as it is. By relieving the financial burden of higher education costs their lives are in all hopes made a little easier.

Such illness scholarships are provided at many different levels – nationally in some instances by large non-profits and regionally by colleges or groups with more local mandates. Those students who have lived their lives with a chronic illness should consider these programs. However, interested students should know that not all programs are designed with all diseases in mind, and they should look over eligibility requirements to make sure that the chronic illness scholarship they are interested in does in fact apply to them.

Amongst the organizations which provide chronic illness scholarships, the Foundation for Science and Disability gives out multiple $1,000 awards every year. This particular illness scholarship is specifically offered to graduate students looking to continue their education. All applicants must be studying a STEM course (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and must also be citizens of the United States. Applicants should also be suffering from a disability for chronic illness which otherwise incapacitates them. The deadline for this program is December 1.

The Incight Education program provides a varying number of scholarships every year which range from $750 to $1,000. This program is limited to students who are suffering from a chronic condition which is debilitating. While the number of recipients varies, in 2010 over 80 different students received awards from the organization. There are very few eligibility requirements for this program outside of having a documented chronic disability and attending school full time. Deadlines for future academic cycles will be posted on the Incight website, so students should pay attention and stay tuned. Interesting to note about this program is the potential of going to a “matching” partner school. This illness scholarship allows students who are attending specific schools to have their award amount matched by the institution they are attending. Students interested in this option should review the schools which participate in the matching program.

Not all chronic illness scholarships for disabilities are available only through these nationally oriented programs. Many different universities provide their own illness scholarships which students should be interested in considering. Those students interested in finding chronic illness scholarships at their own academic institution should consider checking with their local office of Continuing Education or Department of Financial Aid. The Timothy Weise Memorial Scholarship is a good example of such a program available at San Francisco State University. The award amount given out by this program is $600. All applicants will need to have at least a 2.5 grade point average, have a financial need as shown by their FAFSA filing, and be registered with the school’s Office of Disability Resources. Students who are enrolled in a graduate program at San Francisco State University will be able to apply for this illness scholarship as well but must maintain a 3.0 grade point average.

Chronic illness scholarships largely focus around those conditions which cause debilitating effects in their victims. Not all programs are equal, but all provide something which a student will be able to use. Students who are suffering from exceptional disabilities should also consider making use of equipment scholarships which are also offered by many organizations or schools which help provide assistance for equipment an individual may need to make their student experience better in the long run. Students should find that organizations and schools offering illness scholarships are genuinely interested in providing them the support they need to have a successful run in their chosen college, and interested applicants should consider all available options at their disposal.