Awards range from $1,000 - $10,000 per academic year and are renewable for up to five years if a student remains eligible. Scholarships are announced in June. Recipients and non-recipients are notified via email at the email address provided in their online application.
Awards are granted for an academic calendar year. Scholarship recipients are required to maintain a 2.0 GPA at a minimum to retain scholarship.
Scholarships may be used for tuition, books, room and board, and other reasonable education related expenses deemed suitable by the nsoro Foundation. Scholarship checks must be written to an institution or organization and cannot be written to an individual.
Applicants must:
- Have been in public or private foster care for the 12 consecutive months leading up to and including their 18th birthday, OR have been adopted or placed into legal guardianship from foster care after their 16th birthday, OR they must have been orphaned for at least one year at the time of their 18th birthday.
- Must be a high school graduate or equivalent and have a high school cumulative GPA of 2.0 or higher and an SAT score of over 900/ACT over 21.
- Have been accepted into or expect to be accepted into an accredited, Pell-eligible college or other post-secondary school.
- Plan to attend school as a full time student.
- Be under the age of 25 on March 31 of the year in which they apply if they have not previously received funding from nsoro Foundation.
- Have been in foster care or orphaned while living in the United States. U.S. citizenship is not required.
- Those students who have been nsoro scholars for four years will be considered for advanced degree support.