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by THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

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Project Details

We would like to increase the number of college scholarships to students who have a parent with a disability.

Each year, TLG awards 15 scholarships of $1000 each to high school seniors and current college students who have a parent with a significant disability. Selection criteria included academic performance, community service, letters of recommendation and an essay describing the experience of growing up with a parent with a disability. Students applying for these scholarships include those with parents who were quadriplegic, blind, deaf, amputees, as well as parents with spinal cord injury, cancer, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, mental illness, ALS, HIV/AIDS, traumatic brain injury, muscular dystrophy or intellectual disability. These 15 scholarships are funded through the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), U.S. Department of Education (H133A110009). Each year, we receive nearly 700 applications from students from all 50 states and D.C. Without additional funds, we will have to make very difficult choices and turn down extremely well-qualified and highly deserving students.

There are almost no scholarships for the hundreds of thousands of students who have parents with significant disabilities or medical conditions. These awards not only recognize the diversity and contributions of these families, but their financial need. U.S. families with a disabled parent are twice as likely to be below the poverty level than are families with non-disabled parents. In addition, standard college financial aid applications do not typically weigh the considerable medical or specialized equipment expenses that many parents with disabilities incur. These expenses can substantially reduce the family income by tens of thousands of dollars each year.

Below are samples from essays of three previous scholarship winners:

Somehow in the midst of it all, you tend to forget about the things you don't have, and appreciate what you do have...It’s not about getting to go on a vacation, living in a big fancy house, or driving a tricked out car. It’s about loving each other, and being there for each other. Dad has days, where it seems there is a light at the end of the tunnel; where he smiles and laughs. But then there are also those days where it seems there isn't much more time. His future is in the hands of God, as far as I’m concerned. I just hope when his time comes, he knows how much he was loved and appreciated. No one saw him as a failure. I (and my siblings) saw him as a father, and my mom saw him as her amazing husband. He is our gift from God, and nothing less. [2011 Scholarship Winner]

The disease robbed my mother of everything that she had, her marriage, hair, time with her children during their early years, and most of all, mobility. Yet, instead of surrendering to the disease, she conquered it. Her unrelenting resilience taught me to persevere in the face of adversity while adhering to the virtues of patience, optimism, and gratitude. Each conflict life presented her with, she resolved with time, positivity, and insight, illustrating firsthand for me that happiness can be found under any circumstance and that any struggle can be overcame if one has the will to overcome it. When asked what living with a parent with a disability is like, the primary word that comes to mind is rewarding. Witnessing my mother’s battle firsthand has instilled in me a sense of empathy and perspective I cannot surely say I would have otherwise. Most importantly, it has provided me with a sense of direction and purpose. [2012 Scholarship Winner]

We never talked about my father's disability. My mother only told me about it because he told us that we never existed; that he was leaving us because he had ‘cyber-planed’ into another dimension and un-married my mother so that all of this wasn’t real anymore. I was in the seventh grade and had no idea what schizophrenia even was. He had been treated in the seventies when medication essentially just knocked patients out, so he refused medication, thinking that it too, was evil. He preferred self-medication with eastern metaphysical ‘medicine’ along with significant drugs and alcohol. I read books on his disease to try to understand why he was the way he was, which helped significantly. [2010 Scholarship Winner]



Deadline Not Specified

http://www.lookingglass.org

3075 Adeline St. Ste 120,
BERKELEY,
California 94703
United States.

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