On October 13th, 2011 the National Center for Parents with Disabilities and their Families at Through the Looking Glass announced the winners of its 2011 College Scholarships for Students of Parents with Disabilities. As one of several projects of the National Center, these scholarships are funded through the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), U.S. Department of Education. Funding was only available for eleven scholarships and nearly 400 students from across the U.S. applied. Each award is a $1,000 college scholarship for an outstanding high school senior or college student who has at least one parent with a 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 included 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.
For a listing of this year’s winners and to read their essays, information on the next round of scholarship applications to be announced in January 2012, and information on National Center for Parents with Disabilities and their Families at Through the Looking Glass please visit www.lookingglass.org.
