Scholarships That Help Students Who Have Lost a Parent

Students who have lost a parent may struggle to pay for college or graduate school without that financial support, but scholarships created specifically for students with a deceased parent can help.

The Life Lessons Scholarship Program is one such example. The program, sponsored by the nonprofit Life Happens based in Virginia, will award $200,000 this year to students who lost a parent and whose families lacked adequate life insurance.

The scholarship is open to college-bound high school seniors and current college students who submit an essay or video about how the death of their parent affected their lives financially or emotionally. Applicants can be from any of the 50 states in the U.S., Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Award amounts vary, with past scholarships ranging from $5,000 to $20,000.

“My mom died in her sleep. She was a few months shy of her 40th birthday,” a student on the scholarship’s website said in a video. “If my mom had life insurance, paying for the funeral as well as college would have been much easier.”

For students facing such financial hardships, Jean O’Toole, a scholarship strategist and author of “Scholarship Strategies: Finding and Winning the Money You Need,” says these kinds of scholarships are more common than students may think.

“Students need to recognize that there are outside scholarships for everybody and everything,” O’Toole says. There are two common categories of scholarships for students with a deceased parent, she says: scholarships from nonprofit organizations and scholarships from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for children of members of the military.

Scholarships from nonprofit organizations are often specific to a certain illness or situation.

The MaryEllen Locher Scholarship Foundation, for example, helps students whose parent died from or is a survivor of breast cancer, or is in treatment for breast cancer. This scholarship is specifically for families within 50 miles of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and both high school seniors and current college students can apply.

Applicants must submit three written essays and a letter of recommendation, in addition to an official transcript and a death certificate or physician’s verification of a breast cancer diagnosis for the surviving parent.

Military families also have scholarship options, both through Veterans Affairs and military-focused nonprofits.

The Children of Fallen Patriots Foundation, for example, is a nonprofit based in Virginia that provides money meant to bridge the gap in funding between available financial aid and the total cost of college for children of a member of the military who was killed in the line of duty.

There is an annual cap on funding of $6,250 per student. Applicants must submit their transcript as well as a copy of the Casualty Report along with death and birth certificates, among other documents.

Veterans Affairs offers a Survivors’ and Dependents’ Educational Assistance program that provides funding for college and graduate school, among other benefits, to children of members of the military who meet certain criteria, including those who were killed while on active duty. To receive this funding, students must be enrolled in a program approved for VA benefits and be between the ages of 18 and 26, except in certain cases.

Another such program, the Children of Fallen Heroes Scholarship, has provided students eligible for the Pell Grant, a federal grant for low-income students, the maximum amount since 2018 when the Higher Education Act was amended.

The scholarship supports students whose “parent or guardian died in the line of duty while performing as a public safety officer,” according to an announcement from the U.S. Department of Education. Students should work with their financial aid administrator to receive the scholarship, and they must be under 24 years old or enrolled at a higher education institution at the time of their parent’s death.

While students should explore scholarships specific to their loss of a parent, experts say they should also seek out awards for their passions and career interests, as well as general scholarships.

“Losing a parent is a devastating event that can, among other consequences, derail a student’s college plans,” Mandee Heller Adler, founder and president of International College Counselors in Florida, wrote in an email. “We suggest students in this difficult situation both utilize general scholarship websites like Big Future, Scholarship Mentor or Fastweb and look to organizations that may be more in line with their unique circumstances.”

Ultimately, the loss of a parent has both financial and emotional impacts, but experts say students shouldn’t let that stand in the way of their college plans when they’re ready.

“When you think about a student wanting to pursue his or her dream and them having lost a parent, either somewhere in their childhood or in this important transitional process in their lives, all too often it’s such a shock,” says James Lewis, president and co-founder of the National Society of High School Scholars based in Atlanta.

“Go on search engines and type in whatever the passion or interest or circumstances the student finds themselves in, and they’re going to be surprised at the scholarships that are available,” he says.

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