Scholarship Criteria

Leave No Veteran Behind provides educational debt relief through a retroactive scholarship model. This scholarship is similar to other educational scholarship applications where candidates must first meet the minimum requirements to be considered for an award. Scholarship awards are disbursed when LNVB receives dedicated funding through donations and sponsorships.

To be considered, eligible veterans must meet these requirements:

You must be a Veteran of the US Military as defined by anyone who:

1. Has engaged in the active duty, reserve, or National Guard in the United States Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, or Coast Guard; and served a minimum of two years on active duty status
   or served a minimum of eight years in the reserves or national guard or have been deployed to a combat zone for more than 30 consecutive days or have a service connected disability that prevented the fulfillment of aforementioned time limits and was released under a condition of Honorable.
   Note: Any discharge that is other than honorable will be reviewed and accepted based upon the circumstances of each case.
2. Must have completed some form of higher education which can include technical, associates, bachelors, masters, or doctorate degrees or must have a service connected disability rating from the VA that inhibits the completion of a degree.
3. Must have loans from a lending institution that were used specifically to pay for education costs.
4. Must provide a personal letter on how educational debt has created personal or family hardship. The following link has examples of possible hardship scenarios.
5. Must agree to 100-400 hours of community service to be completed in your community after scholarship award.

Other Considerations:

Satisfactory decisions concerning an applicant’s request for reimbursement will be based on common-sense determinations, which consider all surrounding facts and circumstances. Adjudication procedures are not intended to be interpreted as inflexible rules of procedures. Even in the absence of disqualifying information covering an applicant’s case, a decision may be reached that is against reimbursement. Evidence of compelling need for assistance will be evaluated on the basis of certain standards of eligibility.

Standards of eligibility include:

• Nature of the need and reason for the request
• Record of dedication in and out of the military
• Demonstrated actions by the applicant indicating attempts at self help
• Evidence of any other assistance sought by the applicant
• Impact of the reimbursement on the applicant, the applicant’s family and community
• Applicant’s vulnerability to adverse action if not reimbursed
• Willingness of applicant to support the organization
• Factors to be considered in adjudication of the applicant for reimbursement
• Existence of reliable, unfavorable information
• History of criminal or other activity that creates doubt about the applicant’s judgment, reliability or trustworthiness
• Deliberately providing false or misleading information concerning relevant and material matters
• Deliberate omission, concealment or falsification of relevant facts during the application process
• Deceptive or illegal financial practices such as embezzlement, theft, fraud, misrepresentation, tax evasion, filing deceptive loan statements or other intentional financial breaches of trust.

If you meet these requirements then you are fully eligible to be considered for this innovative scholarship opportunity.