DAR Scholarship Committee – 100 Years of Giving!

The DAR Scholarship Committee first envisioned in 1923 by our 12th President General Lora Haines Cook has been awarding scholarships for 100 years! Fast forward to today—November 1st, our committee begins the fifth year of using DAR Academic Works, our online scholarship application platform to award our twenty-six national scholarships.  I believe Mrs. Cook would be so pleased to know her decision to assist students with a means for a college education has resulted in a century of giving!

Online Platform Opens November 1st for Scholarship Applications

Please help spread the word about our national scholarships!  The DAR Academic Works scholarship application submission window opens on November 1, 2023, and will be accessible through January 31, 2024, until 11:59 pm (Hawaii Time). Our platform is available at dar.academicworks.com. By completing the online application, students will be matched automatically to all the scholarships they are eligible to receive. There is an array of national scholarship opportunities available. Our committee has scholarships for graduating high school students, college undergraduates, and graduate students. The American Indians Committee also uses the platform to award two of their committee’s scholarships: the American Indians Scholarship and the Frances Crawford Marvin American Indians Scholarship.

What’s New This Year

• The DAR Marian Anderson Legacy Scholarship will be available for the first time this year.  Contributions to the Marian Anderson Legacy Fund have made the giving of this scholarship possible.  A one-time $5,000 scholarship will be awarded to a student pursuing the study of music which may include performance, composition, theory, or education. Preference will be given to students from the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania metropolitan area, in recognition of the place that Marian Anderson called home. The scholarship will be available from the DAR Academic Works portal. The scholarship is named for Marian Anderson to continue her legacy for future generations. For more information about the Marian Anderson Legacy Fund, please click here.
• The following national scholarships will not be awarded again this year in order to safeguard the scholarships’ financial stability for the future: the Leo W. and Alberta V. Thomas Utz Scholarship – Science, the Michael T. and Mary L. Cloyd Scholarship, the Enid Hall Griswold Memorial Scholarship, and the Mildred Nutting Memorial Nursing Scholarship. 

Please Help Get the Word Out About Our Scholarships

As reported in a Scholarship Blog last year, there are still a few national scholarships receiving a handful of applications.  Would you please help to let your community know about these great educational opportunities?

• William Robert Findley Graduate Chemistry Scholarship – this is a one-time scholarship in the amount of $2,000 for a student attending graduate school full-time at an accredited college or university and majoring in chemistry in the United States. Learn more about this scholarship opportunity here.
• Robert Hunter Swadley Horticulture Scholarship – this scholarship is for graduating high school seniors who are residents of California who will be attending an accredited college or university anywhere in the United States and will be majoring in horticulture.  Learn more about this scholarship opportunity here.
• DAR Centennial Scholarship – this scholarship is awarded to students pursuing a course of graduate study in the field of historic preservation at an accredited college or university in the United States. Learn more about this scholarship opportunity here.

If you might be interested, please contact the DAR Scholarship Committee’s national chair at [email protected] and provide your name and email address for consideration.

In closing, this National Chair would like to thank our members in their efforts to further the educational mission of our National Society’s first envisioned over 100 years ago!