Find Funding: Scholarships Available for Undergraduate, Graduate & Medical Students

Hampton Roads Community Foundation donors love helping students achieve their full

potential. Through their generous support, we are able to offer over 70 different college scholarships for undergraduate, graduate, and medical school students.And, are our donors ever generous! For the 2015-16 academic year alone, our donors made possible over $1.2 million in scholarships  for 391 students.

Our scholarships are awarded through a competitive process based on established criteria. Most applicants must demonstrate financial need and plan to maintain full-time enrollment while on scholarship. While most scholarships are for students from the South Hampton Roads region of Virginia, we do have a few that draw applicants from throughout Virginia. With 70+ scholarships available, we encourage you to spend time reviewing them all to see which ones apply best to your situation (your major, college of choice, high school attended, etc.)  

·         Undergraduate Scholarships

·         Graduate and Medical School Scholarships

Applications are posted online on each December 1 and must be submitted by their deadline which ranges from March 1 (in most cases) to as late as May 1 for a few specific scholarships. Each student who submits an application  online through our scholarship portal,will be considered for all scholarships for which they meet the criteria. The following materials will be required at the time of application:

·         FAFSA Student Aid Report

·         Financial Information

·         School Transcripts

·         SAT Scores

·         References

·         Your Personal Statement

Still have questions? Contact our friendly scholarship staff at (757) 622-7951 or scholarships@hamptonroadscf.org. Please  follow our Hampton Roads Community Foundation Scholarships page on Facebook for up-to-date information and resources that can help you. 

 (The Hampton Roads Community Foundation is a regional community foundation started in 1950 as the first community foundation in Virginia. It is among nearly 750 community foundation around the country serving specific geographic regions. It is the largest grant and scholarship provider in southeastern Virginia and manages more than 400 charitable funds created by donors from all walks of life. Over the decades it has provided more than $230 million to improve life for residents living in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia, including the cities of Chesapeake, Franklin, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Smithfield, Suffolk and Virginia Beach. It also serves people in Isle of Wight and Southampton counties and the Eastern Shore of Virginia, including Accomack and Northampton counties. Learn more at hamptonroadscf.org. You can click here to locate a community foundation near you.)

What Is Our Foundation's Greatest Success Story?

What is the Hampton Roads Community Foundation's biggest success story,  a new board

Coley Stone at Granby High, his alma mater.

member asked the other day. There are lots of great stories we could share related to big community initiatives incubated here and nonprofits whose clients and audiences benefit from our grants.

But, perhaps our best successes revolve around the 4,000-plus individuals helped by college scholarships made possible by our donors since 1951.

Just the other day we spotted a Facebook post from our former scholarship recipient Coley Stone. Today Coley works in Rotterdam, The Netherlands as a customer care and logistics specialists for Galderama, a global dermatology company. He is fluent in English, French and Dutch and also can converse comfortably with clients in Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and Mandarin Chinese.

Robert & Ettie Cunningham -- Coley's benefactors

Not bad for someone who in 1998 was expelled from his Norfolk middle school and never took any foreign language classes until college. 

A second chance came Coley's way after attending a Norfolk alternative school. He returned to middle school and went on to graduate on time in 2001 from Norfolk's Granby High School where he was elected prom king. In high school he overcame family issues, held down a restaurant job to support himself, lived in a group home and was homeless his senior year before moving in with the school office manager and her family. His ACCESS College Foundation advisor helped him prepare for college and find the resources to pay for it.

Coley went to Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond with help from our J. Robert and Ettie Fearing Cunningham Memorial Scholarship and a Lincoln-Lane Foundation scholarship. During the four years Coley was on scholarship at college he discovered his gift for languages and excelled. In 2006 he was selected to carry the processional banner for VCU students at graduation. 

Armed with his degree in French and history and an adventuresome spirit Coley  headed to Europe after college graduation. He has lived and worked in The Netherlands since 2007. A post on Coley's Facebook page this week featured his 1998 report card from a Norfolk alternative school he attended in eighth grade. The comments section recommended his reinstatement in school and mentioned his "seriousness of purpose."

Coley's 2015 Facebook comment of "God knows I've come a long way" led us to tell him how proud his community foundation family is of him.

His reply:  "And you and the foundation made it all happen. For that I am forever grateful." 

We think the Cunninghams, a Norfolk couple who died decades ago, would be proud of Coley and the hundreds of other students their endowed scholarship at the community foundation has helped have better lives. Ettie Cunningham's 1992 estate gift created the permanent scholarship fund for Norfolk students or those from Hampton Roads who want to be teachers. There are more than 15 Cunningham Scholars in college right now and an endless procession of them will follow in years to come.

As Coley Stone says: "Despite the obstacles, I believe that everyone can achieve their goals if they keep a positive attitude and have support from the community. It has changed my life and I'll never forget."


 (The Hampton Roads Community Foundation is a regional community foundation started in 1950 as the first community foundation in Virginia. It is among nearly 750 community foundation around the country serving specific geographic regions. It is the largest grant and scholarship provider in southeastern Virginia and manages more than 400 charitable funds created by donors from all walks of life. Over the decades it has provided more than $210 million to improve life for residents living in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia, including the cities of Chesapeake, Franklin, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Smithfield, Suffolk and Virginia Beach. It also serves people in Isle of Wight and Southampton counties and the Eastern Shore of Virginia, including Accomack and Northampton counties. Learn more at hamptonroadscf.org. You can click here to locate a community foundation near you. )

Veteran's Foresight Leads to New Scholarship Fund

Gertrude "Betty" Ward taught English at Princess Anne High School in Virginia Beach for 19

Fred & Betty Ward in 1941

years. 

Although she died in 1996, Betty is helping send in the fall of 2015 two Virginia Beach Public School new graduates to follow in her footsteps.

The new Gertrude Ward Scholarship Fund at the Hampton Roads Community Foundation is thanks to Betty's husband Fred's foresight. A few years ago he was crafting a will with his attorney John Midgett of Midgett Preti Alperin PC of Virginia Beach. 

John asked Fred the question he asks all clients making wills: "If no one you have named is living, are there charities, causes or schools you would want to benefit?"

At the time the former World War II  sailor living in a Virginia Beach retirement center had a daughter and grandson to name as beneficiaries. But, Fred heeded his attorney's advice and put the community foundation in as a contingent beneficiary to administer an endowed scholarship in his late wife's name for Virginia Beach students. He expressed a preference for Princess Anne High graduates or Virginia Beach students majoring in English never expecting the scholarship to be activated.

Sarah Burk

Daja Askew

It is sad to think that Fred's only daughter and grandchild passed away before he did in 2011 at age 92. But it is satisfying to know that this fall Sarah Burk, a Princess Anne high graduate, will be studying English at the University of North Carolina and Daja Askew, a Bayside High School graduate will be studying English at Virginia Tech. 

Sarah says: "UNC has some of the best options to give me a diverse education in preparation to enter the publishing industry, so I was extremely glad to receive this scholarship to help me attend."

Daja says: "This scholarship has allowed me the opportunity to attend my dream school and pursue a degree in English. With my English degree, I plan on pursuing the education track and hope to become a high school English teacher in the future."

We can only imagine how pleased Fred and Betty Ward would be to know they are helping shape Sarah and Daja's futures along with the many other Ward Scholars who will follow them.

A Scholarship Success Story

We are always thrilled to run into scholarship recipients like Claudette Woodhouse of

Claudette Woodhouse today

Norfolk, Virginia and to hear how well they are doing in life.

Today while touring Horizons Hampton Roads we got to see Claudette in action. Horizons is a summer enrichment program that helps public school students avoid the summer academic slide. Students spend six weeks of summer taking classes at area private schools in a program that includes academics, arts, swimming and field trips. The Hampton Roads Community Foundation has helped fund the 16-year-old program for years and manages its endowment.

Claudette, was the first student to go all the way through Horizons from kindergarten through eighth grade. She has returned to Horizons every summer since finishing the program to work as a staff member at Horizon's Norfolk Collegiate site. We first met Claudette in 2008 as she was entering her freshman year at Booker T. Washington High School in Norfolk. She was enjoying Horizons activities while focusing on going to college. 

Claudette in 2008

Today Claudette is a senior at Old Dominion University. For four years she received a scholarship through the community foundation's Joseph and Bertha Harry Scholarship. A bequest from the late Joseph Harry in 1990 created a scholarship fund in memory of the  Norfolk couple who never had the opportunity to go to college. . 

Claudette will graduate in December from ODU and plans to become a teacher. She will start her career in the Teach for America program working in New Jersey. We are very proud of Claudette and look forward to keeping up with her over the years.  

 (The Hampton Roads Community Foundation is a regional community foundation started in 1950 as the first community foundation in Virginia. It is among nearly 750 community foundation around the country serving specific geographic regions. It is the largest grant and scholarship provider in southeastern Virginia and manages more than 400 charitable funds created by donors from all walks of life. Over the decades it has provided more than $210 million to improve life for residents living in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia, including the cities of Chesapeake, Franklin, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Smithfield, Suffolk and Virginia Beach. It also serves people in Isle of Wight and Southampton counties and the Eastern Shore of Virginia, including Accomack and Northampton counties. Learn more at hamptonroadscf.org. You can click here to locate a community foundation near you. )

We are sad for the loss of loving mother, nurse and philanthropist Rita Paganelli Horvatic on February 11, 2015 in Virginia Beach. 

But we are glad to know the Hampton Roads Community Foundation brought her peace and happiness. In 2013  she entrusted us with forever awarding scholarships in the memory of her beloved son Tommy. 

Tommy passed away in 1986 at age 17 at the start of his senior year at Princess Anne High School in Virginia Beach. The Tommy Horvatic Memorial Scholarship Fund at the community foundation continues the work Rita and her late husband Tom started the year after Tommy passed away -- awarding scholarships in his name to students at his alma mater. We appreciate memorial gifts for Rita coming to Tommy's fund to help more students.

Here is a short 2013 video about Tommy that features his mom and sister. 

(The Hampton Roads Community Foundation is a regional community foundation started in 1950 as the first community foundation in Virginia. It is among nearly 750 community foundation around the country serving specific geographic regions. It is the largest grant and scholarship provider in southeastern Virginia and manages more than 400 charitable funds created by donors from all walks of life. Over the decades it has provided more than $195 million to improve life for residents living in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia, including the cities of Chesapeake, Franklin, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Smithfield, Suffolk and Virginia Beach. It also serves people in Isle of Wight and Southampton counties and the Eastern Shore of Virginia, including Accomack and Northampton counties. Learn more at hamptonroadscf.org. You can click here to locate a community foundation near you. ) 

Why Should Your Will Include a Contingency Beneficiary?

It's good that Virginia Beach attorney John Midgett of Midgett & Preti PC asked his client, the late Frederick G. Ward, a key question several years ago.

Frederick Ward

"If no one you have named is living, are there charities, causes or schools you would want to benefit?"

Ward was a retired Naval officer and widower living in a Virginia Beach, Virginia  retirement community. He thought carefully about that routine question his attorney always asks clients preparing wills, trusts or other estate plans.

Fred decided to include his community foundation as a contingent beneficiary should his daughter and grandson pre-decease him. Although it was unlikely it would come to fruition, he expressed a desire for a scholarship for Virginia Beach students with preferences for Princess Anne High School graduates or people studying English in college.

It's sad that a few months before Fred passed away in 2011 at age 92, his only child Sharon died. Her only son Roger had passed away before her in an accident.

Gertrude "Betty" Ward

Because of Fred's contingency plans, the Gertrude Ward Scholarship Fund at the Hampton Roads Community Foundation will be helping its first students attend college in the coming year. Gertrude, who was nicknamed Betty, had taught at Princess Anne High. Fred's idea was to use his estate to  honor his wife's memory and her years of teaching. Since no relative outlived him, Fred's wishes were carried out by his executor Mavis McKenley of AMG National Trust Bank in Virginia Beach.

What a gift it is that in finalizing Fred's estate Mavis found a wonderful World War II era scrapbook documenting his and his wife's lives. This special book of memories includes the photos of Fred and Betty you see above.

On December 1 we will begin taking applications for the new Ward Scholarship and the more than 70 other scholarship funds we administer at the community foundation. Each permanent fund was started by a generous donor like Fred Ward -- people interested in education and the promise it holds for people to lead better lives. Click here to learn more about Hampton Roads Community Foundation scholarships.


(The Hampton Roads Community Foundation is a regional community foundation started in 1950 as the first community foundation in Virginia. It is among nearly 750 community foundation around the country serving specific geographic regions. It is the largest grant and scholarship provider in southeastern Virginia and manages more than 400 charitable funds created by donors from all walks of life. Over the decades it has provided more than $195 million to improve life for residents living in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia, including the cities of Chesapeake, Franklin, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Smithfield, Suffolk and Virginia Beach. It also serves people in Isle of Wight and Southampton counties and the Eastern Shore of Virginia, including Accomack and Northampton counties. Learn more at hamptonroadscf.org. You can click here to locate a community foundation near you. )

Scholarship Will Forever Remember a Special Teacher

In August 2013 Virginia lost an amazing educator -- Jennifer Mooney Greene. She  was a

Jennifer Mooney Greene

33-year-old English teacher at Green Run High School in Virginia Beach who loved her work but passed away all too soon from an illness.

As Jen's sister, brother and parents planned her memorial service the Hampton Roads Community Foundation staff was honored to help them find a way for Jen to forever make an impact on the lives of students. They chose to create a permanent scholarship fund at the Hampton Roads Community Foundation for students in the Achievement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program. Jen founded AVID at Green Run to help students prepare to be among the first in their families to go to college. Memorial gifts from family, friends and colleagues brought Jen's endowed fund to $27,777 by the end of December 2013.

Diamond Lee (center) celebrates her scholarship
this spring with Susanne and Kevin Mooney.

In the spring of 2014 Jen's parents presented the first Jennifer Mooney Greene Scholarship to Diamond Lee as part of the inspiration and healing that can come through philanthropy.

Diamond, the first Jennifer Mooney Greene Scholar, was Green Run's 2014 salutatorian and Student Council Association presidentShe discovered AVID in seventh grade and says "it has been the best thing I ever did in school. AVID opened so many doors for me."

Diamond is the first in a never-ending line of scholarship recipients who will carry on Jen's legacy of learning. She is among more than 390 students attending college in 2014-15 with help $1.1 million-plus in Hampton Roads Community Foundation scholarships. Each scholarship fund was started by donors to honor a special person.

People often ask why donors should consider connecting with a community foundation. There are many reasons, but one of the best is that  endowed funds forever provide grants or scholarships in the names of loved ones to help other people lead better lives.

(The Hampton Roads Community Foundation is a regional community foundation started in 1950 as the first community foundation in Virginia. It is among nearly 750 community foundation around the country serving specific geographic regions. It is the largest grant and scholarship provider in southeastern Virginia and manages more than 400 charitable funds created by donors from all walks of life. Over the decades it has provided more than $195 million to improve life for residents living in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia, including the cities of Chesapeake, Franklin, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Smithfield, Suffolk and Virginia Beach. It also serves people in Isle of Wight and Southampton counties and the Eastern Shore of Virginia, including Accomack and Northampton counties. Learn more at hamptonroadscf.org. You can click here to locate a community foundation near you. )

$1.1+ Million in Scholarships Send Students to College

Kellam High School graduate Cole Neubert of Virginia Beach headed west on

Cole Neubert takes a break from his summer construction job at Kellam High to pose by his scholarship's namesake, Judge Floyd Kellam.

Tuesday for his new life as a freshman at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. He is among more than 390 students attending college this year with help from more than $1.1 million in scholarships provided by Hampton Roads Community Foundation

donors. This is the largest amount of scholarships awarded in a single year during the 64-year history of the community foundation.

Cole's scholarship is provided by the generosity of sisters Anne Kellam and Becky Kellam Chalmers of Virginia Beach. In 2013 they started the Judge Floyd E. and Annie B. Kellam Scholarship Fund in memory of their parents. The sisters created the permanent scholarship fund to help celebrate the opening of the new Floyd E. Kellam High School in Virginia Beach named for their dad, who passed away in 1958.

"This is a nice way to honor our father and mother who particularly liked education. Scholarships are so lasting," says Becky Chalmers.

The sisters had students like Cole in mind when they endowed scholarships for Kellam High graduates interested in careers related to math, science or business. Cole, Kellam's 2014 salutatorian, is among the first four Kellam Scholars and plans to become a mechanical or structural engineer and start his own firm.

He got hands-on experience in that area this summer as an intern with S.B. Ballard Construction Company, which built Kellam High. On Monday, the day before leaving for Tech, Cole was in his hard hat helping the company finish a few "punch list" details at Kellam High when he paused to have his photo snapped standing by a portrait of Floyd Kellam. Cole plans to work with Ballard Construction again over winter break and next summer.

Cole is happy to be a Kellam Scholar and to know his scholarship is renewable for up to four years of study. At Tech he is looking forward to "having new experiences and learning about engineering."

(The Hampton Roads Community Foundation is a regional community foundation started in 1950 as the first community foundation in Virginia. It is among nearly 750 community foundation around the country serving specific geographic regions. It is the largest grant and scholarship provider in southeastern Virginia and manages more than 400 charitable funds created by donors from all walks of life. Over the decades it has provided more than $195 million to improve life for residents living in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia, including the cities of Chesapeake, Franklin, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Smithfield, Suffolk and Virginia Beach. It also serves people in Isle of Wight and Southampton counties and the Eastern Shore of Virginia, including Accomack and Northampton counties. Learn more at hamptonroadscf.org. You can click here to locate a community foundation near you. )

Former Scholarship Recipient Honors Teammates in a Lasting Way That Will Help Others Forever

When two of Matthew Elliott's Maury High School fellow swim team members died far too young, he decided to find a way to honor them.  

In 2014 he started the Dean-Callahan Scholarship Fund to pay tribute to his friends Carlton

Carlton Dean was a great swimmer.

Dean and Joey Callahan of Norfolk, Virginia, who passed away in 2012 and 2013.

"Both were personable people and good leaders who made others better," says Matt, who works for the Hampton Roads Sanitation District and is studying engineering at Old Dominion University. Matt, 25, was a Hampton Roads Community Foundation scholarship recipient during his four years of undergraduate study at Virginia Military Institute. He was helped  for four years at VMI by a Col. J. Addison Hagan Memorial Scholarship. 

Joey Callahan excelled at volleyball
& swimming

Hagan's friends started the scholarship him in 1980 at the community foundation after he passed away. Matt's goal is to follow in the footsteps of Hagan's friends. His goal is to raise $25,000 to create a permanent scholarship fund at the community foundation in memory of Carlton and Joey. 

The scholarship would be for Norfolk Public School athletes going on to college. Matt has arranged for donations to go to The Maury Foundation with 20 percent of proceeds benefiting the nonprofit that helps improve life for Maury High students. The rest of donations would be earmarked for a new scholarship fund at the Hampton Roads Community Foundation. Once $25,000 is reached, funds would transfer to the community foundation to start the permanent scholarship.

A kickoff event for the new Dean-Callahan Scholarship Fund will be held Friday, August 15, at the Mallory Country Club in Norfolk starting at 4 p.m. It will involve volleyball matches,swimming competitions, dinner and an auction. Details are posted to deancallahan.com.

(The Hampton Roads Community Foundation is a regional community foundation started in 1950 as the first community foundation in Virginia. It is among nearly 750 community foundation around the country serving specific geographic regions. It is the largest grant and scholarship provider in southeastern Virginia and manages more than 400 charitable funds created by donors from all walks of life. Over the decades it has provided more than $195 million to improve life for residents living in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia, including the cities of Chesapeake, Franklin, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Smithfield, Suffolk and Virginia Beach. It also serves people in Isle of Wight and Southampton counties and the Eastern Shore of Virginia, including Accomack and Northampton counties. Learn more at hamptonroadscf.org. You can click here to locate a community foundation near you. )

How Can I Help People Go to College and Succeed in Life?

To give the gift of education, you can be like Fannie Royster Cooke and her husband Richard Cooke. You can endow a scholarship at your area community foundation and have it last forever. There are more than 700 community foundations serving specific geographic areas in the United States. Your thoughtfulness will help people forever.

In 1951 the Cookes, who were long-time Norfolk, Virginia residents, created the first fund

Fannie Royster Cooke

at the Hampton Roads Community Foundation, which was founded in 1950 as Virginia's first community foundation. The Cookes' goal was to honor their two adult sons and to help send southeastern Virginia students to Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond.

Sixty-three years later, the Richard Dickson Cooke and Sheppard Royster Cooke scholarship is alive and well. Hampton resident John C. McClure is the latest in a long line of Cooke Scholars being helped long after Fannie, Richard and their sons have passed away.

The Cooke Scholarship is one  of more than 60 endowed scholarship funds administered by the Hampton Roads Community Foundation -- most for undergraduate education. During the 2013-14 academic year there are 358 students receiving more than $1 million from endowed scholarship funds.

Each scholarship fund reflects the unique interests of the donors who started it. Some scholarships are for specific fields of study such as architecture or education. Others are for graduates of specific high schools such as Ocean Lakes High in Virginia Beach or Maury High in Norfolk. And, some scholarships are for students attending specific colleges and universities such as the University of Virginia or Hampden-Sydney College. 

Since 1951 more than 3,900 individuals have received more than $18 million in Hampton Roads Community Foundation scholarships. Most of them have been a scholarship recipient for up to four years of study.

Tomorrow, February 28, is the application deadline for students to apply for 2014-15 Hampton Roads Community Foundation scholarships. This year there are eight new scholarship funds available because caring donors last year entrusted the Hampton Roads Community Foundation to forever help students in their names. Learn more.

Scholarship application season is an occasion to pause and say thank you to the generous donors who make education a reality for so many students.  

 (The Hampton Roads Community Foundation is a regional community foundation started in 1950 as the first community foundation in Virginia. It is the largest grant and scholarship provider in southeastern Virginia and manages more than 400 charitable funds created by donors from all walks of life. Over the decades it has provided more than $195 million to improve life for residents living in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia, including the cities of Chesapeake, Franklin, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Smithfield, Suffolk and Virginia Beach. It also serves people in Isle of Wight and Southampton counties and the Eastern Shore of Virginia, including Accomack and Northampton counties. Learn more at hamptonroadscf.org.)