Three U.S. College Students Awarded $1,500 #CaringScholar Grants

SAN MATEO, CA; July 19, 2016 — Caring.com, a leading senior care resource for family caregivers, is pleased to announce today the winners of its financial aid scholarship for students attending an accredited U.S. university or college while also caring for an aging or ailing loved one.

The #CaringScholar program was first launched in March 2015 and was such a success that Caring.com opened up a second round of #CaringScholars grants, with a deadline of December 31st. The Caring.com Student Caregiver Scholarship award provides three (3) university students in the United States with a $1,500 grant each for tuition and/or books, based on the applicant’s compelling 1,500-word essay or two-minute video story submission. These three winners were chosen from among more than 725 applications and 25 finalists:

  • Judy Lucente — a student at California State University San Marcos who’s caring for her father
  • Nicole Gambetta — a student at the University of Central Florida. She is caring for her father, who suffered a stroke.
  • Rachel Elibri — a student at Virginia Commonwealth University. She is caring for her father, who suffers from a brain injury.

“Congratulations to our three winners, who are outstanding examples of the thousands of students who are juggling the challenges of caregiving while also pursuing a degree.” said Caring.com’s co-founder Andy Cohen, who co-founded the caregiving website in 2007 after being a caregiver to his mother.

Cohen was on the panel of caregiving experts who selected the winners. Other #CaringScholar judges included:

  • Deborah Cooke — Deborah’s a healthcare administrator with a strong interest in dementia and delirium care, the aging experience, caregiver stress, intergenerational programming, quality improvement, palliative care, and long term care. She is a certified dementia care provider and specialist through the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America. She has 20 years of experience working with the aging and caregiver communities. Deborah currently is a clinical project manager for NYU Langone Medical Center.
  • Juli Vizza — Juli’s an Emmy award-winning producer and editor. Vizza has worked on the publicity campaigns for a number of major films such as the DaVinci Code and Quantum of Solace, and co-produced and edited the feature-length PBS documentary, “Xmas Without China.” More recently, she produced “Nine to Ninety,” a documentary short for PBS about how her intergenerational family dealt with the issues of aging with dignity.
  • C Grace Whiting, J.D. — director of strategic partnerships at the National Alliance for Caregiving, communications professional, and licensed attorney

“College is hard. Caregiving is hard. When you add the two together at the same time, it’s unfathomable. It’s nice to be able to shine the spotlight on these students and their efforts. They are true rock stars of caregiving.” said Caring.com’s Chief Caring Expert Dayna Steele.

The next #CaringScholar deadline to apply is December 31, 2016 (11:59 p.m. PDT). For more information about the Caring.com Student Caregiver Scholarship, please visit https://www.caring.com/scholarship.