AAAA Scholarship Grant Selection Procedure

The AAAA Scholarship Foundation, Inc. is a separate corporate entity working in cooperation with the Army Aviation Association of America, Inc. (AAAA) to provide scholarship grants for college level education to members of the AAAA and the spouses, unmarried siblings,  children and grandchildren of current and deceased AAAA members.

I. APPLICATION PROCESSING

All applications and supporting data are submitted via Smarter Select, an online scholarship program, to the AAAA National Office by May 1st. References have until June 1st to submit their portion of the application.  A distinct file number is assigned to each applicant file. The AAAA National Office reviews all documents and removes all identifying information such as applicant's name, address, parents' names and addresses and any other personal data. The members of the Scholarship Selection Committee are not aware of the identity of the applicants until the selection process is completed and then, the members of the Committee are informed only of the names of the winners; the names of the non-winners are not made known to the Scholarship Selection Committee.

II. COMMITTEE EVALUATION

A volunteer National Scholarship Selection Committee is responsible for evaluating the applications. The committee reads and rates each file using a "10-point" scale with "1" being the lowest and "10" being the highest rating. The files are voted electronically. Once the voting is complete the votes are tallied by the AAAA National Office and an Order of Merit List (OML) is established based on the results. This Order of Merit List is used to divide the applicants into nine groups: Freshmen Groups I, II and III, Upperclassmen Groups I, II and III and Graduate Groups I, II and III.

III. COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENT OF GRANTS 

Grants are assigned in descending order by the dollar amount of the grant to the applicants in descending order by the OML. For those grants that are open to freshmen, upperclassmen, and graduate students, grants are to be awarded to the applicant with the greatest academic achievement based on the applicant's ranking on the OML in the following priorities: freshman top third, upperclassman top third, and graduate top third, followed by the respective middle thirds and bottom thirds.

If the recipient of a grant is an entering freshman and the grant is less than $2,000, it shall be awarded as a one-year grant; if the grant is $2,000 or more but less than $4,000, it shall be awarded as a two-year grant, if the grant is equal to or more than $4,000, it shall be awarded as a four-year grant. If the recipient is an upperclassman or graduate student, the grant shall be paid out in equal parts over the remaining upperclassman years.

In the interest of providing Chapter Funded Scholarships to applicants from the chapter area, the committee should first determine whether there are remaining Chapter Funded Scholarships of equal or larger value than the remaining scholarships that have not been assigned; and if so, assign the Chapter Matching Fund Scholarships first.

In the interest of providing Individual Matching Fund Scholarships to applicants meeting the specific sponsoring individual requests, the committee should then determine whether there are remaining Individual Matching Fund Scholarships of equal or larger value than the remaining scholarships that have not been assigned; and if so, assign the Individual Matching Fund Scholarships next.

In the interest of providing Heritage Matching Fund Scholarships to applicants from a specific sponsoring veteran association, the committee should then determine whether there are remaining Heritage Matching Fund Scholarships of equal or larger value than the remaining scholarships that have not been assigned; and if so, assign the Heritage Matching Fund Scholarships next.

In the interest of providing Corporate Matching Fund Scholarships to applicants from a specific corporation, the committee should then determine whether there are remaining Corporate Matching Fund Scholarships of equal or larger value than the remaining scholarships that have not been assigned; and if so, assign the Corporate Matching Fund Scholarships next.

If there are any Chapter Matching Fund Scholarships remaining that have not been assigned, for those Chapters that have chosen Option 11, the Chapter Matching Fund Scholarship is assigned to the applicant from another area with the greatest academic achievement based on the applicant's ranking on the OML in the following priorities: freshman top third, upperclassman top third, and graduate top third, followed by the respective middle thirds and bottom thirds.

If there are any Chapter Matching Fund Scholarships remaining that have not been assigned, for those Chapters that have chosen Option 21, the Chapter Matching Fund Scholarship is not awarded.

Scholarships of equal value without special restrictions should be assigned last.

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1 Chapters that sponsor Chapter Matching Fund Scholarships have provided one of the following two options to the committee pertaining to the assignment of their scholarships:

(1.) The Chapter scholarship will be awarded to a Chapter member, or spouse, sibling, child or grandchild of a member or deceased member of the Chapter. Scholarships will be awarded in the following priorities: freshman top third, upperclassman top third, graduate top third, followed by the respective middle thirds and bottom thirds. If all applicants from the Chapter area receive other AAAA scholarships or if there are no applicants whatsoever from the Chapter area, or not enough applicants are left from the Chapter to receive all the chapter's awards that year, after the awarding of other larger non-chapter scholarships, the remaining Chapter scholarship(s) will be awarded to an applicant from another area in accordance with the Order of Merit List (OML) established by the Selection Committee.

(2.) The Chapter Scholarship will be awarded to a Chapter member, or spouse, sibling, child or grandchild of a member or deceased member of the Chapter. Scholarships will be awarded in the following priorities: freshman top third, upperclassman top third, graduate top third, followed by the respective middle thirds and bottom thirds. If there are NO applicants whatsoever, or not enough applicants left from the Chapter to receive all the chapter's awards that year after the awarding of other larger non-chapter scholarships, the Chapter's remaining donation , not including the matching amount, will be held at the National level for subsequent award in the next year's program.