USS Coral Sea Remembrance Scholarships

The USS Coral Sea Remembrance Scholarships - worth $2,000 and $1000 - have been awarded every year since 2002 to relatives of Coral Sea Association members. Funds for the college scholarships have been raised through members contributions since its inception. In addition, the Association has invested $20,000 in mutual funds so that future awards can be drawn from the profits of that investment.

The Scholarship Committee chairman is named by the Association president for a two-year term. The three committee members who judge the annual contest are elected for three-year terms on a staggered basis at each annual reunion.

Rules of Eligibility and instructions for entering are published in the September and December editions of the Association's newsletter - The Coral Sea Breeze. The Rules of Eligibility also appear on this Web page.

Former Coral Sea crewmen or parents/guardians who sponsor an entrant and the entrants themselves are urged to carefully read the rules before requesting an entry form. The entry form and other material must be obtained by telephoning, writing, or emailing the committee chairman after July 1. Entry forms are not published on this Web page nor in the Association newsletter. The chairman's name, telephone number and addressed can be found in September and December newsletter articles announcing the annual contest.

Each year's contest begins on July 1. Completed entries must be received by the chairman on or before April 1. Late entries will be disqualified

RULES of ELIGIBILITY

The USS Coral Sea CVA-43 Association, hereinafter referred to as the Association, will award The Annual USS Coral Sea Remembrance Scholarships of $2,000 and for the first time a second award of $1000 (or an amount to be determined by the Association's Board of Directors) to the winner of an Association-sponsored essay contest.

ELIGIBILITY

Applicants must meet all eligibility requirements. They must be either a son, daughter, step-child, grandchild, step-grandchild or great-grandchild of (1) an Association member in good standing on the date the scholarship is awarded, (2) or of a deceased member in good standing at the time of death, (3) or of a non-member who was killed in the line of duty while serving aboard the USS Coral Sea in ship's company or air group, or was captured as a prisoner of war, or was injured in the line of duty to the extent that separation from the U.S. Navy was required.

An applicant must be a high school senior with at least a B or 3.0 grade point average.

An Applicant must mail to the Scholarship Committee chairman a completed entry form accompanied by an essay of at least 800 and no more than 1,000 words on one of the following topics:

• "How to improve the homogeneity of American Society," or
• "What it Means to Me to be an American Citizen," or
• "Why We Need to Keep Our Armed Forces Strong."

An applicant must agree to use the scholarship for their personal education at an accredited two-year or four-year United States college, university or post-secondary technical-vocational school.

HOW TO APPLY:

The annual USS Coral Sea Association scholarship contest will be underway soon with two prizes. For the first time, the contest will offer a $1000 second-place and award in addition to the $2,000 first prize.

To enter, applicants or their association sponsors must email or write to Scholarship Chairman Guy Dunbar to request an entry packet at:

Entry forms are not printed on this site nor in the association's quarterly newsletter. Entry forms from prior years are not acceptable. A packet of information, including the entry form and the rules, will be mailed to each entrant on upon request. Entrants are advised to read the rules carefully to be certain they meet all requirements. The completed entry form and all other required material must be received by the scholarship chairman no later than April 1. Entries received after that date will be invalid.

DETAILS OF ENTRY

The entry form must be filled out completely. The information requested must be typed or legibly printed. Only one entry is allowed each year from any applicant. A winning applicant may apply in subsequent years but will be considered only if there are no other applications.

The essay must be the original work of the applicant. It must be typed double-spaced on one side of a sheet(s) of paper. All reference sources for the essay must be listed and footnoted.

Two dated and signed letters of recommendation must be submitted from a clergy person, teacher, employer or community leader who has had a professional or working relationship with the applicant; Relatives of the applicant cannot submit such a letter. An official high school transcript showing all marking periods to date of the applicant's senior year and grade point average for those periods must also be submitted. The entry form, letters of recommendation and transcript must contain the applicant's full name. However, neither the applicant's name nor address may appear on the essay; instead, the only identification on each page of the essay will be the applicant's Social Security number in the upper right-hand corner. A check for the scholarship will be mailed by the Association to the college, university or school designated by the winning applicant. All material - entry form, letters of recommendation, transcript, and essay - must be mailed in one envelope and received by the chairman of the Association Scholarship Committee no later than April 1.

CRITERIA OF JUDGING

Essays will be judged, and a winner will be selected by a three-man committee elected by the Association membership. A fourth person -- the committee chairman -- will be appointed by the Association president. (Relatives of committee members are not eligible to enter the competition). The chairman will be the only committee member who will know the identity of the essay writers and therefore will not have a vote on selection of the winner.

Terms for the initial Scholarship Committee will be: one for one year; one for two years; one for three years. At each subsequent annual meeting of the Association members one person will be elected to the committee for a three-year term to replace the retiring member. The chairman will send copies of all essays (identified only by Social Security numbers) to each of the three committee members but will not divulge the names, addresses or Association relationships. In addition, the chairman will send to the three committee members copies of all other material required of applicants, namely, the letters of recommendation and page two of the official entry form, making sure that any information which could identify the applicant is deleted. The chairman will verify from the submitted material that the applicant has a legitimate sponsors as required by the rules, is a high school senior, meets the grade point average requirement and will attend an accredited institution of higher learning.

In case of a tie vote, the applicant with the highest grade point average for the entire senior year will be judged the winner. Essays will be judged on the originality of thought, adherence to topic, completeness, quality of writing, spelling and punctuation.

All material submitted to the Scholarship Committed becomes the property of the Association and cannot be returned to the applicant.