Three U.S. College Students to Receive #CaringScholar Grants of $1,500 Each

San Mateo, CA; March 18, 2015 — Caring.com, a leading senior care resource for family caregivers, today announced a new financial aid scholarship for students attending an accredited U.S. university or college while also caring for an aging or ailing loved one.

According to a 2005 report from the American Journal of Public Health and per 2010 U.S. census data, there are an estimated 5-8 million young adult family caregivers in America (ages 18-24), the majority of whom are caring for an elder female relative such as a grandparent. In multiple research studies with family caregivers over several years, Caring.com has found that providing unpaid care for a relative can be costly, taking a significant financial, emotional, and physical health toll.

“Juggling the responsibilities of caregiving while also pursuing a degree in higher education is really difficult. The time spent on caregiving has the potential to negatively impact academic success, whether by prolonging years of study or lowering their grades,” says Caring.com co-founder and CEO Andy Cohen. “Helping to ease the burden of family caregivers has been Caring.com’s social mission from day one, and this new scholarship for student caregivers is one more way we’re delivering on that promise.”

The new Caring.com Student-Caregiver Scholarship will award each of three (3) university students in the United States a $1,500 #CaringScholar grant for tuition and/or books, based on the applicants’ compelling 1,500-word essay or 2-minute video story submissions. The deadline to apply is May 31, 2015 (11:59 p.m. Pacific Time), and grant recipients will be selected and announced by June 30. Caring.com will share some of the caregiving stories it receives, and is building a new national conversation around the hashtag #CaringScholar.

“We’re excited to receive these students’ grant applications, select the best three to receive the awards, and raise more awareness about family caregivers at America’s colleges and universities,” said Cohen.

For more information about the Caring.com Student-Caregiver Scholarship, please visit https://www.caring.com/scholarship. Accredited universities and colleges are encouraged to share this information on their financial aid websites and/or in their campus offices, and may contact scholarship@caring.com to reach the Caring.com staff managing the grants.