PRESS RELEASES

AFCEA Intelligence and the AFCEA Educational Foundation Announce New Intelligence Scholarships

Scholarships help build future intelligence workforce

For Immediate Release

September 24, 2008

AFCEA Media Contact                     

Tobey Jackson                             

(703) 631-6189                    

tjackson@afcea.org         

FAIRFAX, VA – AFCEA Intelligence and the AFCEA Educational Foundation are pleased to announce the establishment of five intelligence scholarships aimed at undergraduate and graduate students pursuing academic degrees in global security, intelligence studies, and/or foreign languages. 

As a result of their strong support of the Intelligence Community, Mosaic, Inc., Computer Sciences Corporation and Sparta, Inc. recognized the need to encourage academic studies in fields related to national security and agreed to help AFCEA establish a series of specially focused intelligence scholarships. Their generous donations will sponsor two $2,250 undergraduate scholarships and three $5,000 graduate scholarships. Sophomore and junior undergraduate students enrolled full time in a four-year accredited college or university in the United States are eligible to apply for the undergraduate scholarships; students enrolled full time in an eligible graduate degree-granting program are encouraged to apply for the graduate scholarships.   

All five scholarships initially will be offered in fall 2008. Applicants must be U.S. citizens with a minimum GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale. Candidates must be majoring in a field directly related to the support of U.S. intelligence or homeland security enterprises with relevance to the mission of AFCEA such as global security and intelligence studies or foreign languages. Primary factors considered in the selection process are demonstrated academic excellence, leadership and financial need.  Scholarship details and applications are available at www.afcea.org/education/scholarships.  

“These intelligence scholarships will play a critical role in building the future intelligence workforce,” remarks Mr. Chris Haakon, chairman of the AFCEA Intelligence Committee. “We are at a critical juncture in the intelligence arena, with a lack of skilled employees to fill voids created by retirement. By encouraging young people to pursue intelligence-related careers, we can address this adverse trend. We are grateful for the vision of Mosaic, CSC and Sparta. We hope their example will encourage other companies to consider establishing additional intelligence scholarships.  

About AFCEA Intelligence: By providing a resource emphasizing networking and professional development, AFCEA Intelligence brings together intelligence professionals from government and the private sector, including academia. Government has an outside source that it can come to for an industry perspective and industry has an influential voice with the Intelligence Community leadership and within the Intelligence Community agencies. For more information, visit http://intel.afcea.org.  

About the AFCEA Educational Foundation: These new intelligence scholarships will complement the AFCEA Educational Foundation’s existing academic outreach in the hard science disciplines. The AFCEA Educational Foundation promotes excellence in education with scholarships, awards, grants and prizes, awarded annually to students studying the scientific and technical disciplines that support the information technology, communications, and intelligence needs of our military and national security agencies. In fiscal year 2008, the AFCEA Chapters and Educational Foundation together will award more than $1.5 million dollars in scholarships and awards.  For more information on the work of the AFCEA Educational Foundation, visit www.afcea.org/education/scholarships. 

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