AmeriCorps alumni experience many positive returns from completing a year of service. AmeriCorps reads attractively on both job and college applications. The AmeriCorps education award is a way to fund future education. Colleges and universities see the benefits in recruiting AmeriCorps alumni, recognizing their leadership training, problem-solving skills and community involvement.
Higher education institutions use incentives to attract AmeriCorps alumni to their campuses. The biggest incentive that they offer is matching the AmeriCorps education award. Schools match the education award in a number of ways, including cash matching, scholarships of equal funding, waived fees, housing discounts and academic credit.
Many schools in the Northeast match the education award. Schools in New York State include the Bard Center for Environmental Policy in Annandale-on-Hudson, which offers up to $6,000 for AmeriCorps alumni accepted into its master's degree program, and the New School in New York City. The New School offers tuition assistance, grants and work-study opportunities for AmeriCorps alumni at the Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy.
Rhode Island College in Providence, Rhode Island, offers undergraduates the benefit of matching the award up to the amount of tuition and fees for the first year. Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, matches the award dollar for dollar over the course of four years.
If you prefer the South, the University of Charleston, in Charleston, West Virginia, matches the education award up to $2,000. Union College in Barbourville, Kentucky, matches the award over four years for undergraduate students. Frostburg State University in Frostburg, Maryland, matches up to $1,000 for AmeriCorps alumni. It also offers a $500 housing stipend for on-campus or a $250 book stipend for on-campus students.
Defiance College in Defiance, Ohio, awards an $8,500 scholarship to 10 incoming AmeriCorps alumni each year. It also offers to match to award at the rate of $1,000 per year. Olivet College in Olivet, Michigan, will match $6,000 for full-time and $3,000 for part-time students; Indiana University will grant three credit hours for one year of service.
The California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco matches the full amount of the education award received after one full term of service for students in the master's or doctoral program at the School of Consciousness and Transformation. Central Washington University awards 10 $1,000 scholarships to AmeriCorps alumni each year. Farthest away, Alaska Pacific University in Anchorage matches on a semester basis for full-time students.