Washington State Scholarships

The National Federation of the Blind of Washington is pleased to announce that we are accepting applications for our 2027 state Scholarship Program. We will award 3 $3000 scholarships to 3 outstanding blind scholars in our state. The scholarships will be awarded at the banquet of our National Federation of the Blind of Washington annual convention, which will be held at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Seattle Airport in Seatac, WA, from February 25-28, 2027.

In addition to a scholarship, each winner will receive financial assistance to attend the NFB of Washington annual convention, providing an excellent opportunity for networking with active blind persons in many different professions and occupations. The scholarships are awarded at the banquet on Saturday night of the convention. It is required that Scholarship Winners actively participate in person throughout the entire convention weekend.

All applicants must be:

• Legally blind in both eyes
• Residents of the state of Washington
• Pursuing a full-time undergraduate or graduate course of study. If employed, part-time study will be accepted. 
• Available to participate in the entire NFB of Washington state convention
• 18 years of age by the first date of convention

Each scholarship application must include:

• Completed scholarship application form
• An essay describing the applicant’s abilities, academic achievements, community leadership, future goals and philosophy of blindness. Please let your personality shine through. We want to get to know you.
• High school and/or up-to-date college transcripts
• 3 current letters of recommendation, specific to this application

IMPORTANT SIDE NOTE:

All documents submitted MUST BE in an accessible format. It is recommended that you test the documents you intend to submit for consideration. Acceptable formats include: Microsoft Word documents, Plain text documents and PDF files. If you plan to submit a document in a format not mentioned here, you will need to ensure the accessibility for use with screen reading software. If you are not sure, please feel free to contact one of the Scholarship Committee Co-Chairs. Contact information will be listed below. 
 

Submission Procedure & Guidelines

All applicants MUST contact one of the scholarship committee co-chairpersons for a telephone interview. Please contact:
Nikki Palm: (360) 703-8641
Bennett Prows: (425) 814-4187

Send completed scholarship application packets to:
 NFB of Washington Scholarship co-chairpersons
Nikki Palm: [email protected]
Bennett Prows: [email protected]
 

Click on the link below to download the scholarship application & instruction document. This document is in Microsoft Word format. After clicking the link, you will be directed to save the document to your device. If you need assistance with this process, please contact Nikki Palm using the contact details listed above.
 

DOWNLOADABLE APPLICATION PACKETS!
 

National Scholarships

The National Federation of the Blind's annual scholarship program is the largest of its kind in the nation. Every year, we award more than $250,000 in cash and prizes to blind scholars across the fifty states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico in recognition of their achievements and professional aspirations. To learn more visit https://nfb.org/programs-services/scholarships-and-awards/scholarship-program.