Tag: scholarships

Nicholls Alumni Scholarships are Growing

Nicholls State University, founded in 1948, has always looked out for its students. However, their Alumni Federation has gone even further by supporting Nicholls students with multiple scholarships. The newest scholarship, which was awarded for the first time in the Fall of 2017 is, The J. Nannie Endowed Alumni Scholarship. The student receiving this scholarship has to be at the sophomore level, have at least a 3.2 GPA, and must be involved in a minimum of one university organization. Of course, they must be a full time student as well. The scholarship is only awarded for one year but the student will receive $250 for one fall and one spring semester.

Each year two upperclassmen are awarded the Alumni Federation Upperclassman Scholarships. The recipients must have a 3.0 GPA and at least 60 hours of credit, semester credit. $800 is given to each student for the fall and spring semesters. In addition so Upperclassman scholarships, Nicholls Alumni Federation also offers two freshmen the Alumni Federation Freshman Leader Scholarship. This scholarship is for incoming freshman and they must have at least a 3.25 GPA. They also have to score a minimum of a 20 on the ACT.

Established in 2015, the Nicholls Alumni Legacy Scholarship is a scholarship that helps encourage those to follow in their parent’s educational footsteps. In order to receive this award, the recipient must have one parent that finished a program of study at Nicholls State University. It has to be verified. The recipient must be in good academic standing and they have to be a full-time undergraduate student. $500 will be given during the fall and spring semester of the year the student received the scholarship.

In addition to the Nicholls Alumni Legacy Scholarship, the Federation also offers the Peltier Foundation Nicholls Alumni Legacy Scholarship. The Peltier Foundation has supported Nicholls for the past two decades with monetary donations and by supporting programs and projects within the school. A Peltier Foundation Board Member, Stepehn Peltier, explains how the purpose of the scholarship is to help “increase the value of being a Nicholls alum”. $75,000 has been given to the scholarship fund from the Peltier Foundation since it was founded in 2016.

In order to receive the award, the student must be in good academic standing and they must also be full-time undergraduate. One parent must be an alumni of Nicholls State University; the student must also type a 250 word essay explaining, in detail, why they deserve the scholarship.

The 2017 Corporate Mark of Honor was awarded to the Peltier Foundation by the Nicholls Alumni Federation because of how generous the Peltier Foundation has been. Jeremy Becker, the executive director of the Nicholls Foundation stated, “The Peltier Foundation has made a tremendous impact across the Nicholls Campus, and we’re proud to continue working with them. Scholarships like this one help open the door for more students to experience what Nicholls State University has to offer and to shape the future of Louisiana”.

For more information about the Alumni Foundation, click here.

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Nicholls Offers Scholarship for Veterans

There were around 20.4 million U.S. veterans in 2016, according to data from the Department of Veterans Affairs, representing less than 10% of the total U.S. adult population.  Hundreds of thousands of veterans are battling post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression. Suicide in the veteran community remains at an epidemic level, 20 per day. Many spouses feel helpless and aren’t sure how to support their loved one. And children are growing up wondering why their mother or father has changed.  Trauma-focused psychotherapies and psychotropic medications may offer symptom relief, but do they address the core issues of disconnection, societal withdrawal, and living without a sense of mission and purpose?

The Nicholls State University Office of Veteran Services and the Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association are committed to helping combat vets find a new purpose by aiding them in more education and a healthy return to civilian life.  Nicholls recently announced a new scholarship specifically for combat vets.


The January 2017 edition of JAMA Psychiatry stated that “… we have probably come about as far as we can with current dominant clinical approaches. Other strategies are urgently needed to effectively address remaining research and clinical gaps concerning the health care needs of combat veterans”.  Traditional mental health programs focus primarily on symptom reduction and a lot of times miss the opportunity to identify and facilitate personal growth as a result of veterans’ struggles. A new, research-based approach to trauma that has been studied by psychologists for the past three decades called Posttraumatic Growth, or PTG for short, explores how people who endure psychological struggle following adversity can often achieve positive growth afterwards.

This growth can occur in one or more domains: a greater appreciation of life, increased personal strength, openness to new possibilities, improved relationships, and enhanced spiritual or existential awareness. At the core of PTG is restoring a purposeful and meaningful life, learning to respond rather than react, and the construction of new beliefs about the world, one’s self, and the future.  The CVMA, comprised of motorcycle-riding veterans from all branches of the United States Armed Forces, feels it their duty to extend PTG to their fellow vet brothers and sisters, and decided that aiding education would do the trick. With members from all 50 states, their mission is to support and defend veterans who served their country and fought for our freedoms.


The CVMA 6-4 Veteran Scholarship will award $500 to a student once per semester to recipients who were an honorably discharged combat veteran and who is at least a sophomore full-time student with a minimum 2.5 GPA. The scholarship is named for the CVMA South Louisiana Chapter.


“We just want to be able to give back to our veteran community and make sure the guys returning home from combat theater who are trying to make something of themselves are afforded every opportunity possible,” CMVA member and Navy veteran John Bruner said. “Coming back to school can be a make or break opportunity. A lot of guys coming back home have seen things and may have some issues that if compounded by financial burden can lead them down a darker path. We want to do anything we can to divert that in a positive direction.”

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