AbbVie Opens Scholarship Applications for Students with Cystic Fibrosis

Students with cystic fibrosis have the opportunity to apply for up to $25,000 in scholarships under the AbbVie CF Scholarship program for the 2019-2020 academic school year, AbbVie announced.

The program is intended for U.S. students with cystic fibrosis (CF) pursuing an undergraduate or graduate degree at an accredited institution. Eligible candidates must complete high school, or obtain a General Educational Development certification before June 2019 to be eligible to apply.

Applicants are not required to have taken, be currently taking, or plan to start taking any products or medications marketed by AbbVie in order to participate. Likewise, none of these factors will be taken into consideration during the final selection of the applicants.

A panel of judges chosen by AbbVie will be responsible for selecting the 40 scholars who will receive $3,000 each to spend throughout the year on their education. Candidates will be chosen based on their achievements, academic excellence, creativity, and community involvement. The selected applicants will be notified around July 22, 2019.

In addition, the selected candidates will have the chance to compete for one of the two Thriving Student Scholarships — Thriving Undergraduate Student or Thriving Graduate Student, depending on their academic level — and receive a total of $25,000 (the original $3,000 scholarship plus an additional $22,000).

The selection of the two Thriving Student Scholarship winners will take place between Sept. 25 and Oct. 9, 2019, and will be dictated by votes from the public. The two scholarship winners will be announced in the fall, no later than Oct. 31, 2019.

“As a recipient of an AbbVie CF Scholarship, I hope that I can inspire other students living with CF to strive to be the best they can be,” Vinny Holmquist, 2018 recipient of the Thriving Undergraduate Scholarship, said in a press release.

“Living with CF presented many challenges for me and my family, but it also motivated me to be a hard worker. I’m proud to say that the AbbVie CF Scholarship has enabled me to continue my education and has helped me pursue a degree in business administration,” Holmquist added.

The initiative, now in its 27th year, is part of AbbVie’s commitment to support the U.S. CF community, which is estimated to include more than 30,000 people. So far, the AbbVie CF Scholarship program has awarded more than $3 million in scholarships to support the education of students living with the disease.

“Students living with CF are able to lead meaningful, impactful lives and make valuable contributions in their schools and local communities,” John Duffey, a vice president at AbbVie, said. “It’s a privilege to recognize the amazing accomplishments of our AbbVie CF Scholarship recipients. We are proud to continue our commitment to these remarkable students.”

Applications will be open until 11 a.m. U.S. Eastern time on May 29, 2019. Applicants may choose to apply online, or mail a hard copy of the application form, which can be downloaded from the scholarship program website, to the address mentioned on the form.