Scholarship

AAHPO Magda & Lawrence Najarian Family Scholarship

In Honor of Our Parents | Established in 2019
The family of Magda and Lawrence Najarian will be creating an AAHPO Scholarship to benefit any student matriculating in a graduate program related to the healthcare sciences. This scholarship will be fully funded and self-sustaining.

Funds will be donated to AAHPO and set aside in a Permanent Restricted Fund. The initial deposit will be funds donated to AAHPO in memory of Mary Najarian in December, 2017. A pledge of $25,000 was made in 2019 and subsequent donations to make this scholarship self-sustaining are anticipated.

This scholarship program is conducted in collaboration with the AGBU to maximize its impact. We recognize that the annual cost of a graduate health care program ranges from fifty to one hundred thousand dollars. This scholarship ($2,500) by itself would barely put a dent in the student’s financial obligations. Accordingly, our scholarship will be awarded to qualified students who are also receiving an AGBU scholarship award of five and ten thousand dollars.

We also recognize that for this scholarship to be impactful a rigorous selection process is required. There are many elements to the screening process which include but are not limited to a review of the student’s credentials, financial need documents, matriculation documentation, academic transcripts, student essays, etc…

The time requirements for this process would overwhelm AAHPO’s current organization structure. In this regard the AGBU, which has well established, successful screening program, has agreed to screen all of our applicants. Last year they received 209 applications of which around 20% were for graduate health care programs.

They have agreed to send notification to all their health care scholarship recipients that they will automatically be considered to the AAHPO scholarship in addition to the one awarded by the AGBU. The Najarian family will then select one or more of these candidates to be awarded the AAHPO scholarship. The AGBU will also post the AAHPO scholarship on their web site which receives lots of traffic.

Below is a draft summary of how the program will work.

AAHPO will establish an endowment to give scholarships to Armenian students who are studying in the medical field. This endowment is being funded by the Najarian family.
AAHPO is a small organization and does not have the infrastructure to screen and review applicants.
Since AGBU already has an established scholarship program, online application, screening process and Scholarship Committee, AAHPO is requesting that AGBU share its list of awardees who are studying in the medical field that the Scholarship Committee selects each year. The AGBU will then send AAHPO 10 of their best awardees.
AAHPO will do its own advertising of their scholarship and will to direct students to apply for the AGBU US Graduate Scholarship (if they qualify). If a student receives an AGBU Scholarship, they will then be in the pool candidates to be considered for the AAHPO scholarship.

How AGBU can aid AAHPO:

AGBU will share their list of scholarship recipients in the medical field with AAHPO with the understanding and agreement that the Scholarship Committee will continue its selection process using its own metrics and evaluation procedures of the applications. Only those applicants who are eligible for the US Graduate Scholarship and have submitted their applications will be reviewed by the Scholarship Committee. Only those applicants who meet the AGBU’s rigorous qualifications will be selected.
AGBU would like the opportunity to review AAHPO’s scholarship advertising/marketing materials as it relates to directing students to apply for the AGBU US Graduate Scholarship. We want to ensure that it is very clear that only those students who are eligible to apply for the US Graduate Scholarship submit applications, with no exceptions.
In AGBU’s scholarship acceptance letters to those in the medical field, we will inform the applicants that because of their AGBU Scholarship award they will now be eligible for an additional funding opportunity from AAHPO if they choose. We must get consent from them to share their application with an organization other than AGBU.

VISIT AGBU WEBSITE FOR DETAILS

AAHPO Scholarship, Our first one!

Career development, mentorship and scholarship are integral parts of AAHPOs mission and helps AAHPO be a robust tax exempt philanthropy. This scholarship helps AAHPO achieve another component of its vision.
The AAHPO Scholarship is given to a student enrolled in a graduate health sciences program in the United States, is based on academic merit, and the student must first qualify for the AGBU Scholarship Award.
Our first scholarship was awarded to Paul Asadourian, a graduate of Lehigh University where he earned a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Neuroscience, followed by a Master’s degree in Health Care Engineering. He was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society and is a Lehigh Presidential Scholar. He currently is a second year medical student at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University.