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2024 Scholarship Application Now Open

The link for the application for the 2024 Staff Sergeant Alvin P. Carey and Private John C. Ewing Medal of Honor Scholarship is available on the Community Foundation for the Alleghenies website at the link below. 

https://cfalleghenies.org/scholarships/

The qualifications and criteria for the scholarship can be found at https://careyscholarship.org/scholarship-qualifications-and-criteria/.

Please contact Lieutenant Colonel Craig Minnick, scholarship founder, at careyscholarship@gmail.com if you have any questions about the application. Please be advised the universal application used by the Community Foundation for the Alleghenies contains several questions regarding family income and employment. You must complete these questions but please be advised that Buchan Scholarship Selection Committee does not consider family income.

The deadline to apply for the scholarship is Friday, March 8, 2024.

2023 Recipients of the Staff Sergeant Alvin P. Carey Memorial Scholarship

Madeline Manges of Ligonier Valley High School will be attending Penn State University.
Emma Burns of Ligonier Valley High School will be attending Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Donna Jones (second cousin of Staff Sergeant Carey) and Lieutenant Colonel Craig Minnick (scholarship founder) presents scholarship certificates to 2023 recipients Madeline Manges and Emma Burns.
 
Lieutenant Colonel Craig Minnick, Madeline Manges, Emma Burns, and Donna Jones.

Scholarship Announcement

Lieutenant Colonel and Mrs. Craig Minnick, the founders of the Staff Sergeant Alvin P. Carey Memorial Scholarship, are pleased to announce that the scholarship has been renamed the Staff Sergeant Alvin P. Carey and Private John C. Ewing Medal of Honor Scholarship. Both Staff Sergeant Carey and Private Ewing, recipients of the Medal of Honor, were residents of Ligonier Valley. Staff Sergeant Carey was serving with the Army’s 2nd Infantry Division in World War II and was killed in action in France on August 23, 1944. Private Ewing served in Company E of the 211th Pennsylvania Infantry in the Civil War. Both Medal of Honor recipients are buried in Ligonier Valley Cemetery.

In addition, the Staff Sergeant Alvin P. Carey and Private John C. Ewing Medal of Honor Scholarship will be available to graduating seniors from Ligonier Valley High School as well as Greater Latrobe and Mount Pleasant High Schools. The decision to add Greater Latrobe and Mount Pleasant to the scholarship was based on the fact that Staff Sergeant Carey was born in Lycippus, Pennsylvania (currently in the Greater Latrobe School District) and Private Ewing was born near Donegal, Pennsylvania (currently in the Mount Pleasant School District) before both moved to Ligonier Valley.

Expanding the scholarship to three high schools is consistent with the scholarship’s mission statement to honor and remember Staff Sergeant Carey and Private Ewing and to educate Americans, particularly young Americans, about the sacrifices of our Armed Forces and Veterans as well as their families. Lieutenant Colonel Minnick stated that the Carey Memorial Scholarship was awarded to two students from Ligonier Valley High School in May 2023 and he anticipates awarding several Carey and Ewing Medal of Honor Scholarships in subsequent years.

The decision to add Private Ewing to the scholarship and to expand the eligibility to three high schools was made after consulting with members of the scholarship committee as well as relatives of both Staff Sergeant Carey and Private Ewing.