With your support, we provide financial assistance to promising young women obtaining a private pilots license as part of their advancement into their desired careers in aviation. Our scholarships are offered through the Women in Aviation International (WAI) organization, of which Val was an avid member. She encouraged fellow female aviators to attend the annual conference, and she advocated for and embodied female mentorship within the naval aviation community, inspiring other women to follow in her footsteps. The LT Valerie Cappelaere Delaney Memorial Scholarship started in 2014 as a $1,000 scholarship and has since increased to $5,000, which makes a huge difference in offsetting the financial burden of private flight training. For 2018, we committed to awarding a second scholarship in memory of Army CPT Sara Knutson Cullen, a black hawk helicopter pilot who perished in Afghanistan on the same day as Val. Our scholars are selected from a highly competitive pool of over 100 applicants and embody many of the same characteristics as Val, Sara and other females in the military aviation community. We provide assistance to the selected scholarship recipient to attend the WAI Conference in March so that we can present the award in person and so that they can get the added experience and benefits of the conference. We have facilitated a tight network among our scholarship recipients and have been amazed to follow their incredible career advancements within aviation when we attend and help support them to attend the WAI conference each year. Get to know our past scholars below and consider donating to help us keep Val and Sara’s legacies alive by supporting more women earning their pilot’s wings!