With your generous support, we provide financial assistance to promising young women who are working on obtaining a private pilot’s license or any subsequent flight ratings 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 $10,000, which makes a huge difference in offsetting the financial burden of private flight training. Our scholars are selected from a highly competitive pool of applicants and embody many of the same characteristics as Val and other women in the military aviation community. We provide assistance to the selected scholarship recipient to attend the annual WAI Conference so that we can present the award in person and 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 support them to attend the WAI Conference each year. Get to know our past scholars below and consider donating to help us keep Val’s legacy alive by assisting more women in earning their pilot’s wings!
Meet The 2025 Scholarship Winners
Learn about all of our past scholars
Sara Eagle (2020)
The Wings For Val Foundation received so many amazing applications for our 2020 scholarships that we also awarded $2,500 each to two finalists for the LT Valerie Cappelaere Delaney Memorial Scholarship for fixed wing flight [...]
Aimee Mestre (2020)
The winner of the 2020 Wings for Val Drone Pilot Training Scholarship in the amount of $5,000 is Aimee Mestre of Indianapolis, Indiana. Aimee is a Brand Ambassador for the Aviation Institute of Maintenance. The [...]
Christina “Rose” Dussell (2020)
The 2020 and 3rd Annual CPT Sara Knutson Cullen Memorial Scholarship Winner ($5,000) is Christina Rose Dussell of Snohomish, WA! Rose has worked a variety of jobs with special needs individuals and is skilled in [...]
Kimberly Westbrook (2020)
The 2020 and 7th Annual LT Valerie Cappelaere Delaney Memorial Scholarship Winner ($5,000) – Kimberly Westbrook of Pasadena, Maryland. Kim is an Aerospace Engineer at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. She is lead engineer of [...]
Meryl Shriver-Rice (2019)
Meryl is an archaeologist at the University of Miami with interests in aerial photography, mapping and survey work for heritage research. Inspired by her grandfather, a Navy test pilot, Meryl began working towards her pilot’s [...]
Jessica Meiris (2019)
After over a decade of professional guiding and instructional experience in rock climbing and other adventure sports, Jessica aspires to shift her career towards becoming a helicopter pilot for technical mountain search and rescue. In [...]
