AmeriCorps Alumni Scholarships

The Heller School guarantees all AmeriCorps alumni (AmeriCorps VISTA, AmeriCorps NCCC, AmeriCorps State, AmeriCorps National, City Year, etc) admitted to one of our eligible degree programs a scholarship of at least 50% tuition. For MPP students beginning in Fall 2025, we are guaranteeing a scholarship of at least 60% tuition. The scholarship amount a student is awarded will be reflected in the acceptance letter. Heller AmeriCorps scholarships exceed the match provided through the Segal AmeriCorps Education Award Match Program. The application fee will also be waived for all AmeriCorps alumni.

Eligibility and How to Apply

In order to receive this partial scholarship, students must be applying to one of the following programs:

In order to receive this scholarship, you must indicate that you are an AmeriCorps alumni when applying, by selecting "AmeriCorps" in the Affiliations section on the Additional Information portion of the application.

Meet a few of our AmeriCorps alumni:

Zari Havercome ’16, MBA/MA SID’22

“Shirley Chisholm said, ‘Service is the rent you pay to live on earth.' I want to support communities that are disenfranchised, under-resourced, taken advantage of—the people experiencing cyclical poverty and hunger. We have come too far for people to still suffer from things they don’t have to.”

Joel Pugh, MBA'20

“I did two terms of AmeriCorps, and I absolutely loved it. It completely changed my life. It was my first job, and I got to meet people who were different from me, which was a big deal having growing up in this very rural, shut-off part of the country. It taught me about myself, about other people, about intersectionality. That experience instilled a sense of social justice in me.”

Dahiana Loaiza ’14, MS GHPM/MA SID’21

“[During my time in AmeriCorps] I really saw how health played a role in student success, very directly in why some students were not present. [Today,] I’m mostly focused on health resources allocated to marginalized communities. Even within Latinx populations, there’s marginalized sub-communities, such as indigenous folks. I’m interested in looking at why these health disparities exist, despite resources that have been made available. Often those communities haven’t been able to access them.”

Max Brodsky, MBA'20

"I took a service year with AmeriCorps VISTA and ended up being placed at Brandeis to help oversee programs that work with low-income community centers here in Waltham. Serving with VISTA is something I found to be incredibly important. I was able to fine-tune more of what I hope to be as a leader."

Andy Mendez, MBA/SID'23

"In my classes at The Heller School, I learned about the management of mission-driven organizations and worked through case studies that helped me better understand the dynamics that I had witnessed as an AmeriCorps VISTA Member. My courses at The Heller School helped me understand what it takes for mission-driven organizations to become sustainable and they can avoid management pitfalls that endanger their ability to carry out their mission."