The U.S. Army Reserve Innovation Command is offering up to four years of paid college tuition and fees, as well as a monthly stipend for students through a scholarship offered by the Reserve.
Known as the Minuteman Program, the scholarship allows recipients to choose from two, three or four year scholarships for 100 percent tuition or $10,000 in room and board. In addition to this money, students will also receive a yearly book allowance of $1,200, a $420 stipend each month, in exchange for participation in the Army Reserve monthly drills and a two-week annual training. After graduation and commissioning, students are placed in the Reserve based on cadet’s geographic preference.
While the scholarship is available to students all across the country, Maj. Ryan Hignight, Master’s of Industrial Distribution Class of 2017, said he hopes his command in Houston could send some of the scholarship money to Aggies.
“If enough Ags apply for this, and we used every single one of my scholarships here in Houston, but I had more applicants, I would reach out to other commands across the Army Reserve,” Hignight said. “I’d tell them, ‘We want your scholarships so we can come [to] give them to our Ags and populate the Army with the best damn students in the nation.’”
To apply for the scholarship, students must be interested in joining the Army Reserve after college, said Master Sgt. Richard Queen.
“The scholarship is a Guaranteed Reserve Forces Duty scholarship, which means the recipient will have an Army Reserve job when he or she gets commissioned and will be in a reserve status,” Queen said. “They won’t be going into active duty or anything of that nature.”
After graduation and completion of training, Hignight said recipients of the scholarships would earn an entry-level position into the Reserve, monthly pay, serve one weekend a month and two weeks a year for six years.
Along with helping students out financially, the goal of the scholarship is to differentiate the Reserve from the Army, said Queen.
“One of the goals of the scholarships is to distinguish ourselves from active duty,” Queen said. “So, if someone is looking at options about serving, we want to give them an option that they would be interested in.”
If a student is a recipient of the Minuteman Scholarship, they are not held to serve in the location of which they received the money, said Hignight.
“If my command gives you the scholarship, but you get a great job in Chicago or New York, by no means are you required to stay and serve in Houston,” Hignight said. “The scholarship does not hold you to a specific geographic location. It just holds you to serve in the Army Reserve.”
For more information on the U.S. Army Reserve Minuteman Program or to apply, contact Maj. Ryan Hignight at [email protected].