Eight military caregivers receive full UMGC scholarships
University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC) has awarded 2026 Pillars of Strength scholarships to eight caregivers of wounded, ill, or injured military servicemembers.
“[The scholarship] is about the caregivers, who we call hidden heroes,” said Nate James, an advanced military education coordinator at UMGC. “We’re constantly looking for what best serves them, given their unique situation and the unique juggling act they’re facing,”
Since the program was established in 2013, the Pillars of Strength Scholarship has provided nearly 100 full scholarships to military caregivers pursuing degrees at UMGC. This year’s class is notable for including a previous undergraduate recipient, LaKeisha Bruku ’25, who reapplied to pursue a master’s degree.
Bruku, like other scholars before her, has found that pursuing a college education while caregiving requires both ambition and access. UMGC’s online format allows caregivers to fit coursework around appointments, care routines, work, and family life.
The Pillars of Strength Scholarship covers tuition and other education costs, but James said financial support is only part of the benefit. Recipients can also turn to him and other UMGC team members for guidance as they progress toward their degrees.
“Our mantra is, ‘You’re never in this alone’,” James said. “When scholars run into challenges in their courses they know they can reach out to me or our team. We can help guide them through it by offering practical tips, strategies, and approaches for managing their classes alongside everything else they’re balancing. By the time they graduate, it feels more like family than just an exchange of goods and services.”
What that support looks like varies. Some recipients are returning to school after a long hiatus. Many are balancing coursework with parenting, employment, and medical appointments, while others hope to use their degrees to serve other military families. Together, their stories show the ways caregiving can reshape lives and how education can help caregivers pursue personal goals.
Education that fits around caregiving
LaKeisha Bruku
Caring for a disabled veteran spouse and three children with varying needs has required LaKeisha Bruku to wear many hats, including caregiver, advocate, organizer, and problem-solver. Along the way, she said she has discovered strengths she did not know she possessed.
As the primary caregiver in her household, Bruku helps support her husband James, a U.S. Navy veteran, while also managing the needs of her children, including two with special needs. The role requires constant adaptability, a skill she said has shaped both her personal growth and professional aspirations.
One of Bruku’s greatest tests came while preparing for an Autism Speaks Walk that held special meaning for her family. Unexpectedly hospitalized, she suddenly faced a major health challenge of her own. Rather than stepping away from her educational goals, she pressed on. “Perseverance, for me, is not about ignoring hardship, but about moving forward thoughtfully despite it,” she noted.
With support from the Pillars of Strength scholarship, Bruku is pursuing a master's degree in cybersecurity management and policy and hopes to translate her experiences into meaningful service. “Caregiving has taught me that strength is not defined by the absence of struggle,” she said, “but by the commitment to grow through it.”
Anessa DeGroat
Anessa DeGroat understands perseverance. A caregiver to her husband Donald—a U.S. Army veteran who served three tours in Iraq and lives with the lasting effects of an injury sustained in combat—she has learned that supporting a loved one often means paying attention to details others cannot see.
Over the years, she has come to recognize subtle signals, whether it is a tense expression or discomfort in a crowded space. "Really learning those signs as we've gone along has helped me to support him in the ways that he needs," she said.
While helping her husband navigate the challenges of his injuries, DeGroat was also transforming her own life. After overcoming addiction, earning her GED, and completing associate and bachelor’s degrees with honors, she is now beginning a master's program in health care and science after being selected for a Pillars of Strength scholarship.
A first-generation college student, DeGroat credits her husband with encouraging her educational journey. Today, she hopes her story inspires others facing difficult circumstances.
"It's never too late and you're never too far gone," she said.
Through studies in counseling and psychology, she aims to use her experiences to help others find that same hope and resilience.
Casey Fogle
Twenty years after her husband, Glenn, a U.S. Army veteran, sustained a combat injury in Iraq, Casey Fogle still reflects on how caregiving reshaped her future. What began as aiding a spouse living with the lasting effects of his injury eventually led her to become an advocate, communicator, and resource for other military families.
Fogle, who is pursuing a master’s degree in strategic communications with her Pillars of Strength scholarship, believes stories have the power to create understanding in ways statistics alone do not. “Data is important,” she said. “But human beings don't get hooked by data. We get hooked by hearing about other human beings.”
Over the years, she became known for asking tough questions during military family briefings. “There's a certain point where you stop caring if they have an opinion of you and you ask the hard questions,” she said.
While caregiving has required adaptation to a life different from the one she and her husband once envisioned, Fogle says she has found perspective in focusing on what remains unchanged. “My best friend will be home,” she said. “That makes it worth it. It's just different.”
Looking back, she believes one truth connects caregiving experiences: “Most caregiving starts with grief.”
Through advocacy, storytelling, and education, Fogle hopes to share what she has learned in order to support and strengthen other military families and caregivers.
Building on experience
Chevonne Karol
For more than two decades, Chevonne Karol has balanced marriage, motherhood, and caregiving while helping her husband, Jason, a U.S. Army veteran, navigate the lasting effects of traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Along the way, she has become an advocate, whether coordinating appointments, communicating with medical providers, or making sure Jason’s voice is heard. When memory challenges make it difficult for him to recall details from a doctor's visit, Karol steps in. If she feels a concern is being overlooked, she speaks up.
That determination to support others now extends to her own goals. With the Pillars of Strength Scholarship, Karol is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in business administration and management while also working toward her long-held dream of opening a community-centered neighborhood bar, inspired by the small-town gathering places she grew up around.
Through her experience, Karol has also become passionate about helping others understand the invisible wounds many veterans carry.
“Just because you can't see somebody as physically injured or missing a limb doesn't mean they're not missing a part of themselves,” she said.
For fellow caregivers, her advice is to seek connection and support.
“Those moments of ‘you're not alone' matter,” she said.
Ashley Williams
The pandemic brought a new role for Ashley Williams.
COVID-19 upended Williams’s family life. At the start of the pandemic, her husband, Daniel, now a U.S. Army veteran, received a diagnosis that changed the rhythm of family life. The couple had young children, were early in a yearlong assignment at a new duty station, and Williams had not yet built a local community of support as she stepped into her role as a caregiver.
Williams adapted. She created a classroom at home for her children, built a daily schedule, tracked appointments, and monitored her husband’s medication. The Williams family welcomed another child and returned to the U.S. following deployments. Williams went back to school full-time after 15 years away from the classroom.
Williams’s educational ambitions have continued to grow, and now, as a Pillars of Strength scholar, she is pursuing a master’s degree in health information management and technology at UMGC. She returns to college as both a caregiver and a mother with a child preparing to begin college.
Jamie Lafollette
PTSD cast what Jamie Lafollette described as a “dark and lonely veil” over her home. Her husband, Joseph, struggled with depression and anxiety following his service in the Marine Corps. In response, Lafollette added caregiver to her roles as wife, mother, and employee. She discovered both resilience within herself and a knack for navigating the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) benefits system. She researched, studied, and advocated, helping Joseph get the care and support he needed.
“We need to be raising [veterans] up and helping them remember the warriors that they are,” she said.
Lafollette has come to see that caregivers are “warriors” too. Now, as a Pillars of Strength scholar, she is turning the same perseverance that helped her husband toward her own future as she pursues a bachelor’s in marketing.
She spent years working with financial technology startups but grew tired of the sector’s “feast or famine” volatility. Lafollette loves her current job at a nonprofit children’s museum, but her long-term dream is to work with an organization that serves veterans and their families.
“Education, investing in yourself and in your future, creates a foundation for your family that can make life easier down the road,” she said. “It can feel overwhelming, but sometimes the best way to support someone else in their healing journey is to focus on your own.”
Turning experience toward new goals
Elizabeth Snell
For Elizabeth Snell, being a caregiver has been a source of both purpose and inspiration. At home, Snell cares for her husband, Toby, a Marine Corps veteran. At work, she is an accredited county veterans service officer, supporting veterans and survivors as they file VA benefits claims and access other services during what is often a difficult moment in their lives.
As a caregiver, she is no stranger to difficult moments of her own. But Snell tends to favor a “lemons into lemonade” outlook, one that makes room for moments of levity, camaraderie, and learning.
“Even challenging situations can give rise to stories of resilience, creativity, and insight,” she said. “Caregivers are such a diverse and unique group of people, but caregiving is not our entire identity. It is one piece of who we are, and it can also give us new skills and strengths.”
Snell is now focused on expanding her skill set by returning to school after taking years off to focus on caregiving. She learned about the Pillars of Strength scholarship through the Elizabeth Dole Foundation Hidden Heroes Campaign and is pursuing a bachelor’s in marketing. She has found ways to fit coursework around her other responsibilities.
“It’s been interesting to fit school into my life,” she said. “I bought a tote bag and turned it into a kind of mobile desk setup with my computer, notebooks, and everything else I need. Whether I’m waiting for an appointment with my husband, covering time at work, or even sitting in a dealership waiting room, I can use that time to study. It’s been easier to fit into my life than I expected.”
Jenna Malone
Caregiving gave Jenna Malone a “new mission” to help heal the “invisible wounds of war.” Injuries sustained by her husband, Isaac, a U.S. Navy veteran, changed the course of the family’s life. The Clermont, Florida, resident went from managing national chain fitness centers to teaching fitness classes part time. She eventually returned to school to prepare for a career change into remote case management. Each step was aimed at creating the flexibility she needed to take Isaac to appointments and manage his care at home.
The changes were significant. They also gave Malone a new sense of purpose. In her words, she became stronger, more empathetic, and more appreciative of time with her family. The experience sparked an interest in veteran advocacy. She learned to advocate not only for Isaac, but also for other veterans and their families, building connections with veteran organizations and support groups along the way.
Now, she wants to “pay it forward” by helping other military families. Becoming a Pillars of Strength scholar is one step toward that goal. Malone is pursuing a master’s degree in business administration. She hopes to use that degree to move into leadership roles within veteran service organizations and, one day, start her own nonprofit serving veterans and their families.
Applications for 2027 Pillars of Strength scholarships will open November 11, 2026.