BVA Scholarship Winners

2020 BVA Scholarship Awards

At the 2019 annual meeting, the BVA members present voted to establish an annual scholarship fund and committee. These scholarships would be awarded to students from across the country based on an evaluation of essays related to the Beirut Peacekeepers and their mission.

In 2020 the BVA Scholarship Committee and board voted to award three $1,000 scholarships to students from Florida and North Carolina. Below are the essays and pictures of the 2020 winners. The BVA is using these scholarships to help promote our mission, "The first duty is to remember".

Gabrielle Falco - 2020 Award

Tampa, FL

Gabrielle Falco
Eight hundred marines were deployed to protect Lebanon and coordinate the Palestinian withdrawal. The goal was to provide peace to Lebanon between Muslim and Christian groups after a decade of war prior. Sadly, on October 23rd, 1983 a suicide bomber killed 241 marine peacekeepers in what is known as the, "deadliest attack against US Marines since the battle over Iwo Jima in 1945."

Galen Rydzik - 2020 Award

Tampa, FL

Florida Scholarship Winners
The attack of the Marine Barracks in Beirut forever changed global perspectives on terrorism because it unofficially marked a policy of hostility by many in the Middle East towards presence of American peacekeepers, and it marked a strong dissent of western countries toward Middle Eastern terrorism.

Lauren Jackson - 2020 Award

Roseboro, NC

North Carolina Scholarship
The heinous act of terrorism is one that is carried out in multiple countries and by multiple groups for various reasons. Each victim has always tried to understand and learn from the attack on their people and their country. Since the end of World War I, the United States has fallen victim to terrorists’ attacks, however, it wasn’t until the attack on the Marine Base in Beirut that the United States started comprehending the gravity of terrorism.