New record for Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation

The Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation is distributing a record-breaking number of need-based higher education grants this year to children of Marines and Navy hospital corpsmen.

The charitable group will award more than $7 million in scholarship funding for post-high school education and career training to 2,300 children for the 2015-16 academic year, including 129 recipients from San Diego.

West Coast recipients will be honored during a ceremony Thursday at Camp Pendleton, including student speaker Ellyssa Aquino. The sophomore at California State University – San Marcos was inspired by her father, a gunnery sergeant who has served for more than 18 years, to pursue a career in physical therapy after graduating college.

The cost of higher education has inflated 121 percent since 2002, outpacing the average military family’s income, according to the foundation.

“Our military personnel and their families have made unprecedented sacrifices to protect this country, and having the ability to send their children to college should not be one of them. This is why the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation is committed to honoring Marines through educating their children,” the organization said in a statement.

Since its inception in 1962, the foundation has provided more than 35,000 scholarships valued at nearly $100 million. Children of Marines and corpsmen killed or wounded in combat and students demonstrating financial need are given priority for the scholarships.

Applications are accepted each year from Jan. 1 through March 1.

For more information, visit mcsf.org.