Irving Innovation Award Spotlight: CVS Health Foundation

On September 23, Scholarship America will once again be presenting the Irving Innovation Awards, honoring organizations that have reimagined what it means to support students, providing financial assistance and creating holistic opportunities for personal and professional growth.

These awards reflect the vision of organization founder Dr. Irving Fradkin, whose pioneering work in establishing community-based scholarships has grown into a nationwide movement—and made Scholarship America the nation’s largest administrator of scholarships, with $6 billion distributed to students since our founding.

As we lead up to the Irving Innovation Awards gala in Washington, DC, we’re proud to spotlight the award winners here. Today, we’re celebrating the CVS Health Foundation’s Children of Colleagues Scholarship, which helps ease the financial burden of higher education for employees’ families while creating opportunities for the next generation to succeed.

The program awarded 480 scholarships this year to children of full-time employees pursuing all kinds of college and trade pathways. The Foundation ensures the benefit is within reach for employees across the organization, demonstrating that caring for employees means supporting their families and strengthening the communities they serve.

To learn more, we sat down with Faith Weiner, Executive Director, Enterprise Engagement & Community Impact at the CVS Health Foundation.

How do you work with the Children of Colleagues Scholarship program? 

I’m responsible for leading a number of our philanthropic programs, including the Children of Colleagues Scholarship program. We have several team members supporting this program to ensure a positive experience for our colleagues and their children that apply for the scholarships.

Why does CVS Health feel it’s so important to invest in scholarships?

By supporting the educational goals of colleagues’ children, the Children of Colleagues Scholarship program helps students pursue their ambitions while reinforcing our commitment to opportunity, growth and the well-being of colleagues and their families.

How does the Children of Colleagues Scholarship fit in with your broader community impact initiatives? 

We have a number of different scholarship programs, including one that supports pharmacy students and interns, as well as another program that supports students in a STEM discipline that are focused on the intersection of technology and health care, among others. All these programs are designed to encourage students that are interested in careers in health care.

What led you to partner with Scholarship America for the administration of the scholarship? 

Scholarship America has successfully supported more than $6 billion in scholarship awards. We appreciate their role as a partner committed to our success and to executing a program that is efficient for our colleagues and their families. We saw great success this year in applications submitted and look forward to continuing to grow our program.

After years of supporting students, what impact has been the most meaningful or surprising to you?  

Every year students reach out and share impact stories with us. Many are first-generation college students forging new paths to success. Supporting our colleagues and their families is truly a rewarding experience.

How do you think the scholarship program is impacting your current and future workforce? 

The Children of Colleagues Scholarship Program helps make higher education more accessible for colleagues’ families, easing financial pressure and making it easier for students to focus on achieving their goals. We are proud to support the future generation of leaders.

Are you in touch with past scholarship recipients? What have they gone on to do that’s stood out? 

We continue to hear from scholarship recipients, both directly and through updates from their parents. These students have gone on to great careers in a wide range of fields, and we’ve even had some that have followed in their family footsteps to start their career at CVS Health.

How do you see your program evolving and developing in the coming years? 

We’re always looking at ways to improve all of our programs, and this program is no different. While we will continuously look at how to make the program better, our core focus will stay the same – helping turn academic goals into reality for the children of CVS Health colleagues.

What advice would you give to applicants? 

Start early! You’ll feel better about the process and your parents won’t have the opportunity to bother you about it as much. And follow your dreams!

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Our thanks to Faith for her time, and congratulations to CVS Health and their fellow 2026 award winners! To learn more about the Irving Innovation Awards and find out how you can be a part of the celebration, visit the event website here.