The Ciena Healthcare Scholarship Program
The Ciena Healthcare Company has established a scholarship program to assist children of employees who plan to continue their education in college or vocational school programs.
The Ciena Healthcare Scholarship Program
The program is administered by Scholarship America®, the nation’s largest designer and manager of scholarships and other education support programs for corporations, foundations, associations, and individuals. Eligibility for individual programs is determined at the sole discretion of the sponsor and eligible applications are reviewed by Scholarship America’s evaluation team.
Eligibility
Applicants to The Ciena Healthcare Scholarship Program must:
- Be dependent* children, age 24 and under, of full-time employees of a facility managed by the Ciena Healthcare Company who has a minimum of one year of employment as of the application deadline date.
*Dependent children are defined as natural and legally adopted children or stepchildren living in the employee’s household or primarily supported by the employee. - Be high school seniors or graduates, or current postsecondary undergraduates
- Plan to enroll in full-time undergraduate or graduate study at an accredited two-year or four-year college, university, or vocational-technical school, or graduate school for the entire upcoming academic year.
Ciena Corporate employees/associates are not eligible for this program.
Awards
Awards will be granted as follows:
$500 – Honorarium (for recipients who do not demonstrate financial need – regardless of college type)
$1,000 – Vocational-Technical Schools (recipients must demonstrate financial need)
$2,000 – 2-year colleges (recipients must demonstrate financial need)
$4,000 – 4-year colleges/universities and graduate schools (recipients must demonstrate need)
Need based awards may be renewed for up to three additional years or until a bachelor’s or master’s degree is earned, whichever occurs first. Renewal is contingent upon satisfactory academic performance maintaining a cumulative grade point average of 2.0 on a 4.0 scale (or equivalent) in a full-time course of study and continued employment by the Ciena Healthcare parent/employee. Renewal awards can be adjusted to a large amount if the student transfers from a 2-year college to a 4-year college or from a Vocational Technical school to a 2-year or 4-year college.
Renewable awards may continue from a bachelor’s degree to a master’s degree if the student enrolls in graduate study the next academic term after completing their undergraduate degree but may not exceed four full academic years of funding.
Honorariums are not renewable. Students who receive an honorarium may not reapply.
Awards are for undergraduate and graduate study.
Selection of Recipients
Scholarship recipients are selected on the basis of:
- Academic performance
- Demonstrated leadership and participation in school and community activities
- Work experience
- Statement of educational and career goals and objectives
- Unusual personal or family circumstances
- An online recommendation.
Financial need will be considered. Potential recipients who do not demonstrate need or who do not provide financial information will be eligible to receive an honorarium at the minimum amount.
Selection of recipients is made by Scholarship America. In no instance does any officer or employee of the Ciena Healthcare Company play a part in the selection. Not all applicants to the program will be selected as recipients.
All applicants agree to accept the decision as final.
Notification
All applicants will be notified in late June.
Notifications are sent via email. When setting up your account, avoid using a school or work email. Instead, use an active, personal email address that you will continue to have access to.
Please make sure to add studentsupport@scholarshipamerica.org as well as the program email address as safe senders in your email contact list.
Payment of Scholarships
Scholarship America processes scholarship payments on behalf of the Ciena Healthcare Company. Payment is made in early August.
Requirements
As part of your application, you must upload the following:
- A current, complete transcript of grades. Grade reports are not accepted. Transcripts must display:
- Student name
- School name
- Grades
- Credit hours for each course and term in which each course was taken.
- A copy of the first two pages of the most recently filed IRS 1040 form(s) used for the Financial Information Page. If a student is being claimed as a dependent on another person’s IRS 1040 tax return, that student must submit the first two pages of that particular tax return with the application. Please black out any sensitive data including Social Security Numbers prior to uploading.
NOTE: If you are providing SAT or ACT test scores, and those scores are not listed on your high school transcript, you will need to upload a copy of your test score report(s) separately. If you are uploading a college transcript, those scores are not required.
One online recommendation form must be submitted on your behalf no later than May 13, 2026 3:00 PM Eastern Time.
Your application is not complete unless all required materials are submitted electronically.
