DULLES, Va. – April 6, 2022 – Freedom Alliance, one of the nation’s premier military support organizations, has named a recent graduate of the University of Florida as its Scholarship Fund Student Ambassador for 2022.
Freedom Alliance honors and supports veterans and their families through a variety of resources and through their Scholarship Fund, Freedom Alliance provides financial backing for children of fallen or wounded heroes to complete their studies at trade schools, community colleges or four-year institutions.
Abigail “Abbie” Chalfant was just shy of her third birthday when she lost her father, U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Michael D. Chalfant on September 10, 2002, when his S-3B Viking crashed off the coast of Puerto Rico while preparing for a deployment in support of the Global War on Terrorism.
Despite this great loss early in life, Abbie worked hard and persevered.
As the daughter of a fallen servicemember, the Jacksonville native qualified for a Freedom Alliance scholarship and attended the University of Florida in Gainesville to earn her double-major Bachelor of Liberal Arts and Sciences (BLS) in microbiology, cell sciences and psychology. She graduated summa cum laude with a 3.80 GPA in December 2021 after only three-and-a-half years and currently works as a special education paraprofessional assisting teachers in classes of adolescents with a variety of mild to severe disabilities. She also volunteers at an equine therapy center that serves children with disabilities. Abbie plans to resume her studies to pursue a PhD in clinical psychology.
Abbie credits Freedom Alliance for relieving the financial burden of her education and providing her with emotional support needed to succeed in college. “We are delighted to have Abbie represent our organization,” said Freedom Alliance President Tom Kilgannon. “As our Student Ambassador, Abbie will travel the country to interact with Freedom Alliance supporters, talk with media and speak to civic organizations. She will keep her father’s memory alive and help Americans understand the sacrifices made by military families and the grief that is still felt by her fellow Gold Star students,” Kilgannon explained.
“Freedom Alliance reassured me that my dad, and the sacrifice he made for this country, is remembered and honored by others,” said Abbie. “Being the Student Ambassador for Freedom Alliance is an incredible way for me to honor my dad, while also honoring and remembering the parents of other Gold Star children.”
In the more than 20 years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Freedom Alliance has awarded more than $20 million in college scholarships to over 2,000 individual students who have a parent that was killed or permanently disabled in the service of our country.
There are an estimated 7,000 youths who have lost a parent in Afghanistan or Iraq and the vast majority have not yet attended college. It is estimated that over the next ten years, 5,500 children of service members killed in action (KIA) – and thousands more who become permanently disabled – will be eligible for the scholarship. Freedom Alliance is now accepting scholarship applications for the upcoming academic year at www.FAScholarship.com.
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