Military Kids Deserve College Help Without Debt

Scholarship hunting shouldn’t feel like a second job, especially for military families already juggling PCS moves, shifting school rules, and tight timelines. We sit down with Kristen Ferullo, founder of Partners in Purpose, to discuss a free, searchable scholarship database designed specifically for military children, dependents, spouses, veterans, and ROTC students. If you’ve ever clicked through endless lists only to learn you don’t qualify, this conversation gives you a smarter path.

We walk through how the database works, including practical filters like relationship to the service member, state-based options, and application open and close dates, so you can plan around real deadlines. Kristen explains why so many military-connected students miss out on scholarship money: frequent moves can cut students off from local awards, transferring schools can complicate references and credits, and procrastination turns senior year into a whirlwind. Her message is simple and urgent: start early, apply often, and don’t ignore smaller scholarships that can add up to real tuition relief.

Kristen also shares what it takes to keep a resource trustworthy, from using exact scholarship language to doing a major “scrub” to fix links, verify details, and add new opportunities, including grants. We also dig into military spouse scholarships and education funding for degrees and certifications, plus broader trends veteran service organizations should watch, such as housing strain and food insecurity.

Visit partners-in-purpose.com to explore the database and download the PCS and scholarship handbook, then share this episode with a military family who needs it and leave us a review so more listeners can find these tools.

Transcript

Welcome And Resource Overview

Larry Zilliox 0:00

Good morning. I'm your host, Larry Zilliox, Director of Culinary Services here at the Warrior Retreat at Bull Run. This week, our guest is Kristen Ferullo. She is the founder of Partners in Purpose. It's an organization that helps military children find scholarships for college. And as anybody who knows who's ever been trying to find some scholarships for their kids, uh, it's tough. And and this is an awesome resource for military children. So uh Kristen, welcome to the podcast.

Kristen Ferullo 0:37

Thanks for having me, Larry.

Larry Zilliox 0:38

Your webpage, and listeners, I'm just gonna give you the webpage straight up right off the bat, because I do want you to take a look at it. It's partners-in-purpose.com. And so there's where you go to access all the resources, and then they have a scholarship database which is for really extensive. So, Kristen, tell us how you got involved in this and decided this is what needs to be done.

Kristen Ferullo 1:09

So

Why Partners In Purpose Exists

Kristen Ferullo 1:10

um I was a uh military school liaison for almost 12 years. Um, absolutely loved liaison, and and I do truly hope that any of your children, they're PCSing, they have questions in education, that they reach out to their school liaison base because it's really a great program. And and we're there. That said, you know, I'm constantly looking for resources for families, and I'm just realizing how much effort it takes to find scholarships. As we were putting this together, it was about 10 to 13 clicks into every scholarship to see if you qualified to apply. Because there's so many differences in the military, um, who was open to um, you know, it's open, etc. It really felt far more complicated than it need to be. The other reason that I that I that I really did this is because I personally had taken out a um, I took out $40,000 for my second master's degree. And by the time that was, you know, lucky enough to get student loan forgiveness. And I'm, you know, definitely used my education um, you know, for for what it was intended. It was $67,000 with compound interest. Our kids won't get out of that. I I don't I don't want our, especially our military children that have to go through so much. Why should they, you know, bear that burden on top of everything else? And that's where that's where this project came in.

Larry Zilliox 2:57

Wow. So tell us a little bit about the database and how listeners can go about accessing it, what they should be looking for, um what is the best way to use it?

Kristen Ferullo 3:10

So we are the first searchable, sortable

How To Search The Database

Kristen Ferullo 3:15

comprehensive scholarship database for the joint. And when I say that, that means dependents, your your children, your spouses, um, veterans, students, ROTC students, you name it. Um, so uh there's all different ones that you can sort. You can sort by the relation to the school member. Um, are you a child, grandchild, spouse, great grandchild? Um, are you the service member yourself? Or is the serviceman member of so all different different ways to kind of narrow the search down deeper? You can also search by state. You can search by the date of, you know, when the application opens, when the application closes. So at a time like this in June, it's a great time to be able to go in there and say, hmm, things that close in July, because obviously if it there ones earlier, you'll realize that they're, you know, they're no longer.

Larry Zilliox 4:20

Yeah. Well what do you see as the the main barrier for military families in trying to get military kids scholarships?

Kristen Ferullo 4:31

There's a lot of barriers. Um I um also on the homepage of the website, you can download my I wrote a book and that was all about PCSing in high school,

Why Military Students Miss Scholarships

Kristen Ferullo 4:45

searching for colleges, scholarships. One of the difficulties is that we have students in high school that move a tremendous amount of times. And that makes it hard for them to kind of establish themselves, maybe be eligible for some of those local scholarships that happen within that community. And so now they're looking elsewhere. The reality is that there are millions of dollars on the table every single year in scholarships that are not applied for. And that's horrible. There is no reason. Part of it, part of the reason that that happens is because people just don't know where to look. And everyone kind of goes for the big name scholarship. I get it. Um, but if you could find all the smaller ones too and you apply, then then you'd be in great shape. One of the biggest barriers to any student is looking ahead of time. And I'm I'm the worst procrastinator on the planet, so I'm really honest with you. So I get it. But if the kids start looking their junior year, you can new year start going through this scholarship database. There are a lot of scholarships that open early. Well, get them out of the way. I've graduated three kids, and when I tell you January one is a whirlwind. So the earlier they get to applying for scholarships or start making that list of the ones I'm going to apply for, then they'll kind of have a plan marked out. If you wait to the last minute, it's a lot harder to motivate. So there's just a there's a lot of things for military families. Plus, they're moving, they're moving halfway through the year. They're trying to figure out whether or not they can get that reference. You know, did all my did all my credits transfer, all of these other issues. So if there's a way that I could take a even a small amount of burden off, that was really important to me.

Larry Zilliox 6:39

Well, listeners, you can download that book as a PDF right off of the web page. And again, the webpage is partners-in-purpose.com. It's a uh it's a it's not a long book, it's a it's a little handbook, but it is

PCS Moves And High School Challenges

Larry Zilliox 6:55

jam-packed full of information. And I'm guessing that most readers uh don't know this. Um, all the rules about transferring um records and and all sorts of things um that you definitely want to pay attention to. Uh, so when the time comes to to qualify for these scholarships that you're you're um uh able to do so. And and and I think you're right, too, about everybody goes for the big scholarships, but you know, in your area you could find three, four, or five different American Legion posts and BFW posts that often have scholarships available. Not much, but every little bit helps, and the barrier to qualify is usually pretty low. So don't, you know, don't forget those uh as well. And they are really focused on military children. Um one question I did have is there a particular scholarship out there that's given out primarily to mil military children, or military children have better luck in in qualifying for it?

Kristen Ferullo 8:10

So all of these scholarships are directed very specifically at the military and veteran population. So the scholarships that are on here are not the ones that you're gonna find any student can apply for. Oh, and that's really

Curated Military Only Scholarship Lists

Kristen Ferullo 8:25

important. These are not the, you know, the generic massive lists that are out there. Um and those are wonderful, but this was very carefully curated specifically for military families, veteran families, and and that that that what is on here is directed towards them. Now it's mid-June. Uh, the scholarship database is going to go under a major scrub this summer and always trying to make sure that we ensure that the link works, um, that the information is as updated as possible, that nothing has changed. Because those things are really important to me. So often our families are searching for information out there and it's nearly impossible to find, which is unfortunate. We should they shouldn't have to go, you know, searching high and low through broken links to to find any information.

Larry Zilliox 9:17

Sure.

Kristen Ferullo 9:18

So um that's one um, that's one part of the there's over a thousand scholarships currently in this database. Only about 502 of them have a uh declared amount, meaning that it says this is how much money that person will obtain. A lot of times the reason for that is because the scholarship itself maybe hasn't been applied for in several years. And so they don't know how much money they're gonna be able to give. It may be, you know, greater or lesser. Just those 500 scholarships alone is over $5.5 million. And yes, I did the math.

Larry Zilliox 9:57

Wow. So that's a case where they decide on how many scholarships they're gonna give out and then divide up the pool based on that number. Is that how that works?

Kristen Ferullo 10:07

To my knowledge, and that's not with every scholarship, obviously.

Larry Zilliox 10:10

Sure.

Kristen Ferullo 10:11

Um, the the one thing we've been really careful with is the language that's in there, the language that's in the database is the exact language that has been taken from the scholarship itself. It's not my job to write the language that's in there. It's not my job to change their words. It's only my job to kind of help it stay organized. So nothing is a perfect science, of course.

Larry Zilliox 10:36

No.

Kristen Ferullo 10:36

Um, but the the important part is that we are true to the organization that is um, you know, that has the scholarship.

Larry Zilliox 10:46

Is there a cost to use the database?

Kristen Ferullo 10:48

Absolutely not.

Larry Zilliox 10:49

Okay.

Kristen Ferullo 10:49

So I don't believe in charging military families for something that is should just be a service to them.

Larry Zilliox 10:56

Sure. And funding, where does funding come from?

Kristen Ferullo 10:59

Well, Larry, at the moment, um, this as well as my

Free Access And Self Funding

Kristen Ferullo 11:05

other projects are 100% self-funded. I'm paying for it. Um, I actually recently um resigned from my uh my position as a school liaison as much as I love doing it, but to focus full-time on this, on on partners and purpose and um which has now come under um the Six Strong Foundation, which is now a registered nonprofit. Um and there will be two two aspects of that that that we are we are working out. It's really time to put information in the hands of our of our military and veteran communities. They've earned it. They work hard for it and sacrifice for it in a way that I don't. And I will honor that. And if that means until I find a different way, I'm funding it myself. It just means that much to me.

Larry Zilliox 11:55

Well, how fast can you get a donate button up there on that uh that top bar of your webpage? There's there's no reason why, you know, parents uh who are using this resource and finding scholarships that are gonna save them a lot of money can't donate to you so that the next military family ha still has access for it. I mean, you you can't pay for it forever. And so I would encourage you to get that donate button up there so that our listeners can help fund this uh as a minimum so so that it it it's there to help future families. Um yeah, I I don't know how you do it. That's crazy.

Kristen Ferullo 12:41

I'm working on it. Um, I I am a very by the book and a very I never I my integrity is is everything to me and it's how I was raised and how I've raised my children. You have one thing in this world, and that's your word, and you have to you have to keep that. And so I um I just received my notice last week um that my nonprofit was official. And so I actually have been, I have a meeting with the bank tomorrow. So I'm hoping to to have that donate button up there real quick.

Larry Zilliox 13:13

Great.

Kristen Ferullo 13:14

Um, but yeah, that's it's it's in the works, everything's in the works. It's amazing how how long it takes to do the simplest things, but here we are.

Larry Zilliox 13:23

Yeah, well, that's that's the world of nonprofits and veteran service organizations. Everything is harder than you think, and everything takes longer than you think. Um so 100%

Keeping Links Updated And Adding Grants

Larry Zilliox 13:35

correct. And talk talk a little bit about the uh the scrub that you're gonna do and what what that takes. I mean, that sounds like a uh really colossal project. You you you just go in and check everything and just make sure all the the verbiage is correct, or how does it work?

Kristen Ferullo 13:53

It's an arduous task, I'm not gonna lie. Um, it requires um clicking into in in the main database that's created, clicking into every single website and ensure that the link still works, um, going through the information that we have against the information that is currently posted or if any changes have been made and ensuring that that update is there. And then also going through further um searches to see if there's scholarships out there that we've missed that have have now come up that we didn't know about. Um, every day's a new day, so you never know what's out there, and it's really important to um to get all of the information in there. The other thing we're working on is grants, you know, what grants are available for families as well. One of the things that I found so amazing in doing all of this is the number of scholarships that are also available to military spouses, um, which is just amazing. And, you know, I think too many of them don't take advantage of it. Um maybe they think, oh, someone else is, you know, more deserving than me or needs it more than me. You gotta just apply. You have to apply. Because the money will sit there otherwise. And there's no reason why, why they shouldn't, so that they can further their education if that's what they choose to do. So there's a lot of there's a lot of opportunity out there. It's just a matter of taking advantage of it.

Larry Zilliox 15:24

Um do you do you see these scholarships uh specifically for spouses going to um degree education, or are there scholarships available to help them get certifications uh such as project management or nursing or uh even a paramedic certification?

Kristen Ferullo 15:45

There are some that are available for um, you know, for for technical education as well as um certificates that are you know they're they're looking at getting. I've also recently been um compiling a list of the free resources that are out there, which there's so many, so that I can get that up on the database. One of the one of the challenges for me at the moment is is an from an IT perspective, um, making some of this happen. That's just not my wheelhouse. So I'm I'm doing a lot of information gathering so that once, you know, step by step I'm having it built out. Um, but hopefully that's gonna, it's gonna hit, you know, full steam ahead really soon. But I'm I'm ready when it does. Um, but there's a lot of there are a lot of things out there for for service members, for spouses, for families. It's just a matter of them taking advantage of it and also understanding that it is truly available. So we we want them to use it.

Larry Zilliox 16:48

Well, for sure. And what about volunteers for the the organization? I mean, what what about if

Volunteers And Community Partnerships

Larry Zilliox 16:55

you have some listeners or uh somebody says, hey, my company works with uh web pages? Or I I, you know, I have it's my job. I work on web pages, and maybe in the evening I could help out uh doing changes to the web pages or something. How about volunteering for the organization? What what do you think about that?

Kristen Ferullo 17:17

I I welcome volunteers anytime. Um I I would I would love that. The they can reach out to me. My it's just um Kristen K-R-I-S-T-E-N at partners-in-purpose.com, send me an email. Um I would I would love to interact. Um and and also if they just if if any of your listeners have ideas of things like, oh, hey, you know, I God, I really wish there was this resource out there or that resource, whatever it may be. I know enough to know I will never know enough about their experience. I'm not I'm not a military spouse or a service member. I'm not a veteran. So if there's a way that I can best serve the community or resource that they feel is really needed, I'd love to hear about it.

Larry Zilliox 18:09

Well, listeners, there you go. Um, you know, think about volunteering your time. I mean, look, that that database is gonna need to be policed and make sure the links work, make sure the verbiage is correct. That is something that you could easily do in the evening. There's you there you it's not a nine to five thing. Um, think about volunteering here to help out a fledgling nonprofit that uh is just getting started, but is really offering a one-of-a-kind resource for military families that uh it just it needs to the word needs to get out. Social media. If you have um expertise in marketing or social media, um you know, talk to Kristen about how you might be able to help out or volunteer. Maybe your company wants to make a donation. Um talk about some of the partners that you have. You know, uh, I do know Genvets and uh the Military Homeschoolers Association. Um what are you looking for in partners to help with getting the word out?

Kristen Ferullo 19:17

Um, you know, one of the one of the ways that I've lived my my life since my teenage years when I was in a um student leadership program is under the the philosophy of Umbuntu, which is, you know, a lot of people say I am because we are. Um it's it's really that that sense um that we're only human through the humanity of others. Um and that accomplishing anything is it's due to us. It's due to us as an individual as well as the collective. And we have to be able to work together to to support and to to care for one another and to um to have the community that everyone should have. That's really important to me. So, in terms of working with other organizations, integrity is key. It's you know, the foundation of everything. Um, it's it's really just the more we are a community, the less we sit in a silo and and gatekeep information, the better off our military families and our service members and our veterans will be. Isn't that the goal? Yeah, for all of us.

Larry Zilliox 20:25

Sure.

Kristen Ferullo 20:26

You know, I sleep very soundly in my bed every night, and so do my children under someone else's sacrifice. That's how we need to approach every day when we're doing the work that we're doing.

Larry Zilliox 20:37

Yeah, I mean, this is so valuable to military families because you know, they

Housing Strain And Food Insecurity

Larry Zilliox 20:45

uh just the financial burden on military families without even thinking about college. Um, you know, we have a lot of military families that have real issues with housing. I mean, most service members don't live on military installations, they're forced to live in the community. And the amount of money that they get for housing is very often way, way less than the surrounding community, the going rate for renting in the community. And they're forced to either pony up their own money or move farther away from the installation, which means that their kids have got longer rides to school on the bus. And you know, it impacts the whole family. So anything we can do to get the word out to say, hey, when when these kids are going to school, when they're thinking about, you know, they're in their their sophomore junior, especially junior senior year, thinking about college and a career, this is where you want to go to find scholarships. Um what would you say percentage wise um of the the do you have any way to track of all the Families that access the database if they get scholarships?

Kristen Ferullo 22:04

I I don't have a way to track whether or not they get scholarships. To me, that would really involve that would have to be them reaching back to me. Um, I did have a a dad last summer, and you know, in his words, you know, he and his son waited too long and he got on the the database and it was in like June or July. And he said, I I was stunned that my son still managed to get $5,500 worth of scholarships, even though we started so late.

Larry Zilliox 22:36

Wow.

Kristen Ferullo 22:37

And he's and you know, not everything is just about, and this is something that people tend to forget, it's not just about applying for scholarships before they go into their freshman year of college or trade school or whatever it may be. It's all the years after that as well. Just because not all scholarships are just for that freshman year. There are plenty of scholarships that are recurring and you know that you can pick up anytime. So it's it's really important that they that they look at all of those different pieces and and hopefully, you know, get more and more. The one thing that I can tell you is that this is um from January to May of this year, we surpassed the number of visits on our website than we did in the entirety of 2025.

Larry Zilliox 23:25

Oh, great.

Kristen Ferullo 23:26

So the word is definitely growing. You know, organizations, you know, reach out to me and say, hey, could we put a link to your website on our website so that our, you know, people that see it will be able to do that. And the answer is absolutely.

Larry Zilliox 23:43

Yeah.

Kristen Ferullo 23:44

Um, so if any listeners want want to, you know, put it up on their website, get in touch with me. I will make sure that you have the logo and any other information that you need um so that you can do that.

Larry Zilliox 23:57

Yeah, it's kind of a no-brainer, really. Just reach out. And uh um, the more places that the link is, the more it'll be picked up in in Google search. And yeah, that's yeah, that is a no-brainer. When you think about other veteran service organizations, when when you're seeing military families come to you and use your resources, what trends are you seeing amongst military families that other veteran service organizations should be paying more attention to?

Kristen Ferullo 24:29

I'll tell you, a lot of veteran service organizations are really doing everything that they can to do what is you know, what is in their heart for for the veteran and and military community. I live in New Hampshire. I was the school liaison for Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. So when you mentioned the the piece about um housing, it's very true. Um, we are in a geographically dispersed area up here. And that makes it harder for families. That community piece that that previously existed, and I'm not saying it doesn't exist, you know, but it has been more challenged in in order to get families to to come to events and to be engaged in the military community when it takes them 45 minutes to get there at the end of the day or an hour, because they truly are moving further from base. The other is the need for the need for us to all really work on food and security and our military families. The fact that that has to still be studied and that it still has to come out of my mouth is incredibly disheartening um to the Italian in me. Um you know, but they don't they don't just want, you know, all of the things that they can get at a food pantry. And and honestly, that's it's really challenging for families to even have to do that. Um, but almost that awareness of other organizations that are providing healthy, whole um foods and whatnot to families, fruits and vegetables, things like that. So I guess the one thing I I want our families to know is is try to not have that pride that we all have and use the resources available to you because you should.

Larry Zilliox 26:20

Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, reach out. Um I know it's hard sometimes, and uh, but look, it's it's easier on the whole family when needs are met, uh, whichever way. And these veteran service organizations that are out there are exist to help. So please reach out. Um and look, volunteer with uh uh with Kristen and hopefully you'll get that donate button up there soon, and our listeners can go ahead and make a donation. But again, the webpage, listeners, is partners-in-purpose.com. Check it out, download the handbook. It's packed full of information, um, and then use the scholarship and please spread the word, tell other families, whether they're military, active duty, veterans, tell others about this resource and put it on your social media and get the word out uh and

Final Advice And Ways To Help

Larry Zilliox 27:25

ask others to pass that information along. Well, uh, Kristen, I can't thank you enough for uh taking the time to sit down with us and and fill us in on what's going on.

Kristen Ferullo 27:36

My pleasure. Thank you so much for having me. I um I enjoyed it.

Larry Zilliox 27:40

Well, listeners, we'll have another episode next Monday morning at 0500. You can find us on all the major podcast platforms. We're on YouTube and Reese Across America Radio. So until then, thanks for listening.