Every May for the last six years, a local man and his family have helped over 90 student veterans and Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) cadets struggling with financial hardship at California State University–Fullerton with scholarships started through the Vets and Cadets Endowed Scholarship Award.

The vet scholarship program was established in late 2017 by Gregory Wirzbicki and his family after a friend, Marine veteran Frank Greer, passed away that year. Wirzbicki said he wanted to find a way to honor his late friend by helping other troops and veterans in need.

“[Americans] wouldn’t have the kind of freedom we have, the kind of life we have, without our veterans,” Wirzbicki told The Epoch Times. “We could never repay what [veterans] have done for us.”

(L) Lieutenant Colonel Scott Sparrow delivers a Peace Dollar to newly commissioned Lieutenant Mark J Cuozzo. (Courtesy of Cal State Fullerton Vets and Cadets Endowed Scholarship Award)

Wirzbicki started the scholarship endowment with $10,000 of his own money, which has now grown to awarding over $70,000 in scholarships to 91 student veterans and outstanding cadets in total since the start of the program.

He has matched most of the donations given by others to the scholarship endowment each year since its inception in 2017. Last year he donated $40,000, and this year just under $30,000.

The Yorba Linda resident matches each donation given to the program up to $5,000 each year during the school’s annual “Day of Giving” in mid-March.

Cal State Fullerton's annual "Day of Giving." (Courtesy of California State University–Fullerton)

This year marked another milestone for the scholarship fund, in which $15,000—the most ever in the program’s history—was distributed to six ROTC cadets and six veteran students at the college. According to a June 1 letter from Wirzbicki to his donors, all six ROTC cadets who were awarded scholarships this year were women.

“The scholarship helped me to pay my rent as I did summer training. While each of us will use the funds differently, the scholarship makes a huge difference,” ROTC scholarship winner Sara Berlinger said in a recent statement after winning the award. “Personally, it takes stress and worry away and allows me to focus on both ROTC and my classes.”

Wirzbicki praised the ROTC women who were granted the scholarships.

“I stressed that over the years the women really have done well in competing for our scholarships,” he wrote in his letter. “And this year it was a grand slam ... these scholarships are based on merit, to the best our committee can fairly make the awards.”

Students donate at Cal State Fullerton's annual "Day of Giving." (Courtesy of California State University–Fullerton)

Wirzbicki was also responsible for helping attain more affordable tuition for out-of-state student vets and cadets attending Cal State Fullerton in early 2020. At the time, Wirzbicki petitioned the school’s president, Framroze Virjee, to grant California-based tuition—which costs a third of the price annually compared to out-of-state tuition—to student veterans and ROTC cadets.

Such changes have greatly reduced the cost of education to veterans and cadets attending Cal State Fullerton who came from outside of California since 2020. The price change for such students remains in place today.

For more information about the program, visit http://hhd.fullerton.edu/scholarships/vetsfund.php.