Vireo Labs, a career-focused education tech company, has announced two, $1,000 scholarships with iFoster to help foster youth around the nation research and finance their postsecondary education. The scholarships are available to any foster youth enrolled in their senior year of high school in the United States. The C’reer iFoster Scholarship will be administered by iFoster and will be awarded to a college-bound student based on an essay submission. These scholarships can be applied to tuition, room and board or other college-related fees or for the purchase of education technology.

The scholarship is named after Vireo Labs’ recently released free mobile app – C’reer – that matches students with careers and connects them with college representatives via chat. Scholarship applicants will be asked to write an essay about the career field suggested by the C’reer app.

C’reer is available for free in the App Store for iOS devices or in Google Play for Android devices.

Each scholarship awarded will be a maximum of $1,000. The application deadline is September 30, 2017 at 11:59 p.m. PT. Recipients will be notified by October 27, 2017. Full requirements and the application for the C’reer iFoster Scholarship will be announced by iFoster within the next few weeks.

“iFoster has been helping foster families and youth access technology resources for education and training programs in job placement for many years with tremendous impact,” said Jose Mallabo, co-founder and chief executive officer of Vireo Labs. “We share a similar objective to provide students with resources to discover career paths and education choices that may otherwise have gone overlooked.”

“Achieving a college degree can be a significant challenge for many youth in foster care,” said Serita Cox, executive director of iFoster. “More than 46 percent of foster youth report not getting enough assistance with college planning."

“Having access to academic tools like C’reer, as well as the financial support of a scholarship, can make a tremendous difference in the lives of our youth,” Cox said.

About Vireo Labs
Vireo Labs is a career focused education technology company based in Beaufort, South Carolina. The founding team is leveraging its higher education and ecommerce experience from eBay and Amazon into the development of its first mobile product, C’reer. For more information about the company visit www.vireolabs.co or sign up for product updates at www.creer.us.

About iFoster
iFoster is a national non-profit that bridges the gap between youth in the child welfare system and the external corporations, foundations and government agencies who have the resources to help them succeed. iFoster has built the largest and most inclusive online community of young people and organizations in foster care with currently over 40,000 members in all 50 states. On behalf of the community, iFoster negotiates and collaborates with hundreds of partners who can provide the resources, supports and opportunities that foster youth need to become successful adults.