Ashley Calogero Awarded 2025 Berger and Green Heart Disease Scholarship for Resilience and Academic Pursuits
TL;DR
Berger and Green's scholarship offers financial advantage to students with heart disease, recognizing resilience that can fuel academic and career success.
Berger and Green annually awards a $1,000 scholarship to a student with heart disease based on demonstrated strength and perseverance criteria.
This scholarship supports individuals overcoming health challenges, fostering education and service that contribute to a safer, more compassionate world.
Ashley Calogero won the scholarship after surviving a rare heart defect and pursuing global security studies inspired by Japanese wisdom.
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Berger and Green has announced Ashley H. Calogero as the recipient of its 2025 Heart Disease Scholarship, awarding $1,000 to support her studies in Global Security and Intelligence Studies at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. The scholarship recognizes students living with heart disease who demonstrate resilience and ambition despite medical challenges.
Calogero was born with a rare congenital heart defect that required life-saving surgery hours after her birth. Despite doctors' predictions of multiple surgeries with uncertain outcomes, she survived with only one procedure performed by a leading surgeon who happened to be at the same hospital. Growing up with visible scars, she initially struggled with feelings of being "born broken" but eventually embraced them as symbols of strength, influenced by her Japanese grandmother's advice: "nana korobi ya oki" - fall down seven times, get up eight.
Inspired by her mother's 24-year career as an Air Force physician, Calogero aspired to military service through the Air Force Academy. However, her application was medically disqualified due to her childhood heart surgery. Rather than being deterred, she channeled this setback into motivation, writing in her scholarship essay: "If I faced such a major challenge in the first hours of my life, I can do anything." This perspective aligns with the scholarship's mission to honor perseverance.
At Embry-Riddle, Calogero is pursuing a degree that prepares students to identify and prevent national and international threats. Her extracurricular involvement includes varsity tennis, Student Council, Interact Club, and the National Honor Society, where she tutored peers. She aims to commission as an Intelligence Officer in the U.S. Air Force and eventually transition to a federal agency to continue serving the nation.
The Berger and Green Heart Disease Scholarship, awarded annually, highlights the importance of supporting individuals with medical conditions in achieving their educational and professional goals. Calogero's story underscores how resilience can transform personal challenges into drivers of success, offering inspiration to others facing similar obstacles. Her journey from medical adversity to academic pursuit reflects broader themes of perseverance in the face of institutional barriers, potentially encouraging more inclusive policies in educational and military institutions.
Curated from 24-7 Press Release
