CIAO has instituted a student scholarship program.

In January 2024, the CIAO club established the CIAO Donor Scholarship program and began awarding student scholarships annually. The following mission statement captures CIAO’s purpose for creating the scholarship:

Invest, not only in the success of future Italian American leaders, but other aspiring leaders as well by assisting with the financial burden of higher education.

For 2024, the inaugural year of the scholarship, CIAO offered two scholarships of $1000 each. For 2025, funding was increased to $4000, allowing for two awards of $2000 each. Awards were announced on May 15, 2025 and details can be found on CIAO’s BOLD.org page.

For 2024 and 2025, the scholarship was administered by an organization called Bold.org. Bold.org maintains a scholarship website with information for students. CIAO's web page at this site allowed students to learn about our scholarship and submit their applications. The applications and essays were then made available to the CIAO selection committee for evaluation.

Beginning with the 2026 scholarship, CIAO has chosen the Williamsburg Community Foundation (WCF) to serve as our administrative partner. The foundation’s scholarship program serves Williamsburg-area high schools. A large number of scholarships are advertised and awarded each year by the foundation. Besides postings on the WCF website, outreach by CIAO to area high schools is undertaken to enhance student awareness.

Under the new administrative arrangement, CIAO’s scholarship committee first provides the WCF with the selection criteria. The foundation then reviews the submissions and selects the most suitable candidates. After the CIAO committee gives final approval, the foundation notifies the students and distributes the awards.

CIAO uses several fundraising events, individual donations from members, and other mechanisms to fund the scholarship. One of these is the scholarship fundraiser pasta dinner. To help fund the 2026 scholarship, a dinner was held on September 27, 2025. Earlier in 2025, CIAO held its first meatball cook-off event on May 31 to provide a new scholarship fundraiser. Additional fundraising activities will be held throughout the year to ensure we meet our funding targets.

Besides participating in CIAO’s live fundraising activities, anyone may make direct tax-deductible contributions to help fund the CIAO scholarships. Those interested in making such a contribution should first read the donation instructions.