Arlington Soccer Association (ASA)
2013-2014 Juliet Grace Smith Scholarship Information
The Juliet Grace Smith Foundation, founded in memory of long-time Arlington Soccer coach Chris Smith's daughter,
announces plans to award an annual scholarship to two deserving Arlington Soccer players. The Juliet Grace Smith
Foundation has collaborated with Arlington Soccer to arrange for the award of one full scholarship to be split
between one boy and one girl for a single competitive soccer year. Arlington Soccer and the Foundation will identify
needy players from the Club's Financial Aid wait list, and then work with coaches and managers in the travel
program to nominate candidates whose demonstrations of courage are consistent with the example set by Juliet
Grace during her brief stay with us. Candidates will be submitted to the ASA, and the Foundation’s Board of
Directors will identify the two winners.
About Juliet Grace
Juliet Grace Smith was born on July 8, 2010 - 3 ½ months before her due date, weighing 1 lb 14 oz, and stretching
to 13 inches long. As a “24 weeker” she was born during the second trimester and immediately faced tremendous
challenges as an infant who did not have the benefit of the additional 3 ½ months of advanced development that
most babies have prior to birth. Juliet underwent many surgeries in efforts to help her undeveloped digestive system
process the food needed for her growth and to help her tiny heart properly pump blood and oxygen through her
body.
Juliet lived in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for almost her entire life – first at Children’s Hospital of the
King’s Daughters in Norfolk, VA and then at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, DC. The NICU
consistently cares for the most fragile patients in any hospital, and every day that she seemed to face challenges
that put her life at risk, and yet for 6 months, she overcame those challenges.
There were many instances where the doctors and staff told Juliet’s parents that she had taken a turn and gone into
a seemingly impossible situation. But she always seemed to recover, using a near Olympic spirit that could not
conceivably come from this tiny girl, but did. Her courage in facing a daily regimen of life-or-death challenges was an
inspiration to every person that knew, worked with, or learned about our Juliet Grace.
It is in this spirit and with her courage, that the Juliet Grace Smith Foundation proudly presents this scholarship
award, in her name and to the Club with which she would have most certainly been a member. She was one tough
customer, and her father was certain she would have been a center back. Winners of the award will have
demonstrated tremendous courage in their lives, just as Juliet Grace did in hers, so that even more people can be
motivated by great stories of courage to meet their own goals.
We invite you to learn more about Juliet Grace at her blog site: http://julietgracesmith.blogspot.com/
About the Scholarship
The scholarship is open to families who have previously applied for financial aid from ASA during the current soccer
year, and have been denied aid due to budgetary reasons. Thus the scholarship seeks to extend aid to players in
need who find that soccer impacts their lives and that they, in turn, demonstrate courage, Juliet’s hallmark.
To download, complete and print the application, please click here.
For more information about the scholarship, please contact Diane Oden, ASA’s Finance Manager, at
[email protected].