Joe Beirne Scholarship
Scholarship Sponsored by Communications Workers of America
CWA Joe Beirne Foundation Scholarships — 2026–2027
Overview
- Sixteen partial college scholarships, each valued at $4,000, are available for the 2026–2027 academic year. Recipients are selected by lottery. Scholarship awards are renewable for a second year at the same amount, provided the student maintains satisfactory academic progress. Students enrolled part time (fewer than 12 credits) will receive one-half of the award.
Who is eligible
- Current Communications Workers of America (CWA) members and their spouses, children and grandchildren may apply. Eligibility also extends to dependents of laid-off, retired, or deceased CWA members.
- Applicants must be high school graduates or high school students who will graduate in the same year they apply. Returning undergraduate and graduate students are also eligible. Individuals who have previously received this scholarship are not eligible to reapply.
Application period and deadline
- Applications are accepted each year from November through April. For the 2026–2027 awards cycle the application deadline is April 30, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. EDT.
Selection and notification
- Recipients are determined by a lottery drawing. Only those selected will be notified. A list of past recipients is available upon request or via the Foundation’s published materials.
Permitted fields of study
- There are no restrictions on course of study; winners may use the scholarship for any academic program they choose.
Funding source
- The CWA Joe Beirne Foundation is supported by voluntary contributions and operates on a self-sustaining basis. Donations and pledges come from CWA locals, individual members, and officers.
How to apply
- Applications must be submitted through the Foundation’s online application form; paper submissions are not accepted.
About the Foundation and Joseph A. Beirne
- The CWA Joe Beirne Foundation was created to honor Joseph A. Beirne, CWA’s founding president. The Foundation was established by the Communications Workers of America Executive Board in October 1974 to commemorate his long commitment to education and social causes. On April 26, 1999, the CWA Executive Board merged the Joseph Anthony Beirne Memorial Foundation with the Ray Hackney Scholarship Fund, forming the current CWA Joe Beirne Foundation.
- Joseph Anthony Beirne was raised in Jersey City, N.J., the son of Irish immigrant parents; his father worked on the railroad and was a union member. Beirne began working for Western Electric in 1927. The labor reforms of the New Deal and passage of the Wagner Act in 1935 helped prompt his involvement in organizing telephone workers. After the National Federation of Telephone Workers was organized in 1938, Beirne became its president in 1943 at age 32. He played a central role in transforming a loose federation of local unions into a unified national organization; that transformation was solidified following the nationwide Bell System strike of 1947 and led to establishment of the modern Communications Workers of America in 1948.
- Under Beirne’s leadership and with CWA’s 1949 affiliation to the CIO, the union expanded its organizing efforts, adopted pattern bargaining to raise industry standards, and became active in political advocacy, community service, civil rights, and international labor issues. Beirne stepped down as president in June 1974 due to illness and died on Labor Day of 1974. The Foundation continues to honor his legacy by supporting students connected to the CWA community.