Roaring Fork Valley student scholarships open for Normandy Academy

World War II history will not perish. 

That’s the goal of Carbondale’s Paul Bushong, a 97-year-old Korean War Veteran, who created the World War II Education Fund to ensure that WWII history does not disappear with those who lived through the period.

Established in 2017 through the Aspen Community Foundation, the fund provides scholarships for Roaring Fork Valley high school students to take part in the Normandy Academy, an 11-day excursion hosted by the National World War II Museum. The scholarship pays for all but $1,200 of the $5,895 per-student tuition of the program. 

Applications are due Jan. 23, 2026.

“Just the brutality that you learn about on the beach, it’s just something I was never aware about,” said Sophie Erdman, a senior at Glenwood Springs High School and alumni of the program. “And it makes me have so much more respect, and I think even just awareness of what veterans go through.”

Through the academy, students travel in the summer to New Orleans to visit the museum firsthand, before embarking to France, where they tour Paris, Bayeux, D-Day landing sites in Normandy, and more.

Erdman added that the program was a justification that her passion for history “had a place in the world” and said it inspired her to build a historical exhibit with the Glenwood Springs Historical Society. 

Bushong, who has awarded 93 scholarships to local students since the fund’s inception, specifically invites 10th and 11th grade students to apply, so they can share their studies with the community when they return to school. 

“What happened in Normandy in 1944 is one of the most important events of recent history,” Bushong is quoted saying on the Aspen Community Foundation website. “I created this to help our local students understand this history, experience it firsthand, and return home to share what they learned with friends and family.”

Roaring Fork High School Junior Greta Braudis said the program opened her eyes to the expansiveness of the war — and especially D-Day.

“I learned so much,” she said.

Aspen Education Foundation President and CEO Erica Snow added that the program is important now, especially. 

“I think there were some important lessons through World War II and Normandy,” Snow said. “And I think as some tensions are rising globally, it’s just I think important for us and our younger generations to hold ‘What did we learn from that? How do we carry what we learned forward so history doesn’t repeat itself?'”

Skyler Stark-Ragsdale can be reached at 970-429-9152 or email him at sstark-ragsdale@aspentimes.com.