ACLU Scholarship: HS Seniors can win $7,000 for college!

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is offering 15 of the nation’s most committed, young civil liberties activists $7,000 each toward their first year in college. You must be a current high school senior to quality to be an ACLU Youth Activist Scholar.

Deadline to apply is Nov. 16, 2009. For complete info, visit: www.nyclu.org/scholarship.

Winners will also be invited to participate in ongoing activities with the ACLU, including the Youth Activist Institute training program at the ACLU's national office in New York City.

We are looking for students who have stood up for civil liberties, tolerance, free speech and equality!

To qualify for the scholarship you must:

Have demonstrated a strong commitment to civil liberties through some form of activism. Be a high school senior planning on entering an accredited college or university as a full-time, degree-seeking student. Have attained a cumulative GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale at the time of graduation. Not be a current ACLU plaintiff or witness in a legal case.

Please contact the Youth Scholarship Coordinator at the NYCLU, Danny Sternberg at dsternberg@nyclu.org for details about the scholarship.

Past scholarship winners were recognized for a wide variety of civil liberties activism, including:

Creating and teaching a class for middle school students that aimed to lower the risk that they would enter into the School to Prison Pipeline
Challenging a principal’s policy of punishing students for writing “gay pride” on their arms and notebooks.

Advocating on behalf of American Indian youth in the juvenile justice system
Producing and hosting a youth radio program focusing on LGBTQ rights and issues
Working with school officials to ensure that intelligent design would no longer be taught in the public schools.

Starting an organization to get teen girls involved in the decisions that affect them, such as policies on sexual harassment and access to comprehensive reproductive health care.

Activists who complete the application forms will be judged on the following standards (in order of importance):

The strength and depth of the candidate’s contributions to civil liberties
Demonstrated leadership
The likelihood of the applicant continuing commitment to civil liberties in the future
Commitment to academic excellence
Demonstrated financial need
Deadline for submissions is Nov. 16, 2009. The application is attached.