The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is offering 16 of the nation’s most committed, young civil liberties activists $12,500 each toward their first year in college.
Winners will also become part of an elite class of scholar-activists who will be invited to participate in ongoing activities with the ACLU, including activist trainings at the ACLU offices in New York City and Washington DC.
To qualify for the scholarship you must:
(a) Have demonstrated a strong commitment to civil liberties through some form of activism
(b) Be a high school senior planning on entering an accredited college or university as a full-time, degree-seeking student
(c) Have attained a cumulative GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale at the time of graduation
(d) Not be a current ACLU or NYCLU plaintiff or witness in a legal case
(e) To be considered for the ACLU Youth Activist Scholarship, the NYCLU must nominate you for consideration. Please contact the Youth Scholarship Coordinator at the NYCLU, Danny Sternberg at dsternberg@nyclu.org or 212.607.3374 for details about the scholarship.
Danny will explain the application process to you in detail, ask you some questions about your involvement in civil liberties activism and, if you qualify, send you scholarship application forms and counsel you on how to proceed.
Activists who complete the application forms will be judged on the following standards (in order of importance):
(a) The strength and depth of the candidate’s contributions to civil liberties
(b) Demonstrated leadership
(c) The likelihood of the applicant continuing commitment to civil liberties in the future
i. Commitment to academic excellence
ii. Demonstrated financial need
Past scholarship winners were recognized for a wide variety of civil liberties activism including:
Founding a student-led coalition to expand the student non-discrimination policy to include sexual orientation and gender identity, expression, and appearance
Giving dozens of presentations to high school students about critical reproductive health services
Organizing student protests against censorship after the school banned several controversial books from the English curriculum
Mobilizing the media and politicians to respond to the discrimination of HIV-positive students in the public school system
Starting a high school Gay-Straight Alliance in the face of strong opposition from the community and the local school board
Creating a civil liberties-themed documentary to be used as an educational tool in high school classrooms
If you are passionate about protecting, and fighting for, the Constitutional rights of everyone contact the NYCLU and apply for the ACLU Youth Activist Scholarship!
Deadline for submissions is Monday, Nov. 17.
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