Strength in Our Voices Positive Change Project Scholarship
Founded in October 2015, Strength in Our Voices (SiOV) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating stigmas surrounding mental health. Over the past three years, one of the group’s main initiatives has been bringing Sources of Strength, an upstream suicide prevention program, to schools in DC, Maryland and Virginia.
As part of SiOV’s continued mission of empowerment and positive change, we will provide a $2,500 scholarship to a senior pursuing higher education who has demonstrated the ability to impact mental wellness by spreading hope, help, and strength within their communities.
Campaign Proposals Due 1/24/2020: Click Here to Submit
Award: $2,500
Scholarship Eligibility Requirements:
1. Must be a senior at:
A. Any Arlington County Public School (ACPS)
B. Any District of Columbia Public School (DCPS)
C. One of the following Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS):
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- West Springfield High School
- McLean High School
- Robinson Secondary School
- Hayfield Secondary School
2. Minimum of 10 community service hours
3. Minimum GPA: 2.5
Scholarship Requirements:
Strength in Our Voices’ implementation of Sources of Strength aims to spread the values of hope, help, and strength within middle and high schools in the DC metropolitan area. In your own words, please describe a project/initiative/activity you would like to implement within your own school or community to spread these same positive values and the impact they will have on mental wellness.
Examples of possible projects include posting positive messages around a public space, promoting help-seeking behaviors among peers, build youth-adult connectedness, helping people who cannot return the favor, creating a mental-wellness social media campaign. We encourage applicants to be creative!
Once students have submitted a proposal, SiOV asks that you implement your positivity project and write a reflective essay on the experience. The review committee will take both submissions into consideration when awarding the scholarship.
Steps to Apply:
Applicants will identify and analyze a way to promote positivity and spread kindness in school or community, create a campaign that takes action on that issue, and reflect on the action.
SUBMISSION FOR DECEMBER 20th:
1. Choose a core messaging campaign that focuses on positivity, kindness and is designed to spread hope, help, or strength in your school or community. (i.e. Random acts of kindness campaign, promoting mindfulness, creating and executing healthy activities for students to cope with stress and anxiety, creating a word wall, video, or #hashtag that promotes positive mental well-being, etc)
2. Research the issue. This will help you deepen your own background knowledge about the impact positivity and kindness have on mental health and culture change. You must find and document at least three secondary sources. Be sure to cite these sources in your writing when necessary, and to include a formal Works Cited. (300 words maximum, Times New Roman 12-point font, double spaced.)
3. Write a plan of action (250-500 words max) that answers the following: What are you going to do? (e.g. social media campaign, petition, presentation, activity during lunch, etc). What are the steps in your action plan? Who will benefit from this? How will you measure impact?
*#2 and #3 are submitted together via this form HERE (same link as above)
SUBMISSION FOR FEBRUARY 28th:
4. Take action. You are encouraged to be as creative as possible. Your action could be one of the following: Create a social media campaign, publish a short article or report, create a poster/word wall/ artwork/ or video campaign, convince five people you know to make a concrete change in their lives, make a presentation to an audience, or circulate a petition and send it to someone who has the power to take action on the petition.
5. Write a 300-500 word reflection or create a 3-5 minute video on the efficacy of your action. Your reflection should answer the following questions: What was the overall impact of your campaign? How many people were affected by your campaign? What would you do differently next time? How did this experience affect you personally?
Deadline(s):
- January 24, 2020: Accepting Applications and Project Proposals
- January 24-March 19, 2020: Implementation of Positivity Project
- March 20, 2020: Reflection Due
- April 3, 2020: Award Recipients Will be Notified
Assessment:
Submissions will be evaluated by the Strength in Our Voices scholarship committee.
Questions? Please email info@strengthinourvoices.org.
Due 1/24/2020 – Campaign Proposals: CLICK HERE