Morgan Levine Dolan Community Service Scholarship

$25,000
5 winners, $5,000 each
Open
Application Deadline
May 18, 2024
Winners Announced
Jun 18, 2024
Education Level
Any
Recent Bold.org scholarship winners
Eligibility Requirements
Education Level:
High school senior, undergraduate, or graduate student
State:
New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, or Pennsylvania
Experience:
Volunteering or sports
Education Level:
State:
Experience:
High school senior, undergraduate, or graduate student
New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, or Pennsylvania
Volunteering or sports

As a personal injury law firm in New York, Morgan Levine Dolan believes it is important for the next generation to be able to achieve the highest levels of education possible.

To help students pursue this level of achievement, they would like to financially assist those who wish to attend college. The Morgan Levine Dolan Community Service Scholarship seeks to help applicants who are team players and have experience playing sports in high school or volunteering for community services in their local communities. 

High school, undergraduate, and graduate students in New Jersey, Connecticut, New York, or Pennsylvania are eligible to apply if they have volunteer experience or have played sports. To apply, write about how this scholarship will help you fulfill your future goals.

Selection Criteria:
Ambition, Need, Boldest Bold.org Profile
Published September 18, 2023
$25,000
5 winners, $5,000 each
Open
Application Deadline
May 18, 2024
Winners Announced
Jun 18, 2024
Education Level
Any
Recent Bold.org scholarship winners
Essay Topic

How will this scholarship help you pursue your future career goals?

400–600 words

Winning Application

Elise Prophete
University of South Florida-St PetersburgBrooklyn, NY
"Don't look down." I was told from my second-grade best friend. I knew that I hadn't been on some kind of cliff or tightrope, we had just been playing hide and seek in the park- but then I felt it. First, a pinching pain, but nobody was touching me. Inevitably, I peered downwards. My immediate gaze was filled with red. My favorite pink and purple sneakers were red. My leggings- red. There was blood everywhere, and that's when it hit me. I was bleeding. There were glass shards, presumably from a smashed bottle of alcohol, and one of them had stabbed right into my knee. My city, New York City, is seen as the place "where dreams are made of," yet had that shard of glass pierced even 8 inches higher, it would have been my parents' worst nightmare. Though, I find myself feeling that if not for the help of paramedics and lawyers, while I may have not been able to seek justice for my injury, that's not the most important thing. I instead, feel that if I had not seen the assiduous labor and assurance of my lawyer or pediatrician, I would not have been able to find and pursue my purpose as easily. As I thumbed over what felt like countless stitches on the little hospital cot, a whisper assured me that I was put on Earth to help people, however I can. Weeks later, as I made my way back to school, hobbling through hallways and attempting to reteach myself liters, quarts, and gallons, I pondered the true extent of "helping people." Such an endless topic, it seemed, yet I never knew if and how I would be able to carry it out properly. By teaching my classmates the spelling of 'big' words, and eagerly presenting history PowerPoint, I figured I could at least help my classmates this way, to help them and myself learn, but I still felt like there was more. Aha- my future career! While this didn't come to me until high school, my paramedics inspired me, but my extensive clumsiness ruled medical work out of my head. However, there was another path calling to me, that related to me, just as much as I did to it. Law. As soon as I saw law as a possible career option, I fell in love with it. Criminal law, corporate law, entertainment law, family law, and the list goes on. Over my high school experience, I became involved in club leadership positions, non-profit politics and climate-based organizations, and became an NYCDOE advocate, for both mental health and student wellness. In the future, I hope to inspire others the way that I was inspired when I was much younger. It's become more apparent to me, that the "right way to help people," is the way that makes you feel right when you support another person. For me, that is being able to be a role model and representation for those around me. While undergrad and law school will be exceptionally difficult, and certainly expensive, I want to look back and be able to know that I've inspired all children who may or may not look like me, but who primarily find the need to help others and like you, be able to continue to pay it forward to them, assisting in any way that they'd need.
Aignae Lewis
Villanova UniversityPhiladelphia, PA
A field filled with dirt has the potential to blossom into a unique and valuable garden with the proper nourishment and care. Failure to provide the necessities could interfere with a potentially appealing creation. My earlier years are comparable to that field filled with dirt. A natural beginning to a possible bright future followed by a lack of investment. My foundation was compromised with soil that penetrated my thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. I was forced to find alternative forms of nourishment through my contaminated environment. My development relied on limited resources for growth and advancement. As a result, I did not progress with the proper tools that promoted education, exposure to universal concepts and principles, or the confidence to pursue challenging experiences. I grew up in a single-parent household that did not promote education. This was not because it was not important, but because my mother often focused on providing the necessities of life. Her main priority was to provide a safe and loving household. Although my household promoted love and respect, the community that we were raised in produced much violence and detrimental experiences around us. I allowed my background to define what was within my reach. This caused me to strive in a careful and limited manner. I did not believe that I possessed the necessary qualities to create a lifestyle that was aligned with gardens of finer properties. My interest in nursing is due to the accumulation of my experiences throughout my career. The vast exposure to different professions ignited an interest in the processes that interfere with proper functioning. I have become very interested in the medical component of treatment, which led to the pursuit of nursing. I have had the great pleasure of obtaining employment through a psychiatric hospital exposing me to a wide range of populations and professions. The ability to work with a variety of professions broadened my outlook on patient care. My role as a social worker allows me to work alongside medical professionals that have informed my skillset. The structure of the multidisciplinary team encouraged professional exchange that has exposed me to an advanced understanding of treatment planning. In addition to my acquired clinical skill set, I have developed a compassionate approach to managing the cases of vulnerable populations. Many of the patients that I care for have lost their voices to the overwhelming forces of mental illnesses and substance abuse. I make a conscious effort to promote resilience and self-efficacy. They too may come from a contaminated environment that stunted their ability to live fulfilling lives. I allow this principle to guide my practice and develop my approach to treatment. I now choose to channel my hardships into motivation to help others in need. The pandemic struck at an unexpected time for most resulting in a variety of challenges. We all strive to pick up the pieces that were shattered during the pandemic. This has heightened my interest in health care. I currently have an MSW from Temple University. I plan to combine my social work experiences with newly discovered nursing knowledge to help serve people in need. I am grateful for the opportunity to care for people during vulnerable times. What distinguishes me is that I do not possess one passion. I have a multitude of professional interests that align with people in need. My pursuit of nursing will be a gateway to changes with historical healthcare disparities, and current healthcare dilemmas, and guide the future innovators of the world.
Nonya Khedr
Columbia University in the City of New YorkQueens, NY
Kaili Kniffen
Wissahickon High SchoolBlue Bell, PA
At seven years old, I was living in Austin, Texas. I went to an elementary school with an awning that had a net stretched across the bottom of the roof. My little second-grade brain never could figure out why that net was there. As I looked up at it each day, pondering its existence, I began to notice that dead birds would collect underneath. The birds would be distorted, strangled by the cords, their tiny bones snapped in their futile struggle to escape the net’s grasp. As a seven-year-old, this was horrifying, to say the least. I decided that I would not stand for it - I wrote a letter to my principal, explaining the situation and asking if there was any way to take the net down and spare the coming children from the terror I had endured. I was only partially successful - the principal had not been aware of the issue before that point and consulted the school board. She was turned down but told me that she was proud of my initiative. In retrospect, I would like to believe that this was a turning point in my life. I had gone after my goal, regardless of how daunting it was, and I had gotten results. In my sophomore year of high school, I began a project that would once again mark a time of growth and empowerment in my life. I was meant to spend two months studying the adolescent brain’s reaction to sleep or lack thereof. This project made me realize that my high school’s start time of 7:37 am was far too early to properly sustain fourteen hundred teenage brains. I decided that this needed to change, so I found out how to get on the school board’s presentation schedule and shared my findings in an attempt to convince them to consider a later school start time. The board president had informed me that school start times were far down on the list of priorities, but I was welcome to present my research. The board was impressed and requested further information, so I banded together four more sophomore girls, and together we did more research, planned a series of school board presentations, and campaigned at board meetings for two months. Eventually, the school board was convinced - the new start time is currently being decided, and a start time of 8:30 am or later is going into effect in the 2023-24 school year. My approach to problems I see in the world around me is a huge part of who I am: an advocate, both for myself and for the greater good of the population. This quality inspired my aspirations of becoming a psychiatrist. This career path would allow me to advocate for each teen that comes to see me and allow me to make a difference in the world by easing each of their struggles. Not only do I hope to become a practitioner, but I also wish to conduct research of my own to better understand the brain chemistry that causes mental illnesses, and what can be done to prevent or treat them at the source. To achieve my dream of becoming a psychiatrist, I will attend a 4-year university and medical school, undoubtedly throwing me into substantial student debt. Any amount of money could help ease that stress and allow me to focus on my studies so that I can help as many people as possible. This scholarship seems perfect for me, as I have been someone in my community to rally my peers for greater change that benefits us all.
Olivia Gray
Spelman CollegeGeorgia, GA
I foresee the challenges I will face as an out-of-state resident attending a private institution. These expenses include but are not limited to transportation fees, books, room and board, and other personal and miscellaneous items I may need during semesters at the illustrious Spelman College. My family also has depended on me to pay for our household needs as I’ve worked as a Dunkin’ barista, Five Below sales associate, and infant and toddler assistant teacher for the past two years. I saved a deserving amount of my finances in consideration of how much I would need to pay in part to all of the expenditures mentioned above and the student loans I anticipate taking out after the four years. As I am pursuing a major in elementary education, it is perpetually difficult to balance student teaching and getting experience in the classroom, hence why I look forward to obtaining this scholarship in an attempt to overcome the challenge of trying to financially support myself under these circumstances. Teaching is the best approach for me to overcome integral problems in our nation's education programs by reshaping the objectives, learning strategies, and developmental expectations to meet the individual's needs appropriately. On a grander scale, I want to emphasize my passion in this endeavor on the undergraduate level of which I am set on the track to becoming a professional in the field: teaching is the best approach for me to overcome integral problems in our nation's education programs by reshaping the objectives, learning strategies, and developmental expectations to meet the individual's needs appropriately. I am confident that through my career, I would make the biggest impact in my community and as a result, feasibly accomplish this without the financial burdens to follow. My choice of fieldwork merges my love of developing the greater intellectual minority of students and giving back to the less fortunate families due to systemic problems in contemporary colored culture. I see myself becoming an asset to the larger community of colored educators worldwide who inspire students to pursue their dreams. My college success depends on how thoroughly I master the craft of constructing effective classroom curriculums and establishing a safe, scholarly classroom environment for children within my care and beyond. In consideration of these efforts and aspirations, having the monetary compensation to accomplish my goals in the field is unique to what other degree could change the humanity and education of our future students.

FAQ

When is the scholarship application deadline?

The application deadline is May 18, 2024. Winners will be announced on Jun 18, 2024.