Catastrophic injuries transform your life at every age. However, it’s particularly devastating to realize that an accident has left you with life-changing injuries early in your life. Our personal injury lawyers know that today’s teenagers have to overcome a unique set of challenges even before accounting for the scars left behind by a catastrophic injury accident.
It’s with the lengths students have to go to, particularly when faced with life-changing injuries, that Slam Dunk Attorney debuts its new scholarship.
Slam Dunk Attorney‘s Survivor Speak Scholarship: Catastrophic Injuries That Change Lives offers $2,500 to a student whose exceptional perseverance has helped them overcome a devastating accident. Students whose immediate family members sustained catastrophic injuries or whose lives were lost due to a catastrophic incident may also apply, as we understand that such an injury impacts those surrounding the victim. Students must complete their applications by January 31, 2025.
Application Requirements
Undergraduate and graduate students pursuing any degree may apply for the Survivors Speak Scholarship: Catastrophic Injuries Change Lives. However, applying students must meet the following criteria to qualify for support:
- The applicant must be enrolled in or accepted at an accredited college, university, or graduate school in the state of Georgia
- The applicant must agree to the scholarship’s terms and conditions
- The applicant must submit a completed application by the scholarship’s deadline
- The applicant must have endured a catastrophic injury sometime before applying for this scholarship
Students who meet these criteria may complete the application process. The firm invites students to create either a video or a written essay detailing the obstacles they faced after a catastrophic injury accident.
Students may submit a link to their completed video or a .pdf of their essay through this website’s scholarship application form.
Scholarship Essay and Video Topic
Students may either write an essay about their catastrophic injury OR create a video going into detail about their losses. Please choose to create either an essay or a video. Do not create both. The topic of this scholarship’s essay and video are the same. Slam Dunk Attorney encourages students to discuss:
- The unfortunate event that led to their or their immediate family members’ catastrophic injury
- The nature of the catastrophic injury
- What limitations the injury introduced into their lives
- How they overcame those obstacles
Students should also list any extracurricular activities, volunteer work, honors societies, or other activities they’ve participated in since enduring the accident. The firm does not require a comprehensive list of an applicant’s extracurriculars but instead encourages students to highlight the activities they are proudest of.
The team also requests that students include the name and contact information of someone who can verify their participation in these extracurricular programs. Examples may include a professor, teacher, or community leader.
What to Include in a Video
Student videos need to be between one and two minutes long. We encourage students to:
- Record your video in a well-lit area.
- Hold your recording device as still as possible
- Mention your full name and the name of the scholarship you are applying for either at the beginning or at the end of your video
- Give credits as necessary
- Specify any sources of information and the media editing tools used in crafting and creating their videos in the description of the video
- Use only copyright-free content, and come up with a creative, catchy title that reflects their ideas
Students are free to use creative software, including Adobe Creative Cloud, to edit their videos. However, Slam Dunk Attorney will not select a scholarship winner based on the quality of a student’s editing.
Students may use AI to create B-roll footage for their videos. However, students may not use AI to write their scripts, read their scripts, or create fake actors for their videos. The prohibited use of AI to create a scholarship video will result in a student’s automatic disqualification from the applicant pool.
What to Include in an Essay
Students who choose to write a scholarship essay should write no more than 1,000 words on the aforementioned topic of catastrophic injuries. Slam Dunk Attorney will only accept an essay submitted as a .pdf.
Students should include the following elements in a written essay:
- A header including your name, the name of the scholarship you’re applying for, the name of your college, your email address, and your student ID number
- The mailing address, phone number, and email address for your school’s financial aid office
- A catchy and original title
- A bibliography
- Citations in MLA format
Students may save their essays in Word format before converting those essays to a .pdf. Essays should be named in the following style: Survivors Speak Scholarship Catastrophic Injuries That Change Lives 2025 – [Student Name].
Example Essay Header for Student Use
An example header may read:
Jane Doe, Survivors Speak Scholarship: Catastrophic Injuries That Change Lives
[College Name]
0000000000
Financial Aid Office
1234 College Road
Cityville, ST
(000) 000-0000
financial.aid.office@office.edu
Application Deadline
Students have until January 31, 2025, to complete and submit their scholarship applications. Slam Dunk Attorney will not consider scholarship applications submitted after this deadline passes.
The firm reserves up to three months to select a winner from its pool of applicants. A firm representative will contact the winner by email. Other applicants will not receive notification from the firm.
At this time, Slam Dunk Attorney cannot accept phone calls, emails, or in-person visits from students or parents with questions about the application process or the status of an application. A scholarship selection committee will reach out if we need additional information from an applicant.
Privacy Policy
Data Use and Sharing:
- All personal information collected during the application process will be kept strictly confidential and will not be shared with any third parties outside of the firm’s managing team.
- The name (first name and last initial) of the winning applicant, along with their essay or video submission, may be publicly shared on the firm’s official website and social media platforms to acknowledge the winner.
- No additional personal or identifying information will be disclosed to the public.
Slam Dunk Attorney
Address: 2250 Satellite Blvd, Duluth, GA 30097
Terms and Conditions
All applicants to this scholarship must meet the eligibility requirements as laid out on the scholarship application page, including:
- Applicant must be enrolled at a college, university, or graduate school
- Applicant must be at least 18 years old at the age of enrollment
- Applicant must have residency in the United States
- Applicant must have 3.0 GPA or higher
- Applicant must submit some personal information, including name, contact information, and academic information.
- Applicant must author an original essay/video on the scholarship essay topic provided.
Anyone who meets the following conditions is NOT eligible to apply:
- Employees or children of employees of Slam Dunk Attorney
- Past recipients of the Survivors Speak Scholarship: Catastrophic Injuries That Change Lives
- Applicants who are unable/unwilling to be interviewed by a representative of Slam Dunk Attorney if awarded a scholarship.
- Applicants who submit the same essay/video for multiple scholarships or for multiple years in a row
Selection & Award Notification Process
Students must submit their scholarship applications before the January 31, 2025, deadline if they want the Slam Dunk Attorney scholarship selection committee to consider their bid. The team reserves up to three months to select a winner after the scholarship deadline passes.
Age, race, religion, gender, national origin, familial status, or other protected classes will have no influence on the committee’s decision.
The scholarship selection committee will communicate with its winning student by email. Afterward, Slam Dunk Attorney will announce its scholarship winner through a blog post and press release. The firm will then mail a student’s winnings to their institution’s financial aid office or directly to the winner if they already benefit from a scholarship that covers their tuition costs.
Previous Winners
Slam Dunk Attorney wants to debut its Survivors Speak Scholarship: Catastrophic Injuries That Change Lives with style. We’ll celebrate our first winner with a blog post and press release in 2025. Future applicants can revisit this page for more information about the winners who came before them.
