Essay Scholarship Winners Announced
$5,000 goes to three well qualified entrants
July 30, 2013 -- Three well written essays provided their entrants a total of $5,000 to be used for tuition, books, room and board, and other necessary school supplied.
Mark from Louisiana wrote an essay entitled "Crime and Suicide", which detailed how mental health conditions are created or exacerbated upon being convicted of a crime. This informative persuasive essay earned Mark $1,000, which he says he plans to use at Louisiana Delta Community College in Monroe.
Sarah from Georgia entered "Guilty Until Proven Innocent", a strong report of numerous problems faced during interrogation, investigation and prosecution that can lead to innocent people serving prison sentences, sometimes for crimes that never occurred. She plans to use her $1,500 winnings to study criminal justice at Chattahoochee Technical College near Atlanta. "I wanted to be a police investigator, but after so many injustices I wrote about, I'd rather spend my life defending falsely accused criminals in court", she said in an e-mail to EDASCAL.
The $2,500 grand prize went to the author of "Fight For Your Right To Part E", detailing how offenders are often denied education after conviction. This denial is especially prevalent regarding applicants who have been convicted of a drug offense, despite otherwise qualifying for student loans as otherwise authorized in the Higher Education Opportunity Act, Title IV Part E. As potential UCLA student Blake notes, "the people who most desperately need education are rejected only because they allowed other people to execute their decisions to diminish their own health, just like multi-million dollar cigarette manufacturers and wineries do." Noting concerns of other crimes being linked to drug use, he proposes increasing penalties for offenses linked to drug use, but allowing relatively minor drug users to maintain much of their freedom. He hopes to use his future Political Science degree to propose and enact such legislation.
Our judges enjoyed reading the more than 400 essays we received. While complying with our privacy policy, we plan to use these essays to propose policies that will improve society's handling of alleged criminal offenders and behavior. We hope to offer the same scholarship opportunity next year, although we cannot currently guarantee this will happen.
For More Information Contact:
Everyone Deserves A Second Chance At Life
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