Secular Student Activist Scholarship

The 2025 scholarships are available to full-time students enrolled in high school, trade school, college, or university in the United States and are designed to support students who in addition to pursuing excellence in their academic studies are also activists for secular values on their campus and/or in their community.

Before you start on the application below you may wish to take some time and write out answers to the following questions which will appear in part three of the application.

1. What are your educational, career, and life goals?
2. What is your secular identity? How did you come to your secularism and how do you see it remaining a part of your life?
3. What other aspects of your identity intersect, interact with, or inform your secularism?
4. What secular activism have you been involved with (on campus or off)?
5. What intersectional activism have you been involved with (on campus or off)?
6. What activism plans do you have for this academic year?
7. Why is the work of the SSA important to you and what are your goals relating to the Secular Student Alliance Mission and Vision?
8. What obstacles, barriers, or financial hardships have you faced in pursuing your academic goals? What role would this scholarship have in helping you overcome these challenges?

As part of the application process, please prepare a 30-60 second video in which you tell us a little bit more about one aspect of your application: about your secular identity, or why it is important to you, or why you are passionate about state/church separation or your activism, or highlighting something important to you.

2025 SSA Student Activist Scholarship Application

Thank you for your interest in our scholarship program. The Secular Student Alliance is thrilled to offer a growing number of scholarships to students across the country. Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with the application process prior to starting your application.

Scholarship Eligibility:

• Must be currently enrolled full-time in a United States middle school, high school, trade school, university or college.
• You will be asked to provide 1-2 references, please have contact information available.
• Submit your completed application by July 31, 2025.
• The Use of AI: The selection committees are looking for your personal stories and achievements. Using AI to answer questions just provides generic information, which does not help you in receiving a scholarship.