Legacy of Life Scholarship

Did you know more than 103,000 people are waiting fro a lifesaving transplant? As a high school senior, you have the power to raise awareness about the importance of registering to be an organ, eye and tissue donor through the Leslie A. Ebert Legacy of Life Scholarship Program.

How To Participate

Write a persuasive essay and/or produce a video that educates then motivates, an audience to become a registered organ, eye and tissue donors!

• Essay must not exceed 1000 words
• Video must not exceed 90 seconds
• Essay & Video must include a call-to-action
• TWO Citations must be included and are excluded from total word count and/or video time allotment

1. All essay and video entrants must be current high school seniors who (1) both reside and attend high school, or are home-schooled, in one of the following locations: The state of Maryland; Northern Virginia (specifically the counties of Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William, Clarke, Spotsylvania, Stafford, King George, and Fauquier as well as the independent cities of Alexandria, Falls Church, Fairfax, Fredericksburg, Manassas, and Manassas Park); and the District of Columbia; and (2) plan to attend a college, university or community college in the 2024 Fall semester. You are not eligible for the scholarship if you reside and attend high school (or are homeschooled) outside the aforementioned states, counties and cities.
2. The following are ineligible to participate in the scholarship program: family members and employees of Infinite Legacy and family members of those who serve on the Infinite Legacy Governing Board of Trustees and any of the Infinite Legacy committees or councils. To ensure fairness, names and institutional affiliations of applicants will be omitted from contest entries in advance of their review. Please omit personally identifiable information about yourself from the body of your essay or video. NOTE FOR VIDEO SCHOLARSHIP ENTRANTS: You may appear in your video; however, please omit your name from the video itself.
3. The entry form must be complete and included in your submission as a separate attachment. Incomplete or missing forms will cause you to be disqualified.
4. You must write an essay and/or produce a video that will convince your audience to register to be organ, eye and tissue donors.
5. All scholarship winners will be required to attend a Donation 101 training and participate in at least one approved donor registration event in the community following COVID-19 guidelines. Winners will receive the dates of the training and registration events immediately following the announcement of the winners. This requirement must be met before scholarships are paid. Reasonable accommodations (as determined by Infinite Legacy) will be made to ensure this requirement may be met by each winner.
6. Subject to section 10 below, one first-place scholarship of $5,000, one second-place scholarship of $3,000 and three honorary scholarships of $1,000 each will be awarded for each of the essay and the video category. Winners will be contacted directly by June 1, 2024 - only winners will be notified. Only after all winners are notified will the essays and videos be posted on infinitelegacy.org/get-involved/community-outreach/legacy-of-life-scholarship/.
7. The scholarship must be paid directly to the university or college that the winner attends by December 31, 2024. The money awarded will be paid in one lump sum, and must be used to pay for tuition, books, and other fees billed directly by the institution. The scholarship will be forfeited if the winner does not claim the scholarship by December 31, 2024, or if the student is not enrolled in and attending a college or university in the 2024 Fall semester. Funds cannot be paid after December 31, 2024. Instructions for payment directly to the institution will be sent after the winners are announced.
8. An individual student may apply for one or both categories (essay and/or video) of scholarship per year; only one entry per student per category will be allowed.
9. All essays and videos, and all rights to their publication, become the property of Infinite Legacy, which may use, edit, and excerpt these entries for promotional or any other purpose, including use on any Infinite Legacy digital media without attribution or compensation.
10. Infinite Legacy and its panel of judges reserve the right to award all scholarships (10 total), fewer (less than 10), or none based on the number of qualified applicants and their eligibility, suitability and quality. Any essay or video entry deemed inappropriate, unsuitable, or otherwise ineligible may be disqualified at Infinite Legacy’s sole discretion. The decisions of Infinite Legacy and the judges are final.
11. Infinite Legacy reserves the right to deny payment of the scholarship if any of the above rules and criteria are not met. The scholarship is paid only at the sole discretion of Infinite Legacy.