We thank you for your application! The scholarship application process is now closed for the winner selection. The final 2024 recipient will be publicly announced on our website. We will begin accepting new applications in January.
Incoming and current college students are welcome to apply for the annual Vaughan & Vaughan’s Personal Growth Through Leadership Scholarship. Vaughan & Vaughan, having served Indiana as a personal injury firm for over 100 years, wants to encourage students to celebrate their previous leadership opportunities. Students applying for the Personal Growth Through Leadership Scholarship should craft an original video describing a leadership experience that changed their perspective on their future. Vaughan & Vaughan wants to learn more about how students’ experience with leadership has shaped their goals and what skills those students will take forward into their professional lives.
Students have until November 15, 2025, to submit all application materials to Vaughan & Vaughan. The firm cannot answer emails, phone calls, or other forms of communication asking questions about the scholarship. Instead, students are encouraged to refer to the scholarship’s terms and conditions for all the information they need to complete their application.
Eligibility Requirements
Vaughan & Vaughan wants to give incoming and current students equal opportunity to apply for the Personal Growth Through Leadership Scholarship. So long as you are enrolled in an accredited college, university, or graduate school, you can apply for the firm’s financial support. Make sure, though, that you meet the firm’s other criteria for applying, like:
- You have a good academic standing
- You agree to the scholarship terms and conditions
- You can submit the necessary application materials
How Do I Apply?
Any student applying for the Personal Growth Through Leadership Scholarship needs to create a 1-to-2-minute video discussing a leadership experience that’s changed their perspective on people management and/or their future goals.
Once your video is complete:
- Fill out the application form on this page
- Post the video on YouTube as unlisted and add the video URL link through the form
Scholarship Video Topic
Please share a chapter of your life in which you took on a leadership role (as a sports captain, volunteering leader, student government, etc.). Craft an original 1-2-minute video about your experience, in which you address the following points:
- What were some of the main challenges you faced in your journey, and how did you overcome them?
- Which are the most valuable lessons you learned from this experience?
- How did the experience influence your educational and/or professional aspirations?
These questions are meant as guiding prompts, but feel free to go beyond these points in your video.
For the videos to be considered eligible students are required to:
- Record their videos in well-lit areas while holding their recording device of choice as still as possible.
- Mention their full name and the name of the scholarship they are applying for either at the beginning or at the end of their video and 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 media editing tools, like Adobe Creative Cloud, to include images, stock shots, effects, or clean cuts in their content, but they are not compulsory. Vaughan & Vaughan intends to award this scholarship based on the quality of a video’s script and not a student’s demonstrable video editing skills. Therefore, students should take time and care crafting the speech for their video before sitting down to record it.
While students can use AI to generate B-roll footage for their videos, the text/story that they share should be read in their own voices/produced by themselves. Any usage of AI platforms or tools to help them automatically generate videos, and the usage of fake actors is strictly prohibited and will lead to automatic disqualification.
Scholarship Deadline
Students who want Vaughan & Vaughan to consider their application for the Personal Growth Through Leadership Scholarship must submit all materials by November 15, 2025. The firm’s scholarship selection committee will not view scholarships submitted after this date.
Vaughan & Vaughan may take up to three months or more, to read through scholarship applications and select a winner. The firm will then reach out to the winner and arrange to transfer the scholarship funds to that student’s university.
Vaughan & Vaughan cannot answer emails, calls, or other forms of communication asking questions about the Personal Growth Through Leadership Scholarship at this time. All the necessary details about this scholarship can be found above. If the firm needs more information to adequately consider a student’s application, a representative will reach out to that student.
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 be in good academic standing
- Applicant must submit some personal information, including name, contact information, and academic information
- Applicant must create an original video on the scholarship topic provided.
Anyone who meets the following conditions is NOT eligible to apply:
- Employees or children of employees of Vaughan & Vaughan
- Past recipients of the Personal Growth Through Leadership Scholarship
- Applicants who are unable/unwilling to be interviewed by a representative of Vaughan & Vaughan if they were to be awarded a scholarship.
- Applicants who submit the same video for multiple scholarships or multiple years in a row
Selection & Award Notification Process
Vaughan & Vaughan will not read through incomplete scholarship applications or applications submitted after the posted deadline. The firm will establish a scholarship selection committee to read through completed applications. Age, race, religion, gender, national origin, familial status, or other protected classes will have no influence on the committee’s decision.
The scholarship winner will receive notification of their win via email. After communicating with the scholarship winner, the firm will make an announcement on the Vaughan & Vaughan blog. The firm will also announce the winner via press release.
A firm representative will secure mailing instructions from the scholarship winner before sending the scholarship winnings to the winner’s university.
Privacy Statement
Your personal information will not be given, sold, or distributed to third parties.
We reserve the right to use the winners’ names and photos in any announcement or communication related to the Scholarships, on Vaughan & Vaughan’s website, in marketing materials, or in social media posts.
By submitting your application, you agree to our public use of your name and image.
Winners From Past Years
2023 was the first year our firm offered the $2,500 Personal Growth Through Leadership Scholarship to a deserving student. We are very happy to announce the winner of the 2023 round, Autumn Chassie. You can read more about our winner and her application by accessing the blog post enlisted below. The previous recipients of the firm’s other scholarships include Nicole Krolewski, an Indiana-based student who received $500 for an essay on respectability in personal injury practices.
- 2023 Winner: Autumn Chassie
Future winners of the Personal Growth Through Leadership Scholarship will have applicable blog posts shared on Vaughan & Vaughan’s website.
