Application Criteria

1. The student/applicant is a high school senior or current college student from the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area (Southern Maryland, Washington, DC, or Northern Virginia), who plans to attend or currently enrolled in a four year college in Fall of 2024.

2. The student/applicant must have a cumulative GPA of 2.5 and provide an official transcript;

3. The student/applicant must submit two letters of recommendation on official school letterhead identifying why you are an excellent candidate to receive this scholarship and meet the eligibility criteria outlined: a. Letters may be provided by an instructor or professor and a university administrator or guidance counselor.

4. The student/applicant will submit a 300 word typed written essay on the topic listed in the application. The student may include additional social media representations to support their opinion in the essay. Such representations can be: 3-5 short video clips, flyers, social media stories, etc.

5. All documentation submitted will become the property of the The Ayana J. McAllister Legacy Foundation and signature on this application provides permission for these items, if selected, to be posted on our foundation public website and social media outlets.

6. You will provide a professional photo – school photo, graduation photo, etc.  

7. All documentation and photos submitted will become the property of the Ayana J. McAllister Legacy Foundation and signature on this application provides permission for these items, if selected, to be posted on our foundation public website and social media.

Essay Questions

Please answer either Question 1 or Question 2. There are two parts to each question.

Question 1

1A) Regarding gun violence prevention, what message/ tagline/ slogan would you create for the world to hear and why? Here’s an example of a slogan, “Protect Kids Not Guns.”

1B) If you had $500 to promote your slogan, what would you do? Who would you involve?

Question 2

2A) If you had a podcast addressing gun violence prevention, who would you want to interview, and why?

2B) If you had $500 to promote your podcast, what audience would you try to reach, and how would you try to reach them?

Submission Requirements

Applications, including letters of recommendation and the essay, are to be emailed to [email protected] no later than Saturday, April 30, 2024. Official transcripts must be mailed under separate cover to the Foundation address listed below, but they must be postmarked by Tuesday April 30, 2024:

The Ayana J. McAllister Legacy Foundation 2024 Academic Scholarship Committee 9103 Woodmore Centre Drive #258 Lanham, MD 20706