Financial Education PSA Scholarship

One of the most important aspects of entering adulthood and the workforce is a solid understanding of financial matters. According to Kiplinger, less than a third of Americans have a grasp on three economic fundamentals by the time they turn 40. When taking in all age groups, surveys show that only around 57% of adults in the U.S. can be said to be financially literate. As an authorized lender specializing in pre-settlement legal funding, High Rise Financial seeks to help people become more financially stable, more financially literate, and more financially free.

This is why we are addressing the Financial Education PSA Scholarship to current and incoming undergraduate and graduate students. The goal is to provide students with an outlet to educate their fellows in an area of financial literacy that interests them. You will write a public service announcement (PSA) addressed to your peers. Choose a topic related to financial literacy and craft a persuasive and informative PSA video according to the guidelines below. The winning submission, selected by our scholarship selection committee, will receive $1,500.

Good luck!

Submission Deadline: September 15, 2024

PSA Guidelines

Your public service announcement video should be short, between 1 to 2 minutes long. It should elucidate a financial literacy topic of your choice, designed to inform your peers about the topic, engage them at a cultural level, and persuade them to come around to your way of thinking. The best PSAs grab the reader’s attention and entertain while educating. Remember, one of the barriers to financial literacy is that audiences often think finances are dull. Your mission is to spice up the topic, give it life, and help your age group learn more about proper financial health.

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. Our firm intends to award this scholarship based on the quality of a video’s shared message 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.

Any usage of AI platforms or tools that automatically generate videos and the usage of fake actors is strictly prohibited and will lead to automatic disqualification.

Once finished, submit the video to your YouTube account, either as listed or unlisted, and add the video link to your application form. We do not accept videos that have been uploaded in the form of reels or shorts.

Applicant Requirements

To be considered for High Rise Financial’s Financial Education PSA Scholarship, applicants must:

• Be a current undergraduate or graduate student OR an incoming freshman at an accredited college or university in the United States.
• Fill out the contact form on this page.
• Add the URL link to their PSA video on a financial literacy topic of their choice by September 15, 2024.

Failure to meet the above requirements will result in a submission being overlooked and remaining unread.

Terms and Conditions

Eligibility Criteria

In order to be eligible for the Financial Education PSA Scholarship award, applicants must meet the following criteria:

• Enrolled/accepted at an accredited college, university, or graduate school
• At least 18 years old at the age of enrollment
• U.S. citizenship OR legal residency to work or study in the U.S.
• Able and willing to submit proof of enrollment, contact information, and other required personal data
• Create a unique public service announcement (PSA) video on a financial literacy topic on their choice

The following applicants are INELIGIBLE from consideration for this scholarship award:

• Employees of High Rise Financial and children of employees
• Past recipients of the Financial Education PSA Scholarship
• Applicants who are unable/unwilling to answer a brief questionnaire from High Rise Financial representatives to announce the winner
• Applicants who submit the same PSA for other scholarships or for multiple years in a row

Selection & Notification of Winners

High Rise Financial, following the end of the application period, will create a scholarship selection committee to decide on a winner. The selection committee will not discriminate on the basis of age, race, gender, sexuality, disability status, veteran status, country of origin, or any other protected class. Our selection committee will announce the winner of High Rise Financial’s Financial Education PSA Scholarship for 2024 within 30-60 days of the deadline or more depending on the number of submissions.

High Rise Financial is unable to answer any questions regarding the status of applications or the scholarship itself, as the firm receives a large number of applications. All necessary information can be found here and on the official scholarship page.

Winners of the Financial Education PSA Scholarship will be notified by email. An announcement will also be made on High Rise Financial’s blog as well as via a press release. This announcement will serve as notification to all applicants on the status of the scholarship award.

The scholarship award will be mailed directly to the winner’s college or university. Instructions for mailing the check will be requested at the time of the award.

Data Collection & Privacy Policy

While it is necessary to collect some personal data for identification and contact purposes, applicants’ personal information will not be given, sold, or distributed to third parties.

High Rise Financial reserves the right to use the winners’ names and photos in any announcement, blog post, press release, or additional marketing materials as part of the promotion of the Financial Education PSA Scholarship.

By submitting your application, you agree to our public use of your name and image.

We regret that, for legal reasons, we are unable to accept calls, emails, or other communication regarding the scholarship, or answer any questions, other than those submitted here. All the necessary details about this scholarship can be found above. We will make sure to contact you in case we need any further information.

Any applications received after the deadline will not be taken into consideration.

Previous Winners

Announcements about the previous winners of our scholarship can be found by clicking one of the links below:

• 2021 Winner: Julia Perez
• 2022 Winner: Shenran Chen
• 2023 Winner: Kailani Talag