Finding money for college can be difficult, thankfully there's a new scholarship in town. Instead of volunteering at the local animal shelter, becoming student body president or writing a 20-page paper about what your Scotch-Irish-Romanian heritage means to you, you can turn your horrifying, teenage, drunk driving story into an essay and potentially receive $1000 for tuition. Finally, something interesting to write about.
Finding money for college can be difficult, thankfully there's a new scholarship in town. Instead of volunteering at the local animal shelter, becoming student body president or writing a 20 page paper about what your Scotch-Irish-Romanian heritage means to you, you can turn your horrifying, teenage, drunk driving story into an essay and potentially receive $1000 for tuition. Finally, something interesting to write about.
Christian Schwaner is a private defense attorney in Colorado Springs who is tired of defending young, inebriated motorists. He created the First Step Scholarship in a noble attempt to stop teenagers from driving drunk. All they have to do is write an essay that admits they have driven while under-the-influence with all the sordid details, and back it up with research on the effects of drunk driving. The conclusion paragraph is supposed to outline their "concrete steps" they plan to take to ensure they won't get behind the wheel when they've had one too many wine coolers. If it's good, they'll get a grand for their impending college education. Schwaner said that he hopes the kids admitting to themselves that they fucked up and researching the harm they could have done, will open their eyes and convince them that it's just not worth it to get shit-faced and bounce, and the $1000 reward for changing their debaucherous ways doesn't hurt.
Schwaner has got one thing right, admitting you have a problem is the first step in resolving that issue, but some people are still wary that this will encourage underage drinking. Teenagers don't listen to very much as it is, is $1000 enough of an incentive to say no to that half-empty bottle of stolen triple sec? Only time will tell.
He has not received any applications yet. So if you're a student planning to continue your education this fall 2015 semester, the story about the time you guzzled bag wine, hopped the curb in your friend's dad's mid-life-crisis cruiser, ran from the cop and got your face rearranged with a Maglite may just help you achieve those college boy dreams.
But, just to drive the point home: Drinking and driving is bad, m'kay. Very bad, m'kay. Here's a little public service announcement to remind you of what a shit-head your drunk-ass can be.
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