Oof. What a process.... And this is just round one!
Okay, so about a month ago, we kicked off our DFA Netroots Nation Scholarship program. The responses have been incredible. We had 112 applicants in the first round (and another 10 since the weekend), from around the country and in at least two other countries. People ranged from 15 to 77 years in age. We have applicants representing perspectives within our own community that I think we all need to pay attention to.
Some are activists offline, some stay online and blog, most do both, and all are deserving. In the end, we had to pick 10 for this round (the first of three rounds), and the winners are after the jump.
Suffice it to say, the judging process was grueling. Of course the quantity of applicants posed a daunting task, but I realized the real challenge was that so many of the applicants spent time to produce a quality application, so many had made the extra effort to campaign for their scholarship. Recommendations came from everywhere. My favorite was reading the answers, though:
From slinkerwink:
I have a dream of working as a new media organizer on the issues that matter to me the most—disability issues, health care, and the environment. The most important issue to me right now are the disparities that disabled Americans face when it comes to jobs, education, medicine, telecommunications, and transportation. As a deaf woman, I know what it’s like to face those disparities, and I want to help take away the fear that disabled people have internalized in facing these disparities and instead empower them with the confidence and knowledge to overcome these obstacles.
And from Deaniac83:
In 2008, California put my rights on the ballot in Proposition 8 (and ultimately took them away). With the Supreme Court decision in May 2008, as the LGBT community was celebrating marriage equality in California, we could not stand still as Prop 8 threatened to return us to second class status yet again. As I worked with the No on 8 campaign, the dedication of the people from all walks of life inspired me. We recruited volunteers from college campuses and night clubs, local volunteers kept the phone banks and the mall-tables staffed, and we all worked from 6 in the morning to the time of the polls closing on election day. I personally not only phone banked 3-4 times a week for weeks and recruited volunteers, but practically moved into the local campaign headquarters for the last few weeks of the campaign. The knowledge of what's at stake and the kindness of strangers kept us going, even though we ultimately lost by a slim margin. But we are not going to give up, and we are going to get marriage equality back in California.
Okay, well I don’t have room to list all of my favorite answers. I made an attempt to mark down my favorite answers while I was grading them. I think I marked down something like 30 "top favorite" individuals answers. Obviously, you can’t have 30 all be your favorite.
I’m the kind of guy who gets a spreadsheet and starts setting up ranking systems, color-coding by catagories, etc, etc. But sometimes you just can’t fit quality, heartfelt answers into a convenient quantitative spreadsheet. Some people are too awesome to fit into the little boxes in a spreadsheet.
We took into consideration the thoughtfulness of the answers, the level of public support, the perspectives they bring to the convention, and recommendations from leaders within the Netroots Nation, Daily Kos and DFA communities.
After much evaluating, quantifying and hand-wringing, I'm proud to announce our first round of winners.
Click here to read all about them.
I've felt that I've gotten to know some of these people just by reading so much about them. I can't wait to learn more about them in Pittsburgh.
These are the first ten. We’ll announce another ten, and a third round of ten throughout the summer. All the winners will be total rockstars, I’m sure. And we’ll make a big effort to make sure that the scholarship program brings in a diversity of voices and perspectives from all over the country.
If you haven't applied, or if you know someone who should, either because they've earned it, need it, or both — it's not too late. Just fill out the application here.
One final, and very important note: This program works because the whole community pitches in. Remember last year’s program? DFA announced that we’d send nine people if the community matched our sponsorship program. Yeah, so you all went above and beyond – We ended up sending 30 people, and managed to secure discounted registrations for another 70 or so people. Talk about being blown away by the generosity of this community. That’s why this year, DFA has committed to the full 30. You raised the bar, big time.
Now, can you help us fund the program? Now, more than ever, we need to come together as a community. These scholarships are worth about $600 a pop, assuming DFA can stay lean on costs (we’re nothing if not cheap, er, I mean "lean"), but you know that you can’t really put a price tag on the experience.
Let’s make it happen together. Can you chip in on the scholarships? Click here to make a donation.