• Becoming U Foundation Scholarship

    High school can teach you how to look like you're doing fine before it teaches you how to ask for help. Between fitting in, keeping up, and planning your future, it can feel easier to laugh something off than admit it hurts. Becoming U Foundation envisions a world where no one mistakes a difficult season for a permanent identity — where seeking support is as natural as seeking any other kind of care, and where connection is available before crisis. Our mission is to help each person feel more connected, more supported, and able to fully participate in their own life. Knowing what you know now, what would you tell your freshman-year self about those pressures, and mental health? Ground your answer in a real experience you lived or witnessed. Explain what you understood then, what you understand now, and what made the difference. How does the Foundation's mission — helping each person feel connected, supported, and able to fully participate in their own life — connect to who you are becoming? As you enter your next chapter, explain one specific way you will carry these lessons forward: both in caring for yourself, and in helping someone else feel safe enough to stop pretending and reach out.

  • Application Deadline: November 1, 2026, 11:59PM Eastern Time

    There is no application fee, minimum GPA, financial-need requirement, recommendation-letter requirement, or interview. Funds may support tuition, required fees, books, educational supplies, necessary technology, required trade equipment, transportation, or other approved education-related expenses. Selected recipients must verify their eligibility and intended postsecondary enrollment before payment. IMPORTANT: Permission to use brief, anonymized essay excerpts is a condition of applying. This applies to all eligible applicants, not only scholarship recipients. Publicly identifying recipients is a separate, optional choice. Read the full excerpt policy before writing or uploading your essay. If you are under 18 when submitting, your parent or legal guardian must personally complete the guardian section before submission. For accessibility assistance or an alternative submission arrangement, contact becomingufoundation@gmail.com.

  • Eligibility

  • If you do not meet the eligibility requirements, you may not proceed to the full application.
  • Are you currently a high school senior attending a Massachusetts high school or approved Massachusetts home-school program?*
  • Do you plan to pursue eligible education or training after graduation?*
  • Are you under 18 on the date you are submitting this application?*

  • Applicant and School Information

  • Format: (000) 000-0000.
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  • Plans After Graduation

  • What type of education or training are you considering?*
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  • Essays will be evaluated on the real rubric below: Authenticity — 30% Growth — 25% Mission connection — 20% Empathy-values — 15% Clarity — 10% We want to understand you—not how impressive or difficult your story sounds.

  • Required Permission to Use Anonymous Essay Excerpts

    You retain ownership of your essay. By agreeing below and submitting this application, you grant Becoming U Foundation a nonexclusive, royalty-free license to select, reproduce, publish, and share brief, anonymized quotations or excerpts from your essay. Applicants under 18 must also have a parent or legal guardian complete the authorization later in this application.Where excerpts may appear: The Foundation’s website, social media, newsletters, email communications, annual reports, donor and fundraising materials, scholarship announcements, and other educational or promotional materials.How we protect privacy: Excerpts will use a general attribution, such as “a Becoming U Foundation scholarship applicant.” They will not include your name, school, town, photograph, or contact information. We will remove or generalize details that could reasonably identify you or another person described in your essay. If a passage cannot be adequately anonymized, we will not publish it under this permission. However, someone who already knows the story may still recognize it.Limits on use: We may shorten excerpts or make minor edits for grammar, clarity, or privacy without changing their meaning. This permission applies to all eligible submissions, including essays that do not receive an award. It does not authorize publication of your complete essay, an identified quotation, photograph, video, or extended personal story. Those uses require separate written permission.Stopping future use: You may request that we discontinue using your excerpts by emailing becomingufoundation@gmail.com. We will stop new uses after processing your request and make reasonable efforts to remove excerpts from channels we control. Previously distributed printed materials, archived publications, and independent third-party copies may not be retrievable. Agreement to anonymous excerpt use is a condition of applying. You cannot submit this application without agreeing. Permission to publicly announce your name as a scholarship recipient is separate and optional.
  • Date Signed*
     - -
    2 digit month, 2 digit day, 4 digit year

  • RECIPIENT ANNOUNCEMENT PREFERENCE

    If selected, you may choose whether and how the Foundation publicly announces your award. Public recognition is optional and does not affect eligibility, scoring, selection, or payment.This choice does not authorize attaching your identity to an essay excerpt. Photographs, videos, identified excerpts, full essays, and extended personal stories require separate permission.
  • If selected, how may the Foundation announce your award?

  • Applicant Certification

  • By signing, I confirm that: The information I provided is accurate. I meet the scholarship's eligibility requirements. The essay reflects my own thinking and writing. I did not use AI to generate or substantially rewrite the essay. I understand that three recipients will each receive $300. I understand that submitting an application does not guarantee an award. I understand that selected recipients must verify eligibility and intended postsecondary enrollment before payment. I agree to use any award for an eligible education-related purpose. I understand that the application is not monitored as a crisis-support service. I have read and agreed to the required anonymous-excerpt policy. If I am under 18 when submitting, my parent or legal guardian must personally complete the next section.
  • Date Signed*
     - -
    2 digit month, 2 digit day, 4 digit year
  • Privacy Notice Authorized Foundation administrators will use identifiable application information for eligibility review, consent administration, safety follow-up when necessary, and scholarship administration. Scoring reviewers will receive essays with direct identifying information removed. Public use of application materials is limited to the permissions described in this application. Applying does not subscribe you to general marketing emails. This scholarship's anonymous-excerpt permission, described earlier in this application, is specific to this application and controls for scholarship submissions. The Foundation's general website privacy practices are described separately at becomingufoundation.com/terms-of-service. Privacy questions and excerpt-removal requests: becomingufoundation@gmail.com.

  • Parent or Legal Guardian Authorization

  • The applicant must not sign on your behalf.Your student is applying for the Becoming U Foundation Scholarship — three $300 awards for Massachusetts high school seniors, based on a written essay reflecting on personal growth, connection, and support. There is no application fee, and submitting an application does not guarantee an award.Please review the scholarship terms and the complete anonymous-excerpt policy above before signing. Agreeing to that policy permits Becoming U Foundation to use brief, anonymized excerpts from your student's essay — never identified by name, school, or photograph — even if your student is not selected as a recipient. It does not transfer ownership of the essay, and it does not authorize an identified quotation, a photograph, a video, or publication of the full essay.This section authorizes your student's participation, the required anonymous-excerpt use, and any optional recipient-announcement preference you choose below. The application cannot be submitted without your completed authorization and signature.

  • Format: (000) 000-0000.
  • Date*
     - -
    2 digit month, 2 digit day, 4 digit year
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