Donor: Kelli Kilpatrick - Kilpatrick College & Career 

Available to: Miss Texas delegates

Scholarship Amount: $500 

Application Deadline: June 1, 2025

Scholarship Qualifications & About: 

A Decade of Intentional Excellence Scholarship: Designing Your Journey to Extraordinary Success

Despite significant strides towards gender equality, women often find themselves undershooting their career goals due to a lack of strategic planning. Startlingly, a McKinsey study revealed that women are 15% less likely than men to get promoted to the next level, contributing to the persistent gender gap in leadership positions. Furthermore, women are less likely to negotiate for promotions or salary increases, with research indicating that only 42% of women negotiate their salary compared to 52% of men. This disparity underscores the importance of proactive career planning and assertive goal-setting to ensure women have equal opportunities for advancement and recognition in the workplace. By empowering women with the tools and support they need to map out their career trajectories, we can create a more equitable and inclusive workforce for all.

This scholarship is designed to support ambitious young women in making progress toward crafting a clear vision for their professional journey over the next ten years. This scholarship encourages applicants to dream big and be truly aspirational. Through this scholarship, applicants are empowered to chart their paths to greatness and unlock their full potential in the years to come.

Application Requirements

Please submit a ONE page essay in PDF format that complies with the following prompts:

Spend some time thinking aspirationally about your career goals over the next 10 years. Then, capture your thoughts in a reflection paper and detail at least 2-3 solid strategies that you must, and will, focus on to ensure you achieve your goals over the next decade. (Response limit is one page)

➡️ What follows is a step-by-step blueprint for how to successfully respond to this prompt and make yourself a strong candidate for this scholarship.

Step One: let’s do a bit of vision casting relative to your career goals and think deeply about your aspirations over the next decade (i.e., what role can you imagine having, what impact will you be making, how many will you be leading, etc.). Think big and be truly aspirational – like, imagine you are a C-suite executive in a global company, a school district superintendent, CEO and Founder of an entrepreneurial venture, etc. You might know exactly what this could be, you might have an idea of several things this could be or you might not be sure at all. All these answers are correct if it is truly where you are today!

Step Two: Imagine a career development plan that could support your achievement of arriving at your aspirational level over the next 10 years. What three (3) specific things must that career development plan include? Might it include graduate school or developing a specific skill(s)? Might it include joining certain professional organizations or improving your professional networking skills? Might it include identifying a mentor or working with a coach? (Pro Tip: Go to Indeed.com or LinkedIn and look for jobs with titles that you aspire to in 10 years. Review the qualifications and job description to see if that could inform your career development plan)

Step Three: Make sure that your LinkedIn profile is up-to-date.

Step Four: engage in at least one (preferably 2-3) informational interview with a woman already in a role you aspire to achieve over the next decade. Remember, you are being aspirational! If you don’t already know someone, be bold and reach out to someone on LinkedIn who is in a role you aspire to. (Pro Tip: utilize LinkedIn to identify someone from your university – or, anything else you can find that you have in common. Send them a DM via LinkedIn and ask for an informational interview. Trust me, people LOVE to talk about themselves!).

Some questions to begin the conversation could include (these are just suggestions):

• To what do you attribute your professional success?

• What role did a mentor or a champion, or both, play in your professional success? NOTE: if you don’t already know the difference between a mentor and a champion, research this. It’s an important distinction.

• I am creating a professional development plan so that I can achieve your level of success within a 10-year timeframe. What do you suggest it include? What must be the top 2-3 things?

• What do you wish you would have known 10 years ago that you didn’t know then but know now?

• What advice would you give to yourself when you were my age?