MDEMA Donald "Doc" Lumpkins Memorial Scholarship

SCHOLARSHIP BACKGROUND

Established by the Maryland Emergency Management Association (MDEMA), the MDEMA Donald “Doc” Lumpkins Memorial Scholarship Program exists to nurture, promote and develop future emergency management professionals by furthering the education of students studying emergency management and closely related career fields.

Each year, five $1,500 scholarships will be awarded based on a competitive application process. One of these five will be awarded to an applicant from each of the following regions:

Region I - Western Maryland (Allegany, Garrett, Washington Counties)

Region II - National Capital (Frederick, Montgomery, Prince George's Counties)

Region III - Central Maryland (Cities of Annapolis & Baltimore; plus Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Harford, Howard Counties)

Region IV - Eastern Shore (Caroline, Cecil, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne's, Somerset, Talbot, Wicomico, Worcester Counties)

Region V - Southern Maryland (Calvert, Charles, St. Mary's Counties)

NOTE: If no viable submissions are received from a region, the Committee may repurpose unawarded funds to make additional awards to other regions.

WHO CAN APPLY

To be eligible to apply, you must be:

1) A senior attending an accredited Maryland high school who has been accepted to a 2- or 4-year college/university OR a student already enrolled in a two- or four-year college or university

AND

2) Currently pursuing a degree in emergency management or a closely related field (e.g., homeland security, fire science, criminal justice, and public administration)

NOTE: Members of MDEMA are currently NOT ELIGIBLE for the scholarship program. However, immediate relatives of MDEMA members ARE eligible to apply.

HOW WILL YOUR APPLICATION BE SCORED?

Submissions will be reviewed by the MDEMA Scholarship Committee, and judged on the following criteria:

• Presentation quality (including but not limited to: thoroughness in answering the prompt, use of proper grammar/spelling/punctuation, and appropriate formatting) 
  [Download scoring rubric]
  
• Successful completion of the Regional Emergency Management Contact Form
  
• Relevance of intended/current field of study to emergency management
• Evidence of community involvement
• Student records, including: 
  
  • Unweighted GPA
  • Thoroughness in following submission instructions
• Personal references
• Academic integrity

DEADLINE

Applications must be submitted using this online form. Applications submitted in other formats will not be considered. 

Applications must be submitted no later than 11:59pm on April 12, 2026.

If you're ready to get started, click "Next" below!

Welcome applicants,

 

Thank you for taking the time to apply for the Lumpkins Scholarship!

The Scholarship Committee, as well as all of Maryland's emergency management community, appreciates your effort and dedication to your studies thus far, and we look forward to welcoming you into our field. It's students like you who will help ensure the next generation of Marylanders is prepared for and resilient to what the world throws at them.

A few quick notes as you begin your application:

1. We encourage you to review the entire application (use the "Next" and "Back" buttons at the bottom of each page) before proceeding too far.
   Knowing what later sections, like the presentation, are looking for might help guide you in earlier sections, as well.
   
   
2. You do not need to complete the entire application in one sitting.
   Please feel free to use the "Save" button at the bottom of each page whenever you need to take a break. It will send a link to the email you provide on this page. When you're ready to pick up where you left off, just click that link and you'll be dropped right back into your application.
   
   
3. This application will ask you for a transcript showing your "unweighted GPA." 
   Normally, if you've taken honors or AP courses, your school may award you a higher GPA than a normal version of that course. (Example: An "A" in regular Biology I is worth a 4.0 GPA. An "A" in Honors Biology I is usually worth a 4.5.).
   
   An unweighted GPA removes those modifications, so every course is equal (no matter what you took, an "A" is a 4.0, full stop). We use the unweighted GPA to ensure everyone has a level playing field, no matter what school they come from.
   
   Most high school and college transcripts will automatically include an unweighted GPA. However, it can be helpful to check with your guidance counselor, teacher, or advisor to ensure your school understands what you're requesting.

 

Ready to start? Please begin by providing your name and email address below.

Please click below to download & read the MDEMA Academic Integrity Policy. The Committee evaluates each application for academic integrity, including plagiarism and the use of AI. Academic integrity violations may disqualify an application. 

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY [download]

When you're finished reading, use the checkbox below to indicate that you have read and understand the policy.

In the field below, please attach evidence that you are attending, have been accepted to, or plan to attend the institution you listed above.

For those not already attending college, please attach a copy of your acceptance letter, if you received one.

(If you do not have an acceptance letter - e.g., a high school student planning to attend a Maryland Community College that does not send out formal acceptance letters - please submit a letter from your high school verifying their knowledge of your intent to attend the school listed above.

This can be from a teacher, principal or vice principal, or guidance/career counselor. It should be signed and on official high school letterhead.)

For those already attending college, please submit proof of your current field of study. This can be a copy of your transcript showing your declared major, or a signed letter from your department chair/program manager affirming that you are a degree-seeking student in their program. The letter should be on official college letterhead.

All applicants must provide two reference letters. Letters may come from school administrators, teachers/professors, civic or religious leaders, neighbors, or job supervisors.

Letters cannot be from family members.

Please attach your letters in the spaces below:

For this step, you'll need to contact a local emergency management official operating in your region, and set up a meeting to complete the following questionairre. (Don't worry, they know you'll be asking!)

Once it's completed, upload it in the space below.

You must also upload a photo or scanned copy of the business card of the person you interviewed. 

Contact information for each appointed local emergency management director is below. If you are unable to reach the contact in your county, you may contact another director in a neighboring county.

Use this link to download a copy of the questionairre, in a fillable PDF format:

Regional Emergency Management Contact Form [download]

You may complete the form electronically (typed) or by hand. Either option is equally acceptable; however, if you do choose to fill it out by hand, please ensure your writing is neat and legible. 

All applicants must submit a presentation as part of their application, in response to the following prompt:

In the Spring of 2025, several counties in Western Maryland were affected by severe rainfall and flash flooding events, causing significant damage and community harm. After a lengthy appeal process, a request to receive a Presidential Disaster Declaration was ultimately denied.

Pretend you are a local emergency manager for one of the affected county(ies), giving a situation report to your County Executive and other local elected officials just after news of the denied disaster declaration was received. Create a 10-12 slide Powerpoint presentation that addresses, at minimum, the following items:

- Data on the emergency event and its effects on your community

- Timeline of events leading up to the denial

- What does the denial mean to the recovery effort?

- What funding is available to support recovery at this point?

- What actions would you recommend be taken/prioritized to move the recovery effort forward and make the affected area more resilient?

 

(NOTE: These are minimum, not maximum requirements. If you believe adding something else would best serve your audience of elected officials, and can fit it into the allowed space, then go for it!)

You will NOT be required to actually present these slides, but you should create them as if you (or someone else you sent to the meeting) were going to. Because you are creating an informative presentation, rather than just writing an essay, be sure to keep in mind the appearance, flow, and length of your slide deck. As you have probably learned firsthand in your classes, audiences may tune out if slides are a plain wall of text…but include too little, and they may come away uninformed.

Be sure to use reliable evidence to support your recommendations, and cite any sources you may reference. Include these citations on one or more slides labeled “References” after the final slide of your presentation. These slides will not count towards the 10-12 slide length requirement.

Upload your completed presentation as a .pptx or a .pdf file in the space below. If you are using Google Slides or other freeware slideshow software, a link to the presentation is not acceptable as not everyone will be able to access it. In Slides, you can go to “File -> Download -> PDF document” to save a copy of your presentation as an easily shareable PDF, and upload that instead.

Hint: A conversation with an emergency manager in your region might give you some good information to work with...

Required Presentation Elements:

- A cover slide with your presentation title and name

- A well-designed presentation thoroughly addressing the prompt above

- Correct Formatting: title slide, 10-12 informative slides, and references slide(s)

- The presentation may be uploaded as either .ppt or .pdf format

 

Advice on completing your presentation:

- Be sure to be thorough in your assessment and recommendations - research is valuable!

- Be sure to support your presentation with evidence! If you quote or paraphrase specific sources, be sure to cite them.

- Grammar and logic of presentation are important. It may be useful to have a teacher or friend view it before you submit, to help catch any errors and make sure it's friendly to an audience.

- Remember, this is an emergency management scholarship. Evidence that your submission includes emergency management concepts, theories, and examples is always helpful.

Presentations will be scored using this rubric. Check it out beforehand so you'll be sure to hit the mark!