Scholarships

Empire presents a unique high school experience for students. Most travel to a new city for the first time, stay at a top-notch hotel, attend ceremonies in a beautiful ballroom, sightsee, engage with their peers in city-specific social events, and participate in four mock trials in a courthouse or convention center. 

With such a robust program comes a cost that can be financially prohibitive for some schools, as much as we wish that wasn’t the case.

To increase access to our programs, Empire launched a scholarship program in 2016. The program began small, with the organization offering three teams free entry to our competitions; selected teams would enjoy four trials, four meals, t-shirts, photographs and souvenirs. Over the years, the program has slowly expanded, with more and more financial aid becoming available. Now, those same three scholarships we mentioned include free housing for students at the competition hotel. 

This year, we are offering two types of financial aid: need-based funding for economically disadvantaged schools, and local funding for schools within driving distance of an Empire competition. All teams that are interested in being considered for aid are required to complete a scholarship application.

Keep reading to find out if your school might qualify for financial aid from Empire.

 

Need-Based Scholarships

Background

We believe that all of our students deserve financial support in some form. It saddens us that we cannot provide aid to all schools. Given that our resources are finite, we direct funding to schools that are experiencing significant financial hardship.

There is no perfect way to make this determination. Because we will not ask a school to disclose financial information for individual students, our scholarship questions focus on the socioeconomic status of an applicant’s school district and whether there is funding available to the applicant’s mock trial team.

Scholarship Terms

Each Need-Based Scholarship covers a school’s full entrance fee and hotel reservation at the competition hotel, subject to the following guidelines: 

  • The entrance fee provides access to all competition events for a team of up to 14 people. Should a team wish to bring more than 14 people, they will need to purchase additional meals, t-shirts, and ceremony tickets. See Costs here.

  • A team is given 12 complimentary hotel room nights, which they may use however they see fit; for example, a team could reserve 3 rooms for 4 nights, or vice versa. A team will be required to pay for any additional room nights that exceed 12.

Number of Scholarships Awarded

We are offering, at least, one scholarship per competition site. We will offer discretionary funding (e.g. partial scholarship of $1,000), if resources become available.  

Deadline 

The last day to apply for a scholarship application is June 21; however, we are awarding aid on a rolling basis.

 

Local Scholarships

Background

Over the years, we have been privileged to host mock trial competitions in some incredible cities—Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, New York, and San Francisco.

Our host cities make it possible for us to host enriching educational experiences for hundreds of students. Their attorneys and judges volunteer to evaluate our students; their hotels, courthouses and conference centers open their doors to us; and their local businesses provide terrific food and support for our teams.

In turn, because these communities support us, we want to do our best to support them. The Local Scholarship is our opportunity to give back by offering a local team an opportunity to attend Empire free of charge. The goal is to help grow mock trials in the host city and empower local students.

While we will consider a team’s socioeconomic status, financial need is not required to secure a Local Scholarship.

Scholarship Terms

Each Local Scholarship covers a school’s full entrance fee, subject to the following guidelines:

  • The entrance fee provides access to all competition events for a team of up to 14 people. Should a team wish to bring more than 14 people, they will need to purchase additional meals, t-shirts, and ceremony tickets. See Costs here.

  • A school must be within a 4-hour drive of the competition site in order to be eligible to apply..

Number of Scholarships Awarded

We plan to award up to two local scholarships per competition site. However, the number of scholarships we award depends on the number of qualified applications that we receive.

Deadline 

The priority scholarship application deadline is June 21; however, we are awarding aid on a rolling basis.

If there are still resources available after the deadline, then we will consider additional financial aid requests.

How to Apply

Schools are required to complete a scholarship application, in addition to the Team Application.

To learn more about the general application requirements, please review our Apply Now page.


Click on the buttons below to review the scholarship application questions.

NEED-BASED SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATION QUESTIONS

School Information

  1. Please introduce us to your school! Where is it located? Is it public or private? How many students attend? Is the surrounding area urban, suburban, or rural? What are its demographics?

  2. What is your teacher to student ratio?

  3. What percentage of your school’s students receive free and reduced price lunch?

  4. Is it classified as a Title I school?

  5. What is the median household income in the city / town where your school is based?

Mock Trial Team

  1. You described the demographics of the city / town where your school is located above. Is your mock trial team reflective of those demographics? If not, please explain how it differs, and why you believe it does (e.g. is it because cost or recruitment strategy).

  2. What is your team’s annual budget? What are your biggest expenditures? Who makes the budgeting decisions for your team? Is it the school, parents, coach or an advisory board?

  3. What, if any, funding does your mock trial team receive from the school? Please be as specific as possible.

  4. What are your team’s sources of revenue? Please include approximate percentages for self-funding, community support, donations, etc.

  5. Has your school ever attended a private invitational or training seminar before (i.e. an Empire competition, Harvard Seminar or Yale’s Bulldog Invitational)? If so, when? How did you raise the funds to attend?

Conclusion

  1. While the scholarship will cover the Empire team entrance fee ($2,150) and 12 hotel room nights, there are additional costs that you must cover: travel, some meals, some social events, souvenirs or other incidentals. Depending upon the size of your team and the venue, these costs could be substantial. How do you plan to cover those costs? What are your plans for fundraising or gaining additional sponsors?

  2. Depending upon the number of scholarship applicants, not all who apply will be granted an award. If you are not granted an award, how do you anticipate covering the costs of participation?

  3. Finally, please provide any additional details that will be helpful to our Scholarship Awards Committee in evaluating your application.

LOCAL SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATION QUESTIONS

  1. Please describe your school for us. Where is it located? Is it public or private? How many students attend? Is the area where it is based urban, suburban, or rural?

  2. How long will it take you to drive from your school to the Empire competition site you’re interested in? If you are admitted, do you plan to commute to the competition? Or stay at the competition hotel?

  3. How long has your school had a mock trial team? What, if any, competitions have you competed in previously? (i.e. local competition or Yale Bulldog Invitational) What, if any, success have you had at prior mock trial competitions? If you are a returning team to Empire, talk about your prior experience at an Empire competition.

  4. What is the annual budget for your program?

  5. What is the primary source of revenue? Please include approximate percentages for school/district funding, fundraising, donations, family contributions, etc.

  6. If you don’t receive this scholarship, will you still be able to participate in an Empire competition?

  7. Why do you think that your school is a good fit for our local scholarship?