2025 Cognella Cares Scholarship Program

For Spring 2025, we’re looking for three outstanding undergraduate students in any discipline of study who are inspired to share their unique thoughts, experiences, and ideas for change surrounding one of the following topics:

Sustainability on campus and beyond
The future of work
Navigating ideological differences
One winner will be selected per topic; three students will each receive a $1,000 academic scholarship in the form of a check from Cognella, Inc.

Submissions will be accepted through March 31, 2025, and winners will be notified the week of April 21, 2025 via email. The winning essays will be posted to the Cognella website and the company’s social media accounts the week of April 28, 2025.

Eligibility:
You must be currently enrolled as an undergraduate student at an academic institution within the United States. Please use your university-issued email address when filling out your scholarship application to verify your student status. (If you attend an institution that does not provide you with a university-issued email address, please contact the scholarship team at scholarship@cognella.com to notify them prior to submitting an essay for consideration.)
You must live in and go to school in the United States of America. We are unable to accept international applications currently.
All essays must be previously unpublished and completely original works.
Though there are multiple topics from which to choose, you may only submit one essay for consideration.
We understand that the sharing of personal stories (especially those that address difficult interactions or social issues) may also mean the sharing of language that some would deem inappropriate or offensive. We encourage you to share uncensored stories, but to remember that your essay should remain academic in nature. Use your best judgment, only use strong language in the context of personal storytelling, and please understand that the non-academic use of offensive language or content serves as grounds for immediate disqualification.
Essays that exceed the 1,500-word limit (excluding the title of your essay) will be disqualified.
Cognella employees and their immediate family members are not eligible for the program.

Essay Criteria: Personal essays should clearly, articulately, and intelligently describe why your selected topic—sustainability on campus and beyond; the future of work; or navigating ideological differences—is important to you, as well as why it is an important topic in the context of higher education and/or society at large.

Consider the following questions as you write your essay:

What experiences have you had on campus related to the topic you selected? Describe a specific experience or interaction related to the issue (either positive or negative). How did you react to the experience? Why was it an important moment for you?
In relation to your selected topic, what do you feel needs to change, either in the higher education community or in society, so that humanity can progress and/or evolve? How might you inspire or effect this change?
How can others learn from your personal experiences and your unique perspective? How can your voice and your story have an impact?
While you may not be able to address all of the above prompts in an 800 – 1,500-word essay, the more you can cover, the better! Essentially, we want to know why the topic is important to you on a personal level, what changes you’d like to see in higher education or society to support a better future for students like you, and how you’d recommend we, as a society, go about that change.

Application Process:
To submit an essay, fill out the form provided in the Submit an Essay section below by March 31, 2025. You may attach your essay to the form as a .doc, .docx, or .pdf file.

If you experience any technical difficulties or have any questions regarding the submission form or the required format or file type for your essay, please contact scholarship@cognella.com.