Scholarship Competition

The Great American Divide is the theme for this year
This year's theme is The Great American Divide

2022-23 Scholarship Closed

This year, we focus on an April 14, 1967 speech given by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at Stanford University, entitled The Other America. Students are asked to address how disparities in economics, education, employment, and housing have created two Americas.

Submissions are now closed. Thank you to all the students who have sent in applications; your responses are being reviewed by our panel of judges.

Scholarship Flyer (pdf)

Guidelines and Prompt

The MLK Scholarship Competition offers students a chance to prepare and deliver a response addressing a prompt for a scholarship reward.

Dr. King gave his The Other America speech on several occasions, including on April 14, 1967 at Stanford University and on March 14, 1968 at Grosse Pointe High School. Students seeking to enter the MLK Scholarship Competition may reference transcripts from either the Stanford or Grosse Pointe speeches to prepare their responses, as the messaging is the same though Dr. King's arrangement and delivery varied.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave a speech at Stanford University on April 14, 1967, entitled The Other America. During this speech, Dr. King described how two Americas were functioning simultaneously. One where there was an abundance of wealth and one where there was an abundance of poverty. Dr. King stated that these two Americas would continue to co-exist until the disparities in economics, education, employment, and housing were rectified. Dr. King goes on to state that “Every city in our country has this kind of dualism, this schizophrenia, split at so many parts, and every city ends up being two cities rather than one.”

In 650-750 words or a visual presentation, please share your observations or personal experiences of the Great American Divide and how you or others in the community have been affected by it. Additionally, please include how you would implement plans of reconciliation for those underserved and often undervalued populations in one of the following areas, economics, education, employment, or housing.

  • Eligibility: Open to enrolled Moreno Valley College students
  • Award: $1,000 scholarship to one winner
  • EXTENDED - Due: Monday, December 12 at 6 am
  • Selection and Acceptance: All applicants will be notified in early December whether they have been selected. All scholarship recipients must be able to attend the MLK Scholarship Ceremony. You may be asked to present your response at the Ceremony.
  • Response Format: 650-750 words or a visual presentation
    • If you choose a visual presentation, how you accomplish that task is up to your interpretation. Be creative!
      • Visual presentations under 100MB may be uploaded. Presentations over 100MB must be uploaded to the internet and a link provided. You may choose to host your presentation on a file sharing service (Google Drive, DropBox), YouTube (if a video), and so on. 
      • Make sure the file can be accessed by the public.
      • You must include a list of sources, if relevant to your visual presentation. Your work cited can be pasted into the submission form.
    • If you choose a written response, you must type it. If choosing an essay or personal reflection, use MLA or APA format, double spaced, with a cover page. If some other form of written response (such as a poem), doube space it and include the cover page. You will be uploading a Word or PDF document.
      • When incorporating content from a book, speech, or other sources, give proper in-text attribution in your manuscript by including the name, date, and type of the source you are citing. For example, the January 2017 online article in P lough magazine claims that…..’
      • The name of the student should NOT appear anywhere on the document with the exception of the cover page. Each submission must have a cover page with the following information: your full name, student ID, phone number with area code and email address.
      • The page number and your 7-digit student ID should be in the top right-hand corner of each page.
      • Your work cited can be pasted into the submission form.
  • How to Submit: Register for the scholarship and submit your response through the online MLK Scholarship entry form by the deadline.
  • Eligibility: Current 9th through 12th grade students from Moreno Valley and Val Verde unified school districts (MVUSD and VVUSD).
  • EXTENDED - Due: Monday, December 5 at 11:45 pm
  • Response format: 650-750 words or a visual presentation
    • If you choose a visual presentation, how you accomplish that task is up to your interpretation. Be creative!
      • Visual presentations must be uploaded to the internet and a link provided to this form. You may choose to host your presentation on a file sharing service (Google Drive, DropBox), YouTube (if a video), and so on. Just make sure the file can be accessed by the public.
    • If you choose a written response, separate your paragraphs with an extra line break. You do not need to worry about any essay formatting as you will be inputting the text directly in this form. Simply ensure there is an extra line between your paragraphs.
      • Denote sources in the body of your essay in MLA format.
      • Use MLA format to construct your works cited
      • If it is over 4,000 characters including spaces, ensure to break your essay at the end of a paragraph, not in the middle of one, and paste the second part of your response into the overflow field.
  • Acceptance Requirements: If chosen, you will be contacted by Moreno Valley College representatives. You will be asked to submit a portrait photo and expected to attend the Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship Ceremony to accept your scholarship award.
  • How to Submit: Register for the scholarship and submit your response through the online MLK Scholarship entry form by the deadline.