Michigan Auto Law is sponsoring a scholarship program for Michigan teens who promote the ideas of distracted driving prevention. The scholarship is awarded as the prize for a competition where the teens come up with ideas to prevent distracted driving. The scholarship award, known as Kelsey’s Law Distracted Driving Awareness Scholarship, is judged by two Michigan adults who are connected to the program. One judge, Steven Gursten, is a senior managing attorney with Michigan Auto Law. The other judge, Bonnie Raffaele, is an activist working towards eliminating distracted driving. She is a mother who lost her daughter, Kelsey, to a tragic accident caused by distracted driving. Raffaele got important legislation passed in Michigan to combat distracted driving after Kelsey’s passing. The law is named for Kelsey, as is the scholarship.
There are four scholarship prizes on the table.
The first prize is $2,000 for the overall best student submission. The second prize is $1,500 for the best student video submission. They are also offering $1,000 for the best TikTok submission and $500 for the best graphic submission. Because of this, high schoolers who are submitting for the competition have a lot of freedom in what they can submit, as long as they pose ideas for distracted driving prevention.
The funds can be used for tuition at any United States based university, college, or technical school.
In order to have a valid application, aside from the submission, there are a few things students will need. The student must have a valid driver’s license as a Michigan resident. They must also provide proof of enrollment in further education. If the student is under 18 years of age, they also need parental consent on file.
The program is around 10 years old.
Gursten has said that over the years, the number of submissions they receive has increased. As an attorney for the Michigan Auto Law firm, he has worked on many cases in which distracted driving is involved, many of which ended in tragic losses. He explained that these accidents are “100% preventable. It’s all because people choose to drive distracted.” He is passionate about the work and hopes that the scholarship program helps teach kids the importance of safe, non-distracted driving.
According to Gursten, distracted driving is the number one killer of people ages 15-20. After he learned about Raffaele’s story, he formed the idea for the scholarship program and reached out to her for help. Raffaele’s daughter, Kelsey, passed away in 2010. Just three years later, in 2013, Michigan passed Kelsey’s Law, which prohibits some forms of distracted driving.
The competition is accepting submissions through to March 21. The winners will be announced sometime in April, which is the National Distracted Driving Awareness Month.
