RehabSeekers Scholarship Contest

RehabSeekers RehabSeekers is an independent directory of licensed treatment facilities. We are not a treatment provider and take no referral fees, and this contest is part of how we give something back to the community our work serves. Funds are paid directly to the financial aid office at the winner’s institution and applied to tuition, fees, or other qualified educational expenses under that school’s disbursement policy. We do not send award money to students personally. Instructions and more information can be found at https://rehabseekers.com/resources/student-scholarship/

You are eligible if all of the following are true on 31 December 2026:

You are 18 or older.
You are a US citizen, permanent resident, or hold a visa permitting study in the United States.
You are enrolled, or have accepted an offer of admission, at an accredited US institution — community college, four-year college or university, graduate program, or an accredited trade or technical program.
You are enrolled at least half-time for the Spring 2027 term. Part-time students are welcome; we recognize that a reduced load is often what makes staying in school possible.
A note on part-time, online and non-traditional students

Many scholarships require full-time, on-campus enrollment, which quietly excludes people balancing treatment, work, or parenting alongside coursework. We deliberately do not. Online and distance learners, adult learners, returning students, students on a reduced load for clinical reasons, and students who took a term off and came back are all eligible.

The strongest essays are almost always about one specific thing — a single term, a single conversation, a single week when the wheels came off — rather than a general reflection on how stressful college is. Write small and concrete.

Length: 800 to 1,200 words. Essays outside this range are not read.
Format: PDF or .docx. Put your name and chosen theme on the first line.
Original work only. Every submission is screened for AI-generated text and for plagiarism. A flag is not an automatic disqualification — screening tools misfire, particularly on writers whose first language is not English — so flagged essays go to a human reader, and finalists are asked a few questions about how they wrote the piece.
Citations: if you use statistics or research, cite the primary source rather than the article reporting it. A short reference list does not count toward your word limit.
Please leave out specifics of method. If you write about self-harm, an overdose, or a suicide attempt, describe what happened and what it meant without detailing how. This is a public page and it is read by people who are struggling. It will not count against you.

Write your essay and choose your theme.
Email your essay to scholarship@rehabseekers.com with the subject line Essay Contest 2026 – Submission.
Include with your submission:

Full name and preferred email address
Institution name and program of study
Expected graduation term
Proof of enrollment or an admission letter (a screenshot of your student portal is fine)