Last week, AccessLex held its MAX by AccessLex® Grand Prize Scholarship drawing and awarded two MAX students $40,000 toward their 2018-2019 tuition and other expenses. One of the students was our very own Kourtney Hodge, a rising 2L at the law school. The other was Andrea Shaia of Case Western Reserve University School of Law.
AccessLex Institute® fosters broad-based access to quality legal education for talented, purpose-driven students and works to maximize the value and affordability of a law degree through research, policy advocacy and student-focused initiatives. The AccessLex MAX program helps students create a framework for making good financial decisions to help students as they face high debt. MAX combines in-person workshops, online and virtual programming, and one-on-one counseling to leverage the strengths of law students, address their weaknesses and fit into their demanding schedules. In order to be entered into the drawing, all students had to do was attend two sessions that were held at UMKC School of Law; they also had the option of engaging in the online training. Currently, UMKC is one of 120 law schools who use MAX.
The School of Law decided to surprise Kourtney with the scholarship. As soon as the winner was announced, Associate Dean of Students, Allen Rostron, called Kourtney to his office on the morning of Friday, May 18, 2018, and, to the best of his ability, tried to make it seem like Kourtney was not being called because she was in trouble.
Dean Rostron led her to the first floor library, where the law school had “Congratulations, Kourtney!” projected on the screen. The representative was waiting with a giant check.
You can watch Hodge’s reaction below in the video where she finds out she won. (She didn’t see it coming!)
Kourtney said, “I am so grateful to the MAX program, both for the very generous scholarship and for the financial education that helped me truly appreciate the value of the scholarship. To have a whole year of law school paid for is such a blessing for my family and me. Thank you, MAX, for making financial education easy with simple videos, questions, and tools, and making a difference in law students’ lives with amazing scholarships!”
Next year’s MAX program will include over $200,000 in scholarship incentives for our 1L and 2L classes.