1101 SCHOLARSHIP
Helping empower the youth of today, to become the vegan voices of tomorrow
ABOUT SCHOLARSHIP:
The 1101 Scholarship is a project by the VegVoyages Foundation for students who are vegan and vegetarian or students who may be inclined or interested to be vegan and vegetarian. The 1101 Scholarship is our way of providing support to those students to be the vegan voices of tomorrow. We started with two students being awarded the 1101 Scholarship last year 2022, and over the next few years, we are looking forward to bringing the number of students receiving the scholarship to ten students annually. Our Last Year’s winners Rakshith and Eva can be seen here
SCHOLARSHIP AWARD
The award is U.S. $ 1,101. The two students selected as scholarship winners will receive US$ 1,101/- each. The duration of the scholarship is one year. One will have to reapply for the scholarship; if they want to continue for the next year.
The award should be used by the students to both help them further their education, as well as help them to actively create a program or initiative in their neighborhood, community, and/or school to further raise awareness and contribute to vegan principles, animal welfare, animal rights, conservation, and/or environmental protection.
PLEASE NOTE: At least one-third of the scholarship award should be used by the scholarship winners to design programs and activities in their neighborhood, community, and/or school for the cause of veganism, animal welfare, animal rights, conservation, and/or environmental protection. Scholarship winners will be interviewed and featured exclusively on UnchainedTV’s the Action Hour and in VegWorld Magazine.
WHO CAN APPLY?
Vegan and vegetarian students or students who inspire to be vegan and vegetarian, between the ages of 12 to 25 years old from all over the world are eligible to apply.
Please Note: Priority will be given to vegan and vegetarian students. However, those who inspire to be vegan and vegetarian will also be considered.
IMPORTANT DATES
Opening Date for Submission: April 22, 2023 – World Earth Day
The theme for Earth Day this year is the continuation of the theme ‘Invest in Our Planet’. Investment in our planet is not just the investment for future ‘sustainability’ but is also a necessity of time ‘Our Own Survival’. Through the 1101 scholarship, we seek to invest in the planet by investing in the education of youth. Empowering our youths to speak about relevant issues is one of the ways we seek to give back to the community.
Deadline for Submission: October 01, 2023 – World Vegetarian Day
We chose this day because it is World Vegetarian Day and we want to spread the message of compassion.
Announcement of Scholarship Award: November 1, 2023- World Vegan Day
We selected November 1 as a deadline since this day is celebrated worldwide as World Vegan Day. This project 1101 Scholarship is an homage to this day.
CRITERIA FOR DETERMINATION OF WINNER
Scholarship award winners will be determined based on a 1,101-word original essay they must write and submit relating to how they intend to use the scholarship award of $1101 if they win. Winners will be required to spend a minimum of one-third of their scholarship award for Vegan activism to spread awareness within their community about veganism, plant-based living, and its benefits or for conservation programmes or animal rights awareness.
Winners must use this section to detail how the fund will be used for both their education and the vegan activism they intend to do. All the submitted essays will be evaluated by our panelists and the best essay writers who have met all the criteria will be selected. This will be followed by an interview with our panelists for their final evaluation.
PROCESS OF APPLICATION
DOCUMENTS TO PREPARE BEFORE APPLYING
PART 1: Write ABOUT YOURSELF. (500 words)
Tell us about your journey: what planted seeds of compassion/ critical thinking inside you, and how did you get started on a plant-based journey? Explain your interest in a plant-based diet, animal welfare, and conservation and the personal connection you feel towards it.
In case you’re not vegan or vegetarian yet, tell us why do you inspire to be vegan or vegetarian? Briefly tell us about you, your family background, your country, social and cultural conditions surrounding you?
NOTE: This will only serve as a guide and won’t serve as criteria for the determination of scholarship.
PART 2: HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO USE THE FUND? (1101 words)
How do you propose to use the 1101 Scholarship amount both towards your education, as well as to help actively raise awareness in their community about ethical practices in line with veganism, animal welfare, and/or rights, and/or conservation? Explain your connection to 1101 Scholarship.
PLEASE NOTE that scholarship recipients are required to spend one-third of scholarship awards to actively raise awareness for veganism, conservation, animal protection, rights and/or welfare. This is the main basis for the determination of the Scholarship Award. So, please take your time and research to write the essay
You could apply through any of the two mediums:
- Filling out the Google Form: https://forms.gle/tdJBD45LsCtMbfYh8.
- You can write the 1101 words original essay down in your own words along with your story of your journey, taking pictures (preferably scan), and then sending it along with other personal information (Name, Age, Country) to shova@vegvoyages.com.
THINGS TO CONSIDER
- You can use any language you are comfortable and compatible with for your writing. National or mother tongue will also be accepted.
- Please include this statement before your signature on the email: ‘I declare that the submitted essay is written in my own words and thoughts, and the information disclosed in the application form is true to the best of my knowledge and belief. if any information is found to be incorrect, my candidature for the scholarship is liable to be canceled.’
- Submit your essay before the deadline of October 1st, 2023.
- The decisions of the panels will be deemed final and complete unless the information provided by the scholarship awardee is proved to be false.
- We urge you to write the essay and other related questions on Word (Docx) file (on your computer) or on Notes App (on your phone) first and then copy and paste it into the forms. If you don’t have access to a computer, we are also accepting handwritten answers. Please take good pictures.
MEET OUR PANELS
LINDSEY BAKER (USA):
Formerly a multidisciplinary designer and adjunct professor living in San Diego, Lindsey Baker moved to Los Angeles to return to her first love – performing. While in Los Angeles she became interested in pressing conservation issues and animal rights. She decided to use her storytelling skills to help contribute to finding solutions to the catastrophic environmental and social problems that we are facing today. She became a citizen journalist for Jane Unchained News Network, a multi-platform news media outlet that focuses on conservation and sentient beings’ rights. In 2020 she was asked to create her own show on the network. The Action Hour on UNCHAINEDTV airs every Saturday at 10:00 AM PST. The purpose is to address issues not covered in mainstream media.
PETER WALKER (UK):
After growing up and attending college in England, Peter moved to the USA. He became vegetarian more than 20 years ago and has been vegan for the past 10 years. His initial trip to India with VegVoyages in 2015 was followed by joining their tours in Laos, Malaysia, Sumatra, Sri Lanka, and Nepal plus two more tours in India. During these trips, he has seen firsthand the work of the VegVoyages Foundation in supporting social charitable activities, projects, and programs and he is excited to be able to help expand their work with the 1101 Scholarship Program. When not on tour with VegVoyages (now Vegan Travel Asia), Peter splits his time between New Jersey, North Carolina, and the UK and plans to introduce his wife to Vegan Travel Asia with tours of Thailand and Bhutan in 2022
ALORA MIDDLETON HALE (USA):
Alora Middleton Hale (she/her) is a former elementary educator turned journalist, and the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of VEGWORLD Magazine, a vegan media brand and free digital lifestyle magazine. Like so many others, Alora’s compassion for all living beings began as a child. Vegetarian from the age of six, she has been vegan for six years and strives to bring her passion for spreading the joys of living a compassionate lifestyle to all she does.
DR. SAILESH RAO (USA):
Dr. Sailesh Rao has over three decades of professional experience and is the Founder and Executive Director of Climate Healers, a non-profit dedicated to healing the Earth’s climate. In 2006 he became deeply immersed, full-time, in solving the environmental crises affecting humanity. Dr. Rao is the author of four books, Carbon Dharma: The Occupation of Butterflies, Carbon Yoga: The Vegan Metamorphosis, Animal Agriculture is Immoral and The Pinky Promise, and an Executive Producer of several documentaries, The Human Experiment (2013), Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret (2014), What The Health (2017), A Prayer for Compassion (2019), They’re Trying to Kill Us (2021), The End of Medicine (2022), The Land of Ahimsa (2022), Animals – A Parallel History (est. 2023) and Milked (2022). His work is featured in the award-winning film, Countdown to Year Zero produced by Jane Velez-Mitchell and Unchained TV. Dr. Rao is a Human, Earth and Animal Liberation (HEAL) activist, husband, dad, and since 2010, a star-struck grandfather. He has promised his granddaughter, Kimaya Rainy Rao, that the world will be largely Vegan before she turns 16 in 2026 so that people will stop eating her relatives, the animals. He has faith that humanity will transform to keep his pinky promise to Kimaya, not just for ethical reasons, but also out of sheer ecological necessity. Along with Kimaya, Dr. Rao was the co-recipient of the inaugural Homo Ahimsa award from the Interfaith Vegan Coalition in 2021. He has formally taken the Ubuntu pledge to become Homo Ahimsa and the Liberation Pledge to accelerate the adoption of Veganism.
AILYA KHAN (PAKISTAN):
NAYAN AGRAWAL (INDIA):
Nayan is an animal rights activist hailing from Delhi, India. Her focus is on working or volunteering within the non-profit sector. She has focused on problem-solving, content creation, and pragmatic solutions. Through activism, she strives to make a positive impact on the world. She has undertaken several projects on Animal Rights, Veganism, Climate Change mitigation, and other relevant social issues based on community-driven actions. She has been a campaigner and organiser with the Animal and Climate Save Movement India for the past 3 years. She holds a bachelor’s degree in History from Lady Shri Ram College for Women, New Delhi. She is currently pursuing a Master’s in Animal Protection Laws from the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR) University, Hyderabad.
She was involved in building a curriculum, along with other peers, on the English language and concepts of animal rights and climate change for students in Cambodia in association with the Veg Voyages Foundation from last year, in 2022, to February 2023. As a result, the team produced two books for introductory and intermediate levels.
Note: The panel will mutually decide on the scholarship winners by evaluating the submitted essays every year.
Why the 1101 Scholarship?
As many of us who became vegan or vegetarian in our youth know, students who make this decision are often outcast because they don’t conform to the often socially accepted norms of living life in a way that causes suffering to animals and damage to the environment. This can include their peers and adults ridiculing them because they don’t eat meat, questioning their devotion to their religion, culture, and traditions when they abstain from living a life that harms animals, and also having to answer countless questions during every step of their interaction in society for the choices they have made. The loss of support, encouragement, and understanding from peers, friends, and family can make students feel alone and discouraged. These experiences are especially hard for youth who are often undermined and dismissed because of their age.
One of our team recalls distinctly how his peers, friends, and family reacted when he became vegetarian at the age of 14…
I was reminded every day by kids at school that I was the only veg student there – and that I must be crazy because of it. I was told at church that I was going against the word of God as “God gave humanity dominion over the animals” – where it says specifically that dominion should only be defined as exploiting and killing was beyond me. I was reminded in sports I was going to be the “weakest” one on the field. And I was reminded by family members that “joining a cult was dangerous” – why they thought I joined a cult is also beyond me as I had no contact with anyone else who was veg – so I guess I was in a one-person cult.
Many of our team, like many vegetarians and vegans, have similar stories in their lives. The 1101 Scholarship aims to help give moral and financial support to students who are vegan and vegetarian, or who are inclined to be, and to re-enforce the truth that…
- compassionate thinking is not negative…
- it is not irrelevant,
- it is not crazy,
- it is not “old school” (in some cultures),
- it is not falling into a cult, or weak, or anything else negative.
We are hopeful that the 1101 Scholarship will help encourage youth to not only continue up this path but possibly become an active part of the path’s creation in the future (i.e., get more involved in community-based activism, outreach, etc.).
[Last Year our Panel was composed of six panelists: award-winning vegan travel writer and best-selling author Shivya Nath (from India), UnchainedTV’s the Action Hour host/producer Lindsey Baker (from the USA), vegan advocate Peter Walker (UK), VegWorld Magazine Publisher & Editor Alora Middleton Hale (from the USA), animal rights and environmental campaigner Shristi Singh Shreshta (Nepal), documentary film maker and animal right activist Dr.Harsha Atmakuri (India).
