The Sarasota County Bar Association Diversity Scholarship Fund is intended to provide an opportunity for first through third-year law students of under-represented minority backgrounds (e.g. race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation, physical disability, or socioeconomic background) who have an interest in practicing law in Sarasota County upon graduation, to obtain summer placement. At the conclusion of the student’s summer employment in a law firm or governmental agency, the law school the student attends will receive scholarship funds of at least $5,000.00 per student to be used by the student to continue his or her education. During employment, the student will be assigned an attorney mentor from the Sarasota County Bar Association and will attend a reception to welcome and honor the student and the employer with representatives from the Bar Association and Community Foundation. Applicants must be attending any accredited law school in the state of Florida and be able to devote at least 30 hours per week to employment in Sarasota County in the Summer.
The application deadline is December 1, 2008. Applications can be downloaded from the Community Foundation of Sarasota County’s website, which is: http://www.cfsarasota.org/ (see the Special Interest Scholarships page) and also the Sarasota County Bar Association’s website which is: http://www.sarasotabar.com/.