We thank you for your application! The Against All Odds Scholarship application process is now CLOSED! We are currently reviewing submissions. The 2025 winner will be announced soon!
HMW Law—Ohio Trial Attorneys takes pride in operating as a community-focused law firm for all. It’s with that communal spirit in mind that our Cleveland personal injury lawyers and Criminal Defense lawyers are delighted to offer the Against All Odds Scholarship to students in underserved communities.
Undergraduate and graduate students can apply for the scholarship today for a chance to win $2,500. Students have until November 15, 2026, to submit videos addressing the scholarship topic for the selection committee’s consideration.
We look forward to receiving your application soon.
Application Requirements
HMW Law invites undergraduate and graduate students from all majors to apply for the Against All Odds Scholarship. However, applicants must indicate that they are part of an underrepresented demographic and that they’ve overcome certain obstacles that might have otherwise prevented their long-term success.
The team also requests that any students applying for the Against All Odds Scholarship indicate that they:
- Are enrolled in or accepted at an accredited United States college, university, or graduate school
- Agree to the scholarship’s terms and conditions
- Have completed the application form and its video as required
Students must also complete a two- to three-minute video addressing the scholarship topic outlined below. Students can upload their videos as unlisted YouTube videos and then share a link to those videos via the scholarship form found on this page.
Scholarship Video Topic
HMW Law wants to lend a helping hand to students who’ve overcome financial hardship, limited educational opportunities, and/or systemic barriers that may have otherwise prevented them from pursuing their academic and career goals.
We invite students to submit videos going into detail about their personal journeys. Students can specifically highlight:
- What community they grew up in
- What their goals for the future look like
- What obstacles may have prevented them from achieving those goals
- How they’ve persevered past those obstacles
We specifically want to hear about how certain hardships have shaped students’ aspirations and hopes for the future. Students’ videos should be no more than three minutes long.
How to Draft a Compelling Scholarship Video
Our team asks that students please:
- Record their videos in well-lit areas
- Hold their recording devices as still as possible
- Include their full name and the name of the Against All Odds Scholarship in the first few seconds of their video
- Highlight any sources they used to add statistics or other information to their videos
- Cite any media editing tools, like Adobe Creative Cloud, that they used to make their videos
- Use copyright-free content when creating visuals for their videos
- Use a creative, catchy title to cap off their videos
The scholarship selection committee encourages students to use media editing tools to make their videos more compelling. However, the team will not award the Against All Odds Scholarship based on a student’s editing prowess. Instead, the team will consider each video’s content.
Notably, students should not use AI to create their videos from scratch, write their scripts, modify their voices, or create fake characters to star in their videos. The inappropriate use of AI will see a student’s application removed from the applicant pool without further consideration.
Scholarship Deadline
Students have until November 15, 2026, to complete their applications and submit them for the scholarship selection committee’s consideration. The team with HMW Law cannot consider applications submitted after this deadline passes.
The scholarship selection committee may take anywhere between one and three months to select a scholarship winner after this deadline passes. We ask that neither students nor their families reach out to HMW Law firm during this timeframe. We cannot answer any questions about the status of a student’s application.
We also encourage students to revisit this scholarship’s eligibility criteria before submitting their applications for consideration. The scholarship selection committee cannot consider applications submitted without all essential materials.
Terms and Conditions
All applicants to this scholarship must meet the eligibility requirements as laid out on the scholarship application page, including:
- Applicant must be enrolled at a college, university, or graduate school
- Applicant must be at least 18 years old at the time of enrollment
- Applicant must have residency in the United States
- Applicant must be in good academic standing
- Applicant must submit some personal information, including name, contact information, and academic information
- Applicant must create a video on the scholarship topic provided.
Anyone who meets the following conditions is NOT eligible to apply:
- Employees or children of employees of HMW Law
- Past recipients of the Against All Odds Scholarship
- Applicants who are unable/unwilling to be interviewed by a representative of HMW Law if they were to be awarded a scholarship.
- Applicants who submit the same video for multiple scholarships or multiple years in a row
Selection & Award Notification Process
We again remind students that HMW Law must receive their complete applications by November 15, 2026, if those students want to qualify for the Against All Odds Scholarship’s $2,500 award.
The scholarship selection committee may take up to three months to select its scholarship winner. Age, race, religion, gender, national origin, familial status, or other protected classes will have no influence on the committee’s decision.
Please do not reach out to HMW Law with questions about the scholarship or the status of a student’s application at this time. A representative will reach out to the winning student via email upon their selection. The firm will then release a blog post and press release applauding the student’s achievements and announcing their receipt of the $2,500 scholarship award.
Previous Winners
HMW Law will celebrate the students who win its Against All Odds Scholarship with a blog post and press release. You can read about the achievements of future winners—including you!—here as we uplift students in need of financial support.