About this scholarship
The Black Health Equity Scholarship is a $1,000 award from Black Health, the team behind blackhealth.org. We publish health guidance, a provider directory, and career resources built around one goal: better health outcomes for Black communities. This award backs a student whose career will move that goal forward.
One recipient is selected each cycle. The award is paid to the recipient's school and applied to tuition, fees, or required program costs. If the school cannot accept a third-party payment, we pay the recipient directly with proof of enrollment.
Eligibility
- You are 17 or older and a legal resident of the United States.
- You are currently enrolled in, or hold an offer of admission from, an accredited U.S. college, university, or training program. Community college, certificate, and licensure programs count.
- Your field leads to health work: nursing, medicine, public health, mental and behavioral health, allied health, midwifery or doula training, health administration, or a related field.
- Your program starts or continues in 2027.
- You can show a genuine commitment to improving Black health outcomes. The essay is where you show it; there is no demographic requirement.
- You can give us a school-issued email address, or a registrar or program contact who can confirm your enrollment. We contact it only if you are selected.
No GPA minimum. No application fee. No transcripts or recommendation letters.
What we ask for
Three pieces of writing. Budget an hour.
One essay, 500 to 800 words. Tell us about one specific health gap affecting Black communities that you intend to help close. What does progress look like, and what part will your career play in it?
Specific beats sweeping: one real gap, one credible plan, your part in it. Personal experience, community work, coursework, and clinical exposure all count as evidence.
One source. Name the primary source behind the gap you describe: a study, a federal dataset, or a published report, with enough detail that we can look it up. A title and year, a link, or a PMID all work. We require a primary source behind every clinical claim we publish, so we ask the same of applicants. An essay with nothing behind it is an opinion, and opinions are not what this award is for.
One short answer, 100 to 300 words. Your next concrete step, and roughly when. A rotation, a certification, a program you are applying to, a clinic you want to work in. Not the whole career, just the next real thing.
How we choose
The Black Health editorial team reads every application after the deadline. The first pass is read with names removed, so the work does the talking. We score four things: specificity, evidence that you understand the problem, a credible next step, and clear writing. A source we can actually check counts heavily toward the second.
Timeline
Applications close December 1, 2026 at 11:59 PM ET.
The winner is notified by email and announced on blackhealth.org by January 15, 2027.
The fine print
- One application per person per cycle.
- Your essay must be your own work and must not be written by an AI system. We read for it, and an award can be withdrawn if that turns out to be untrue.
- We confirm enrollment before any award is paid.
- Immediate family of Black Health staff are not eligible.
- Decisions are final, and we cannot give individual feedback on applications.
- We may invite the winner to publish their essay on blackhealth.org. That is the winner's choice and never a condition of the award.
- Application information is used only to administer the scholarship. It is never sold or shared.
Questions? Email hello@blackhealth.org.