Project Yellow Light Scholarship Application 2024

Project Yellow Light Scholarship is made available annually to support high school and college students with the cost of their education. I have provided all the information concerning the scholarships with instructions on how to apply and tips to make a great application. Let’s begin!

There is always a purpose behind every scholarship, we already know that the main aim of providing scholarships is to support students with the cost of education but there is always a purpose behind creating the scholarship in the first place.

For scholarships like the Shout It Out Scholarship, its purpose is to make your voice heard and for the Flavor of the Month Scholarship, its purpose is to describe your favorite ice cream flavor and why it is.

However, the Project Yellow Light Scholarship, its purpose is to create awareness of the dangers of distracted driving. The founder of Project Yellow Light is Julie Garner, the mother of Hunter Garner, who, unfortunately, died in a car crash in 2007 when he was 16 years old.

So, Project Yellow Light/Hunter Garner Scholarship was created as a legacy to Hunter Garner to honor his memory and put a stop to one of the leading causes of death – car crashes. Applicants of the Project Yellow Light Scholarship have one clear mission: to encourage their peers to develop and embrace safe driving habits.

Project Yellow Light Scholarship, just like every other scholarship, will support the education of whoever wins the award, and for this to happen, applicants have to meet all the requirements of the scholarship.

The scholarship is designed as a competition to bring about change by spreading the word concerning distracted driving and helping keep our roads safer. The competition involves you creating a video ad, a radio spot, or a design for a billboard ad to encourage safe driving.

Also, the scholarship is made available every year, it is an annual scholarship.

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Who Can Apply for Project Yellow Light Scholarship?

High school and college students can participate in various competitions to win the scholarship. The high school students are juniors and seniors between the ages of 14 and 20 years old. The college students must be an undergraduate full-time college students between the ages of 15 and 25 years old.

The winning applicants will receive a scholarship toward the school of their choice or associated school fees.

Project Yellow Light is looking for a video, billboard design, or radio spot created to motivate, persuade, and encourage your peers to not drive distracted. You have a unique opportunity to play a key role in spreading this important message. You can speak to your peers on this subject in a way that adults cannot. The more lives you can impact, the more lives you can save.

This scholarship is only for legal residents of the United States.

How Project Yellow Light Scholarship Works

Project Yellow Light is calling on all high school and college students to create a video ad, a radio spot, or a design for a billboard ad to encourage safe driving targeting young drivers who are new to the road.

Your topic or brief is: Stop distracted driving, specifically phone use while driving. In a world where we regularly stay connected through technology, drivers don’t always realize when they shift into distracted driving. We need to remind them that distracted driving is dangerous.

A lot of distracted driving prevention creative uses scare tactics or preachy messaging that addresses the consequences of messaging while driving (crashes or death), but we want you to address what motivates people to think they can safely use their phones while driving.

I mentioned earlier that the Project Yellow Light Scholarship is designed as a competition, and that is correct. The competitions consist of three categories namely:

Video Competition
Billboard Competition
Radio Competition

Video Competition

This video competition for the Project Yellow Light Scholarship is open to both high school and college students. The reward amount is $8,000 and videos are due April 1 of every year.

The video competition is to create a video featuring the importance of avoiding distracted driving.

Contest Guidelines for the Project Yellow Light Scholarship Video Competition

Follow the guidelines below for the video competition:

Do not submit a video of a person using their phone while driving, your entry will NOT be accepted.
The length of your video must either be exactly 10 seconds or exactly 25 seconds
All persons (even animated characters or objects) must wear seat belts.
Avoid all branding in submissions, even in the background of footage (product logos or store logos, like McDonald’s or Starbucks.)
Ensure voices in the video are clear if you are using dialogue in the video
If filming from a smartphone, shoot footage horizontally.
The film should be your creation; do not use stock videos or photos.
Use the following guidelines while filming:
- The use of a consumer or “prosumer” camera, preferably high-definition (HD) quality\
- Film resolution for all footage must be at least 720 x 480
- If an iPhone or some form of a flip camera is used, shoot footage horizontally, not vertically
- Overall, select the highest resolution possible with any camera used
- Be in .MOV, .MPEG, or .AVI
Preferred formats to use are:
- Apple ProRes 422 (HQ)
- 1920×1080, millions
- 29.97fps
- 24 – Bit Integer
- Stereo
- 48khz

Note: Keep all your unused video footage taken during the making of your film. If you are the winning entry, the Ad Council will need the footage in case your video is turned into a broadcast quality PSA and add on a 5-second end frame to make the full video 15 or 30 seconds.

Judging Criteria for the Video Competition

Your video submission will be judged based on the following criteria:

Ability to capture the attention of others, specifically, the attention of your peers.
Persuade others to alter their driving habits. Your film must resonate with teens and young adults and move them to action.
Clarity of message – it must be understandable and well-structured.
Creative expression – put your stamp on it.
The video should be of good production quality.

The winning video may be turned into an Ad Council PSA and distributed nationally to approximately 1,800 TV stations

Billboard Competition

The Project Yellow Light Scholarship Billboard design contest is open to both high school and college students. The reward amount is $2,000 and billboard designs are due March 1 of every year.

The billboard competition is a contest to create a billboard design featuring the importance of avoiding distracted driving.

Contest Guidelines for the Project Yellow Light Scholarship Billboard Competition

Follow the guidelines below for the billboard competition:

Designs must be a horizontal image
Designs must be original
Designs may not include road signage or any color/font schemes that imitate official road signals or traffic directions or may be confused as such
Designs must not use any design elements that are not of your creation (stock photos, emojis, Apple branding, etc.)
All persons depicted in designs (even animated characters or objects) must wear seat belts
If you are taking a photo to use as the visual in your design, be sure that you are using the highest resolution possible on your camera/phone since the final design will be scaled to billboard size.
You can create your message or tagline but remember to keep the overall word count to around 7 words or less.
Do not include a logo on your design; if your submission is selected as the winning entry, the officials will add the appropriate logos.
Use the following design specifications for creating your work:
- Follow the technical specifications for Clear Channel Outdoor Digital Bulletin ProductionArt Pixel Dimensions: 400×1400 pixels color Mode: RGBFile Type: Uncompressed JPG, but we’ll need the native files you used to create your design (Photoshop, Illustrator)
- Spec artboard layout available for download here
- Outdoor Design Guidelines
Select the highest resolution possible when taking photos or creating artwork for inclusion in your design.

Note: If your entry is selected, your work may be turned into a professional public service billboard by the Ad Council and could be shown on billboards across the U.S. courtesy of Clear Channel Outdoor. Keep all your artwork files; if you are the winning entrant, the Ad Council and Clear Channel Outdoor will need your native files to turn your artwork into a professional billboard.

Judging Criteria for the Billboard Competition

Your billboard submission will be judged based on the following criteria:

Ability to capture the attention of others, specifically, the attention of your peers.
Persuade others to alter their driving habits. Your design must resonate with teens and young adults and move them to action.
Clarity of message – it must be understandable and well-structured.
Creative expression – put your stamp on it and make it unique.
Your design should be of good production quality.

The winning design may be turned into a billboard and displayed on Clear Channel Outdoor digital billboards across the U.S

Radio Competition

The radio competition of Project Yellow Light Scholarship is open to both high school and college students. The winner will receive $2,000. Recordings are due April 1 of every year.

Contest Guidelines for the Project Yellow Light Scholarship Radio Competition

Follow the guidelines below for the radio competition:

Submit spots that are exactly 20 seconds long, but extend the stock music, background noise/audio, sound effects, etc., for an additional 10 seconds. The Ad Council will be adding a
10-second voiceover end tag to the end of your spot (thus, creating an entire 30-second radio PSA).
Since the winning work may play as people are driving, do not include noises or dialogue that could be distracting to drivers. This includes but is not limited to, phone notification sounds, loud noises, sirens, car crash sound effects, etc.
Do not record your radio ad with a phone because the quality will be jeopardized rather use professional-grade equipment or software like Adobe Audition, Audacity, or Soundtrack Pro.
Use music provided on their site or that you otherwise have express permission to use.
All entries must have a transcript included with the entry.
If recording in multiple locations/studios, be mindful of the background noise since it could be captured in your recording. The clearer the audio, the better. Too many noises and sound effects can distract or confuse the listener.
Be original. Do not use any elements that are not of your creation. You can use existing elements that are not of your creation as inspiration but do not copy or use them directly
Make an effort to follow radio recording best practices
All audio files must be .mp3, .wav, or .aiff format, outputted as 2-channel Stereo. Audio in other formats will not be accepted. (See accepted audio files on the chart below.)

	MP3	WAV	AIFF
Bitrate	128 to 320 kbps	Uncompressed	Uncompressed
Sample Rate	44.1 or 48 kHz	16 or 24-bit	44.1 or 48 khz
Bits/Sample	N/A	44.1 or 48 kHz	N/A
Audio Channel	2 CH Stereo	2 CH Stereo	2 CH Stereo

Note: If your entry is selected, your work may be turned into a professional public service radio ad by the Ad Council and could air on radio stations across the U.S. courtesy of iHeartRadio. You are required to keep all your unused recordings taken during the making of your soundtrack.

Judging Criteria for the Radio Competition

Your radio submission will be judged based on the following criteria:

Ability to capture the attention of others, specifically, the attention of your peers.
Persuade others to alter their driving habits. Your recording must resonate with teens and adults and move them to action.
Clarity of message – it must be understandable and well-structured.
Creative Expression – put your stamp on it.
Recording should be of good production quality

If you are new to recording radio, visit the sites below for help:

https://www.strategicmediainc.com/newsroom/top-ten-keys-creating-great-radio-ads

http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Radio-Ad

The winning radio spot may be shared on iHeartRadio’s national network and radio stations across the U.S.

All entries – videos, billboard designs, and radio spots – should target teens and young drivers, especially those who are new to driving or have been on the road for a few years.

Additional Rules for All Entrants

Entries should focus on the importance of avoiding distractions while driving, specifically using a phone while driving. Videos, Billboard Designs, and Radio Spots may include other people, but Entrants must have permission from all individuals who appear in or are mentioned in the Video, Billboard Design, or Radio Spots to use their name, voice, and/or image and they must be willing to grant the rights outlined in these Official Rules.

If they are not willing, please do not use them in your entry. If requested, Entrants must be able to provide the Sponsor with such permission on a form acceptable to the Sponsor.

If the Video, Billboard Design, or Radio Spot includes any facts and statistics, those facts and/or statistics must come from NHTSA.gov. This website provides the most up-to-date and factually correct dates related to distracted driving. Given that statistics can change from year to year, it is recommended that applicants do not produce creative that rely heavily on statistics.

Three entries per person, regardless of whether an Entrant made an individual or team entry. Additional entries after the first three entries from the same Entrant (whether individually or as part of a Team) will be void. Each Primary Entrant can only win a single prize across all three categories (video, billboard design, and radio).

Entrants may enter individually or as part of a Team of no more than four (4) members. If entering as part of a Team, the Team’s Primary Entrant must submit his/her contact information on the entry form and list the names of his/her Team members on the entry form. For the video entry, the Team’s Primary Entrant will do everything outlined above and use his/her YouTube account.

If your team wins, the prize will be evenly distributed among the members.

How to Apply and Submit Your Application

If your entry is ready and meets all the guidelines above, you are now ready to apply. Go to the scholarship application page and fill out the form with your details. For radio and billboard entries, you will upload the file but for video entry, you will submit a link to the YouTube video which has to be your YouTube account.

Conclusion

You can participate in all three competitions of the Yellow Light Project Scholarship but ensure that you submit your entries before the deadline. Read the guidelines carefully, it is a whole lot but read it carefully and ask for help from others if needed.

And finally, good luck with your application!

Project Yellow Light Scholarship Application