LIFE Lessons Scholarship Winners Share Personal Struggles to Emphasize Importance of Life Insurance

LIFE Awards 25 Scholarships to Students Impacted by a Parent's Death

ARLINGTON, Va., Sept. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- By the time she was 18 years old, Tracy Basden knew all too well that life could take unexpected -- and sometimes tragic -- turns. Her mother died when she was four and her father died before she finished high school. She dropped out of high school to become the legal guardian of her younger brother and the sole provider of the family. Tracy worked long hours at multiple jobs to make ends meet but was determined to continue her studies as well. She earned her GED and has not given up on her dream of one day becoming a nurse. To help Tracy get her nursing degree, the non-profit LIFE Foundation awarded her a $5,000 scholarship as part of its 2008 LIFE Lessons College Scholarship Program. LIFE sponsors the program annually to assist young people who are having difficulty fulfilling their goal of a college education due to the death of a parent or guardian. The program also helps LIFE raise public awareness of the need for life insurance and encourages parents to include life insurance in their college-funding plans.

This year, LIFE awarded 25 scholarships totaling $25,000 to help deserving young people. Tracy, a nursing student at Neumann College in Pennsylvania, was a grand prize winner.

"I learned the hard way how important it is for parents to have adequate life insurance," said Tracy. "While most of my friends were worried about what college they were going to attend, I was worrying about what bill I could pay late in order to be able to go grocery shopping for the week. As amazing as my dad was, I know that if he could do it all over again, he would have found a way to make sure he had a good life insurance policy in his budget. The LIFE Foundation scholarship will help me pay for college, and I hope my story will motivate others to buy life insurance. You can't plan death, but you can prepare for it."

A video of Tracy's story can be viewed at www.lifehappens.org/life-lessons/basden .

To be considered for this year's LIFE Lessons scholarship program, students had to submit either a 500-word written essay or a three-minute video describing the financial and emotional impact of losing a parent at a young age. Tracy, a Lima, Pennsylvania, resident, won the $5,000 grand prize for the essay category and Morgan Snyder of Horseheads, New York, won the $5,000 grand prize for the video category. Morgan, a sophomore at West Carolina University, was chosen by the public in an online vote that took place during the summer on LIFE's website at www.lifehappens.org. Her winning video can be viewed at www.lifehappens.org/life-lessons/snyder.

Donations Being Accepted for 2009 Scholarship Fund

To increase the number of scholarships it offers in 2009 and beyond, LIFE recently began accepting individual, tax-deductible donations for the LIFE Lessons Scholarship Fund via its website at www.lifehappens.org/donate.

"Nothing serves as a more powerful reminder of the importance of life insurance than the first-hand accounts of young people who are left without financial security when a parent dies," said Marvin H. Feldman, CLU, ChFC, RFC, president and CEO of the LIFE Foundation. "Judging by the record number of scholarship entries we received this year, it's clear that far too many Americans are leaving their families at risk by not having adequate coverage. Growing the scholarship fund will allow us to help a greater number of deserving students next year."

LIFE Lessons Scholarship Winners

In addition to Morgan and Tracy, the following students also received 2008 LIFE Lessons scholarships: Abigail Grundon (hometown Lemoyne, PA, attending Daytona State College), Arianna Blaisdell (Santa Cruz, CA, San Francisco State University), Ashley Schleimer (Port Jervis, NY, Binghamton University), Ashley Marie Box (Weatherford, TX, Tarrant County College), Chelsea Stanley (Bellville, TX, The University of Houston), Christina Daniello (Williamstown, NJ, Rowan University), Daniel Hagen (Grosse Ile, MI, Henry Ford Community College), Emily Beal (Eldersburg, MD, Carroll Community College), Emily Dawn Smith (Berlin, MO, Point Loma Nazarene University), Hayes Phillips Hyde (Woodside, FL, Yale College), Jacqueline Rodriguez (Chicago, IL, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Janette Norrington (Gaithersburg, MD, University of Maryland), Jeannie Scarlett D'Anna (White House, TN, Rhodes College), Jeremy Ryan Pittman (Indianapolis, IN, Purdue University), Jonathan Semtner (Corpus Christi, TX, The University of Texas at Austin), Kirby Grimes (Lancaster, KY, Transylvania University), Leah Faith Thompson (Lebanon, OH, University of Cincinnati), Maggie Weizer (Bedford, OH, Kent State University), Marial Almira-Ileen Zeigler (Decatur, GA, Clark Atlanta University), Marie Shols (Centennial, CO, University of New Mexico), Matthew Ramirez (Pueblo West, CO, Colorado State University), Michael Jonathan Davis (Purcellville, VA, Elon University School of Law) and Stephen Ip (Columbus, OH, Columbus State Community College).

The top LIFE Lessons Scholarship essays and videos can be viewed at

http://www.lifehappens.org/life-lessons/past-scholarship-recipients.

About the LIFE Lessons Scholarship Program

Established in 2005, the LIFE Lessons Scholarship Program is open to young people between 17 and 24 years of age, who have experienced the death of a parent or legal guardian, and are currently enrolled in, or have been accepted to, a college, university or trade school. The program is designed to help deserving young people realize their dream of achieving a college education, and to educate all Americans about the need to include life insurance in their college-funding plans. Applications are solicited during the March/April timeframe and scholarship recipients are notified in the summer. For more information, visit www.lifehappens.org/life-lessons.

About LIFE

The Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education (LIFE) was founded in 1994 in response to the public's growing need for information and education on life, health, disability and long-term care insurance. LIFE also seeks to remind people of the important role insurance professionals perform in helping families, businesses and individuals find the insurance products that best fit their needs. To learn more about these topics, please visit www.lifehappens.org.

    CONTACT:
    Tai Green,
    212-445-8239
    -or-
    Katharine Carver
    212-445-8210