Akila Couloumbis Memorial Scholarship for Social Justice

Akila Couloumbis was an activist, actor, and director in the City of New York. In 1967 he co-founded The Theatre for the Forgotten (TFTF), a non-profit organization dedicated to enriching the lives of the incarcerated through theater. The Theatre for the Forgotten introduced theatrical arts to inmates, involving them in prison productions and offering employment opportunities after release. TFTF received multiple awards, including a Certificate of Recognition from Mayor John Lindsay in 1969 and a Merit Award presented by Mayor David Dinkins in 1992.

The Akila Couloumbis Memorial Scholarship aims to support research projects and program proposals by graduate students whose work will address high-risk youth, alternatives to incarceration, and/or the development of social and educational programs to alter the life trajectory of the imprisoned. Incarceration is an issue at the intersection of social injustice, economic inequality, and systemic racism/bigotry. Applicants could therefore also be working on research or programs that will influence American policing, improve policy, support re-integration, and reduce recidivism.

Qualified applicants will include graduate students and recent postgraduates with 3.25 GPA or higher who have or are pursuing advanced degrees (MS, PhD, JD, MBA) in sociology, political science, economics, African American studies, law, political science, forensics, the arts, and other fields relevant to this scholarship. 

To apply, please submit an essay addressing the following:

1. What social issue facing the US most concerns you ? 

2. What is necessary to create a system that operates "with liberty and justice for all"?

3. What work do you propose to do and how will it be impactful?

4. What findings or outcomes would be most important and how will you evaluate the success of your research project or program?