This year, for the first year ever, Hofheimer Family Law sponsored a scholarship for divorced and/or divorcing women who were looking to go back to school. We wanted to do it both to honor our former managing partner, Kristen D. Hofheimer, who passed away in January of 2019 after a long struggle with breast cancer, but also in an effort to show our current, former, and prospective clients that there is life after divorce.
We pride ourselves on the resources we provide to educate and inspire Virginia women facing divorce, custody, and support cases. We’ve have four free books, a divorce seminar, a custody seminar, Girl’s Night Out events, and an absolute treasure trove of information available on our website in the form of blogs and articles as well as a number of awesome free reports.
But we still wanted to do more. We wanted to expand, and do something a little more dramatic – something that could have a profound and long lasting impact on women’s futures. As highly educated people ourselves, we see the value in education – and also the freedom that can come from limiting the amount of student loan debt you take on!
We settled on a scholarship – but, specifically, a scholarship for divorced or divorcing Virginia women embarking on their “next great adventure”.
It wasn’t just any contest, either – it was a video essay contest! Contestants provided a video detailing their education plans and their next great adventure. Though we love education, we also wanted to feel like we got to know the women involved. That we became part of their stories, invested in their futures. We wanted to see not only what kind of jobs they wanted to pursue, now that they had a second chance at the kind of life they wanted, but also how they wanted those changes to positively impact their lives. We don’t live to work, you know. We’re all so much more than a profession, you know? We’re moms and daughters and wives and sisters who are trying to do so much to take care of the ones we love the most. We’re even – yes, this is maybe a little controversial – trying to find better ways to take care of ourselves, too!
There’s no right or wrong answer, but we wanted to see the plans women had for their futures. We wanted to be inspired and encouraged – and to have these stories available to inspire and encourage our future clients as well.
As you probably know, if you’ve been through divorce, it’s pretty daunting. So, for women at the beginning of the process, hearing from these bright, optimistic, excited women about all the things that they’re hoping to achieve, both for themselves and their families, can help show them the way forward. It’s not doom and gloom; in fact, it’s anything but! It’s inspiration, it’s second chances.
We hoped we’d get some great applicants – but we were still blown away by the submissions we received. Ultimately, we narrowed it down to three finalists, and then opened the competition up to voting on our website.
We selected two winners – both of whom will receive $1,000 scholarships to continue to pursue their education post-divorce. The 2019 winners are Lindsay Smith and Brittany Harris. You can see their videos on our website, and check out our Facebook page (LINK) with images from the receptions we hosted with our winners at our Virginia Beach office.
The future is bright, options are limitless, and it’s never too late to start your next great adventure. Stay tuned – we plan to host another scholarship competition in 2020, so if you’re planning on going back to school, make sure you bookmark us, follow us, attend our GNO events, or whatever you have to do to make sure you don’t miss it!
For more information, give our office a call at 757-425-5200. Congratulations again to Lindsay and Brittany!