Life insurance lessons

Three college students whose parents died are vying for a $5,000 scholarship from the Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education. The Arlington, Va.-based organization invites young people to enter its Life Lessons Scholarship Program by submitting an essay or a video discussing how the death of a parent or guardian has affected their lives. The Life Foundation will award 45 scholarships this year, plus a $5,000 grand prize for a video entry that will go to one of three finalists after a public vote on the web. Runners-up will win a $1,000 prize. The three finalists are Jack Korslin of Brookfield, Ohio, Nikki Lewis of Las Vegas and Alexandrea McKee of Woodinville, Wash. A recent high school graduate, Mr. Korslin shared his dreams of attending Boston College, where he had hoped to pursue a career involving business and economics. He lost his opportunity when his father died a few months ago. Mr. Korslin's father's life insurance policy was tied up in a business endeavor, so the proceeds won't be available to the family. He is attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is trying to scrape money together to pay for school. Ms. Lewis, a freshman at Arizona State University in Tempe, lost her mother to a heart attack in 2003 and her father to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma seven months later. By the time her father learned that he was dying, “it was too late for life insurance,” she said in her video. Ms. McKee attends Azusa (Calif.) Pacific University. Although her father was insured when he died in a car accident a decade ago and the policy was enough to help his family stay in their home, it wasn't enough to pay for her college expenses. “Without life insurance, I would've lost my home, my school, my friends — all the things that gave me comfort in a time when I had already lost so much,” Ms. McKee said in her video entry. The public can vote at lifehappens.org/vote until Thursday. The winner will be named next month.