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Maryland Commission for Women


2025 Maryland Young Women Leaders Awards Application

Welcome to the application website of the 2025 Maryland Young Women Leaders Awards. The Maryland Young Women Leaders Awards recognizes and celebrates outstanding young women ages 11-20 who have demonstrated exceptional leadership, commitment to community service, and efforts to advance women’s rights and opportunities in alignment with the mission of the Maryland Commission for Women. This year 4 awardees will be selected as 2025 Maryland Young Women Leaders and will receive a citation from Governor Moore and a $2,000 award sponsored by the Foundation for the Maryland Commission for Women.

Application and Essay Requirements

Applicants who are young women in Maryland ages 11-20 are encouraged to prepare the following materials before beginning the application process:

  1. A personal statement, no longer than 250 words. Please explain your community service activities, including leadership roles, supporting women’s rights and any exceptional circumstances you’ve had to overcome including language barriers or other challenges at home or within your community.
  2. An essay no longer than 300 words addressing one of the provided prompts below.

    *In lieu of a written essay, the applicant may make a video recording using the provided prompts.

  3. A letter of recommendation from a school or community organization where you are involved in supporting women’s rights.
  4. Any relevant supporting materials. This is optional but encouraged! We would love to see materials including art, photography, music recordings, or other creative pursuits that demonstrate your commitment to advancing women’s rights in Maryland.

Submission Guidelines

The application form must be completed and submitted in a single transmission by the applicant. While the form may be reviewed multiple times before submission, it cannot be saved and returned to later. Incomplete nominations will require starting over.

Completed applications must be submitted by Wednesday, February 12, 2025 by 12:00 Noon. The application will be removed from the website at that time and no applications will be accepted after that date and time.

Awardees will be notified by Friday, February 21. Members of the Maryland Commission for Women and their families, as well as publicly elected Maryland state officials and their families, are not eligible to submit an application.

Essay Prompts – Choose 1 (300 words or less)

  1. How have you been involved in work being done to support women running for elected office in either school, government, or a community organization?
  2. How have you drawn attention to critical challenges facing women in your community, and what solutions have you advocated for?
  3. How have you worked to prevent discrimination against women or advance gender equity in your school or community? or
  4. Select a policy area within women’s rights that you are passionate about (e.g., women in the workforce, women’s health and safety, and care economy) and describe your efforts to advance opportunities for women in these areas.
    5. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE APPLICATION

    Maryland Women’s Hall of Fame

    The 2025 Maryland Women’s Hall of Fame honorees will be selected by the Maryland Commission for Women gubernatorial-appointed Commissioners. The Commission is working on rebuilding our nomination and selection process, and public nominations will be warmly welcomed again in October 2025 for the 2026 honorees.

    In the meantime, please honor a special Maryland woman in your life by submitting her story to our Maryland Women Story Bank.