Authority Solutions® has awarded the Fall 2026 Future Leaders Scholarship to Camille Kayyem, an incoming first-year student at the University of Tampa. The $500 award supports students building careers in digital marketing, AI, and technology. Funds are disbursed on September 1, 2026.

We read every essay in this cycle. Hers is the one we kept talking about.

Meet Camille Kayyem

Camille starts at the University of Tampa this fall in the Communication and Media Studies BA program in the College of Arts and Letters. She hopes to build a career that combines sports, marketing, media, and communications, with a particular interest in how storytelling, branding, and emerging technology can connect athletes, brands, and audiences in more meaningful ways.

She arrives as a student-athlete, and she describes her interests as sitting at the intersection of marketing, media, and communications rather than in any one of them.

Why Her Essay Stood Out

Every applicant answers the same prompt: how is artificial intelligence changing the future of digital marketing, and what is one way it could transform how businesses connect with customers online?

Most answers describe what AI does. Camille's described what changes because of it.

Her subject was personalization, and her framing is what got our attention. She didn't argue that AI lets brands say more. She argued that it lets them stop saying things nobody wanted to hear. The reasoning underneath is the part most people skip: customers aren't ignoring marketing because they dislike marketing, they're ignoring it because the volume has made everything look the same. In that framing, personalization isn't a trick for capturing more attention. It's what makes attention possible at all.

Two other things pushed the essay to the top.

She was direct that AI should support creative work rather than replace it, and that the voice and purpose behind a message still have to come from a person. That's a more accurate read of where the tooling actually sits than a lot of working marketers have landed on.

And she raised ethics without being asked. Nothing in the prompt mentioned it. She brought up the obligation to use AI honestly, and that customers shouldn't be reduced to data points. For a scholarship funded by a company whose fastest-growing work is all AI-driven, an applicant volunteering that question is exactly the instinct we were hoping to find.

In Her Own Words

“Receiving this scholarship means a lot to me as I begin my freshman year at the University of Tampa. As a student-athlete pursuing my interests in marketing, media and communications, I’m grateful for the support toward my education and excited to keep learning how technology and creativity can make an impact.”

About the Future Leaders Scholarship

Authority Solutions® was founded in 2014. Since then the fastest-moving parts of our work, generative engine optimization, AI automation, intelligent chatbots, have gone from marginal to central. None of them were on a marketing syllabus a decade ago. Most still aren't taught well today. That gap is why the scholarship exists.

  • $500 per semester, awarded in Fall and Spring
  • Two students recognized each year, one per cycle
  • Funds go directly to the recipient for tuition, fees, books, or other educational expenses
  • Open to undergraduates and high school seniors with confirmed enrollment at an accredited U.S. institution, with a minimum GPA of 3.0
  • Qualifying fields include marketing, digital marketing, computer science, IT, artificial intelligence, web development, and graphic design, along with related fields such as business, communications, and data analytics

It's a modest award, and we'll say so plainly. $500 doesn't solve the cost of a degree. What it does is put money in the hands of a student doing serious thinking about an industry we work in every day, and tell her the thinking was worth something to people already in it.

It sits alongside the rest of our giving back work.

Applying for a Future Cycle

The scholarship runs twice a year. We post cycle dates, deadlines, and current status on the Future Leaders Scholarship page as each window opens.

A complete application includes:

  • The online application form
  • An essay of 500 to 750 words on the AI prompt above
  • Proof of enrollment, either an unofficial transcript or enrollment verification
  • A letter of recommendation (optional, but it separates close finalists)
  • A portfolio link or upload (optional)

Applicants who weren't selected are welcome to apply again, and past recipients may reapply in future semesters.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much is the scholarship worth?

$500 per semester. Two students are recognized each year, one in Fall and one in Spring, for $1,000 awarded annually.

Is the award renewable?

No. It's one-time per cycle, though past recipients are welcome to reapply in future semesters.

Do I have to be a marketing major?

No. Qualifying fields include marketing, digital marketing, computer science, information technology, artificial intelligence, web development, and graphic design, along with related fields such as business, communications, and data analytics.

When does the next cycle open?

The scholarship runs on two cycles a year, Fall and Spring. Each cycle's dates and current status are posted on the Future Leaders Scholarship page.

Congratulations, Camille. We're glad to have a small part in what comes next.