The County Prosecutors Association of New Jersey is offering four scholarships to law school students seeking careers as prosecuting attorneys, graduate students with a commitment to child advocacy, and to police officers hoping to attend college or graduate school to advance their careers in law enforcement.
Scholarship applicants must be residents of New Jersey and must demonstrate a financial need. Scholarship recipients from previous years are ineligible.
The scholarships, each amounting to a one-year grant of $3,500, will be paid directly to the recipients, who will be selected by a committee that administers the County Prosecutors Association of New Jersey Scholarship Foundation.
Each of the scholarships is dedicated to the memory of attorneys who died in office, where they had served with dignity as prosecutors in various counties in New Jersey and exemplified the high standards of law enforcement professionals.
To be eligible for the Oscar W. Rittenhouse Memorial Scholarship, an applicant must be accepted for admission to a law school and must have an interest in pursuing a career as a prosecutor.
Rittenhouse, 48, served as part-time prosecutor in Hunterdon County from 1968-73, and was appointed the county’s first full-time prosecutor in 1975. He was killed in 1979 while returning from a national prosecutors convention, where he spoke on preventing juvenile delinquency.
Applicants seeking the Andrew K. Ruotolo Jr. Memorial Scholarship must be accepted for admission to a law school or a graduate school. Applicants must exhibit an interest, and commitment to, enhancing the rights and well-being of children through child advocacy programs.
Ruotolo, 42, who served as Union County prosecutor from 1991-95, had dedicated his career to helping troubled youth and was the creator of the Union County Child Advocacy Center, which serves as a safe haven for abused children.
Each student applying for the Harris Y. Cotton Memorial Scholarship must be accepted for admission to a law school. The applicant should have an interest in pursuing a career as a prosecutor with an emphasis in domestic violence or hate crime prosecutions.
Cotton, 68, known as the “Dean of Prosecutors,” served in Gloucester County from 197-80 and from 1991-97, when he died 40 minutes before his term expired. During his tenure, he was a strong advocate for the protection of individual rights and he created specialized units to combat domestic violence and hate crimes.
To be eligible for the John H. Stamler Memorial Scholarship, an applicant must be a sworn law enforcement officer seeking educational advancement on a college or graduate level to improve his or her effectiveness as a law enforcement officer.
Stamler, 52, was the first prosecutor in the state to be appointed to three consecutive terms as prosecutor, serving in Union County from 1977-90. He was dedicated to the welfare of law enforcement officers and was an innovator of programs to help victims of domestic violence and child abuse. He championed a witness/victim assistance program, advocated crime prevention and battled the scourge of illegal drugs.
Applications are available at www.hcpo.org.
The deadline to apply Sept. 3. Applicants will be notified in October.
