WHEELING, Ill., Aug. 1, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- AccuQuote, a leader in providing quality, competitive online life insurance quotes, congratulates Jessica Copley, the winner of the 2017 AccuQuote Life Lessons Scholarship.

Since 2005, the Life Lessons Scholarship Program has provided financial assistance to deserving college-ready kids, to help make their dreams of higher education come true.  The program is the brainchild of Life Happens, a nonprofit organization dedicated to informing the public on the importance of owning life insurance. 

According to a Life Happens press release, the scholarship program "provides financial assistance to students pursuing their dreams of a college education despite having experienced the tremendous loss of a parent or legal guardian who passed away without life insurance."

In 2016, AccuQuote began working with Life Happens to create the AccuQuote Life Lessons Scholarship.  Last year's winner was Zachary Kern, who is now attending Purdue University.

The five semifinalists for this year's prize each overcame amazing personal adversity.  Each candidate was required to submit either a 500-word essay or a 3-minute video to explain why their life story and future aspirations made them deserving of the scholarship.

This past spring, AccuQuote promoted this event via social media, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and on our own website (www.accuquote.com).  In addition, we also sent out an email to a representative section of our customer base, inviting each email recipient to view the candidates' submitted entries.  A link was provided to allow each participant to vote for their favorite candidate.

In her winning essay, Jessica movingly described the tragedy of losing her father while she was so young.  Her father took his own life when she was only thirteen years old.  To compound the tragedy, her family had no life insurance. 

Jessica had to grow up to be a responsible adult practically overnight.  This is what she said (in part) in her essay: "My teenage years were ripped away, forcing me to become a parent to my siblings.  This could have been avoided if my father would have been insured." 

Jessica is currently in her sophomore year, studying Biology at Marshall University in West Virginia.  She plans to go to medical school after getting her bachelor's degree.

You can view Jessica's story and video here.

"I'm grateful to AccuQuote and their generous support in the Life Lessons Scholarship Program and I'll continue to share my story with others about the importance of having proper life insurance and financial protection for the future," says Jessica.

AccuQuote would also like to thank everyone involved and everyone who voted, for helping to make this year's AccuQuote Life Lessons Scholarship event such a smashing success.

About AccuQuote

AccuQuote (www.AccuQuote.com) is one of the nation's largest and leading independent life insurance quoting and brokerage firms.  Headquartered in Wheeling, IL, the company was founded by one of the America's foremost life insurance experts, Byron Udell, in 1994.  His vision was to simplify the life insurance buying experience, and focus on personalized customer service and increased convenience.  AccuQuote's newly designed website uses powerful e-commerce innovations to compare hundreds of insurance products.  Consumers can easily shop for the best rates from dozens of top-rated insurance companies.  With over 90 employees and 200,000 satisfied clients in 50 states over the past 30 years, AccuQuote has placed nearly $100 billion of life insurance in force.  Byron Udell has been recognized in USA Today, Consumer Reports, Forbes, BusinessWeek, Money, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and many others.

SOURCE AccuQuote

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