L’Oréal USA has donated $400,000 dollars to the onePULSE Foundation’s annual 49 Legacy Scholarship Program. 

The program provides scholarships, one for each of the 49 people killed at Pulse, to students attending an accredited university or career or technical school. 

onePULSE Founder and Director Barbara Poma says L’Oréal’s gift will be used to fund four beauty scholarships. 

“They could be going to school for cosmetology, for hair. We have one scholar who’s going to do aesthetics, to do like injections. We have some makeup. So it’s anything in the beauty realm.”

The scholarships of up to $10,000 dollars are awarded to students who have a history of strong academic achievement and activism in their community. 

Poma says the idea for the scholarships including these new beauty scholarships came from the families of the victims and survivors of the Pulse shooting. Each scholarship honors a specific person.

“So the idea to create a scholarship in each of their names really came from those conversations. It’s a way to truly make their legacies live on. So the families actually designated their loved one’s scholarship based on their career or career aspiration.”

Poma says anyone of any age, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, disability or faith, can apply.

This year’s scholarship recipients will be announced at a virtual luncheon on April 24th.

Apply for a onePULSE scholarship here.