Bertolino LLP, an Austin-based law firm, has awarded its 2026 Impact in Government Scholarship to Ajok “Jolie” Bul, a student at Southern Methodist University. The $2,500 scholarship, announced October 27, 2026, invited applicants to answer one of two prompts. Bul chose to address what law today will be obsolete by 2075 and why.
In her video, “When Beauty Becomes Medicine,” Bul highlights a regulatory inconsistency: South Korea regulates sunscreen as a functional cosmetic, while the United States classifies it as an over-the-counter drug. She argues that as biotechnology, artificial intelligence, and personalized skincare advance, the legal distinction between cosmetics and drugs may not survive the next 50 years.
Bul’s argument carries weight because sunscreen is not an isolated case. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulates sunscreens as drugs because they make drug-like claims about preventing skin cancer and sun damage. In South Korea, sunscreens are treated as functional cosmetics, a category that requires evidence of efficacy but not the full drug approval process. The divergence illustrates how regulatory frameworks struggle to keep pace with products that blur traditional categories.
Bul brought firsthand experience to the topic. She founded Nile Glow, a social-impact skincare initiative that supports fair-wage employment for young women in South Sudan. That experience, she said, gave her a practical understanding of the beauty industry and its regulatory challenges.
“When I encountered the prompt asking what law today might be obsolete by 2075, I immediately thought of the inconsistency in how a product as simple as sunscreen is regulated,” Bul said. “That contradiction became the foundation for my video.”
The selection committee also recognized Bul’s broader achievements. She is one of 11 students in the NexPoint John G. Tower Scholars Program, a competitive four-year interdisciplinary cohort focused on global economic systems and policy analysis. She was the only Tower Scholar to conduct original research on U.S.-Japan trade relations, which she presented at the Sun & Star Business and Geopolitics Symposium co-hosted with Kwansei Gakuin University. She is also a Gerald & Gail Turner Scholar.
Beyond academics, Bul serves as Director of Programming for the Association of Black Students, where she increased freshman meeting attendance by more than 60 percent. She worked as a Brand & Marketing Outreach Intern for HANDS International in partnership with UNICEF, helping generate more than $150,000 in international funding to support more than 20 girls displaced by conflicts in the Middle East. She volunteers with Hope Farm in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and is a member of Alpha Kappa Psi Business Fraternity and the SMU African Student Association.
The scholarship will support Bul’s studies in Economics with Financial Applications, with minors in Public Policy & International Affairs and Business Administration. She plans to pursue a career at the intersection of business, government, and international development.
The award matters beyond the tuition assistance. It signals that the next generation of policy thinkers is already questioning regulatory categories that may no longer fit a rapidly evolving marketplace. Bertolino LLP, which has defended thousands of Texas licensed professionals since 2003, framed the scholarship as an investment in forward-looking government regulation. The firm’s practice centers on the principle that a professional’s license represents years of training and deserves serious defense.
Bul’s video raises a question that regulators may soon confront: if a product can be a cosmetic in one country and a drug in another, how should the law classify the personalized, biotechnology-enhanced skincare products of the future? For now, the scholarship winner has made a compelling case that the answer may require rewriting rules written for a different era.
Students interested in next year’s scholarship can find eligibility criteria and application details on the firm’s Bertolino LLP website.
