Embark on a journey to gain access to invaluable resources, mentorship, and a supportive community of like-minded peers. Being a Sterling Scholar instills a lifelong passion for learning and a commitment to excellence.
The Sterling Scholar Awards are open to Utah public high school seniors. It is expected that each school will nominate one candidate in any of the 14 categories. Each school may nominate only one nominee in each of the 14 categories and a nominee may be nominated in only one category.
The selection process and nomination of nominees as Sterling Scholar nominees is left entirely up to each high school. Sterling Scholar officials consider a nominee a high school senior if he/she will be graduating with the senior class during the year 2014.
High school seniors who attend college classes full or part-time or are classified as foreign exchange nominees are eligible for the Sterling Scholar Awards. However, the program is designed to recognize scholastic achievement in Utah public high schools.
To be selected a Sterling Scholar nominee students must have extraordinary scholarship scores as well as service in leadership and community service/citizenship opportunities at their Utah public high school. It is up to each school to determine if an individual has been in attendance enough to experience these leadership and community service/citizenship opportunities.
Each Sterling Scholar nominee’s entire school experience will be considered, although emphasis will be placed on the high school years. High school officials are urged to nominate scholars for categories in which the nominees are genuinely interested and qualified.
Ultimately, selecting nominees is the responsibility of the school principal and not the Deseret News or KSL Broadcast Group. No specific method of selection is required, although the process outlined below provides an excellent opportunity to encourage scholarship. Accordingly, the opportunity to apply to the Sterling Scholar program should be open to as many nominees as possible.
Principal selects and assigns a committee of school faculty, including a Sterling Scholar coordinator, to administer the nomination process of public high school seniors for Sterling Scholar Awards participation.
*PLEASE NOTE: The Deseret News and the KSL Broadcast Group do NOT take part in the selection of nominees. All questions must be directed to the school and NOT the Deseret News or KSL Broadcast Group. All inquiries must be handled by the school coordinator, principal or assistant principal, who is responsible for contacting the Sterling Scholar director for clarification (this includes parents, nominees, teachers, etc.).
When a nominee has been entered into the system by the coordinator he/she will receive an email with their login information along with a temporary password (their individual email address is their unique User ID). The first portion of their portfolio contains their “Personal Information”, school transcripts and college entrance exam scores which have been entered by the school’s Sterling Scholar Coordinator.
Each nominee will begin preparing their portfolio with the upload of their “Letter of Recommendation”. For the remainder of your portfolio the acceptable file formats are .PDF, .TXT, .RTF, .JPG, .TIF, WAV, WMA, .MP4, .ACC, .MP3 and .MPG. External links to YouTube, Vimeo or other video sharing sites are the preferred path for videos. The nominee will have an opportunity to upload a supporting document within each section and more at the end of the portfolio.
Upon completion of the portfolio each nominee will submit their completed document to their Sterling Scholar Coordinator. The program will ask the nominee to print out the portfolio. This is the nominee’s opportunity to make a hardcopy of their electronic portfolio. Uploaded documents and pictures will be embedded within the portfolio pdf. Any external links for video or audio files will be included as hyperlinks. The coordinator will be notified of the submission. It is recommended that the coordinator meet with the nominee to review the portfolio. If changes are suggested the coordinator may re-open the portfolio for the nominee to make those adjustments. The nominee will then, again, resubmit their portfolio.
When all portfolios have been completed and certified the Sterling Scholar Coordinator will submit them to the Deseret News/KSL Broadcast Group Sterling Scholar Award Program. Once that procedure has been done neither the nominee nor the coordinator will have access to the portfolios. Only the Sterling Scholar Director will be able to release the portfolios.
At some point after the award ceremony, all portfolios and judging documents will be deleted from the Sterling Scholar Award Program servers and documents will be unrecoverable. Coordinators will be notified of this date 10 days before the actual deletion so that Sterling Scholars may have the opportunity to print out their portfolio if they have not previously done so.
In addition to the award provided by the Sterling Scholar program to the top 3 of each category in each region, some colleges and universities in Utah offer financial assistance to top nominees in the Deseret News/KSL Broadcast Group Sterling Scholar Awards Program. Some are offered to winners only while other institutions may offer scholarships also to runners-up, and even others offer to finalists or even nominees in the program. Several are renewable based on the nominee’s grade point average. The following are participating educational institutions and their financial assistance for 2024-2025 Sterling Scholars.
Note: Awards are listed as described by the institutions. Exact amounts are not included due to some changes in fee structures. Application must be made immediately; good for the 2024-2025 school year.
We are excited to invite you to take the next step in your academic journey by applying to become a Sterling Scholar! This prestigious program offers you the opportunity to showcase your talents and accomplishments in various categories, from academics to the arts. To apply, we kindly request that you sign the release form provided, granting us permission to consider your achievements for this esteemed scholarship.
SIGN FORM
