We hope to award two $2,000 scholarships this year | Credit: PxFuel CC0
The San Juan Preservation Trust is offering up to two $2,000 scholarships to graduating high-school seniors who are San Juan Island County residents and attend high school in the San Juan Islands.
The scholarships are intended to recognize and encourage a diverse mix of young members of our island communities who have demonstrated extraordinary commitment, effort, and imagination in addressing the issue of climate change, and who plan a course of collegiate study that equips them to amplify their climate-focused endeavors—whether through scientific inquiry, the arts, media, or other forms of active community engagement.
The scholarships are being funded exclusively by earmarked donations from some of our board members. “Climate change is already altering ecosystems on the lands that the Preservation Trust conserves and stewards,” says Preservation Trust board member Michael Popiwny. “With these scholarships, we want to recognize and encourage young people who are responding to the climate crisis with courage and leadership, and who will in the future help us all address our changing climate.”
ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS
We are looking for applicants from a diverse group of graduating seniors who meet all of the following criteria:
- Are residents of San Juan County
- Are NOT direct relatives of Preservation Trust board members or staff
- Attend high school in the San Juan Islands
- Plan to continue their education on a full-time basis at a community college, college, or university to which they have been admitted for the following academic year. (Or, if an applicant has been admitted and is planning a gap year, s/he should include a statement about how they plan to spend the 2020-21 academic year.)
APPLICATION PROCESS AND TIMELINE
Applications, including essays and other application components (as specified on the application form) are due by 5 pm on April 1. Scholarship winners will be informed no later than April 30. We invite winners to attend the Preservation Trust’s Annual Meeting on May 9, 2020, as honored guests. Winners will also be recognized at their respective high-school graduation or award ceremonies.
CONDITIONS OF PARTICIPATION
By applying for a scholarship, the applicant promises that the required essay is her/his original work and not copied from any other source or infringe upon the rights of any third party, and that the applicant has the rights to convey any and all right to such essay.
Applicants under 18 years of age agree to submit a waiver, signed by a parent or guardian, that gives the San Juan Preservation Trust (SJPT) permission to use his/her name and photographic image in press releases, SJPT social media, and articles appearing on sjpt.org and in Preservation Trust newsletters.
For this first year of our Climate Leadership Scholarship Program, our hope and intention is to award two, one-time scholarships to two students who are San Juan county residents and are graduating from a high school in San Juan County. We encourage a diverse range of individuals to apply, representing differences of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, physical abilities, religious beliefs and ideologies.
Our award of two scholarships in 2020 assumes that we receive two applications that we deem equally award-worthy. If this standard is not met, we reserve the right to award fewer than two scholarships.
See the application and instructions for submission here. The deadline is 5 pm on April 1, 2020.