Procedure for Receiving and Processing Scholarship Applications

Scholarship applications may be obtained during the student’s senior year in high school from The Stephen Pierce Foundation. Students must request a scholarship application in writing. The written request must identify the student’s name, home address, high school, month and year of graduation. The written request must be mailed to:

 

The Stephen Pierce Foundation 
121 Broadway, Suite 220 
San Diego, CA 92101

 

Once the scholarship application is completed, the completed scholarship application must be mailed to the address above by no later than December 31st. Scholarship applications postmarked after December 31st will not be considered.

 

Procedures for Selecting Students for Scholarships

The following procedures shall be followed by the scholarship selection committee to select students to receive a scholarship from The Stephen Pierce Foundation.

 

The scholarship selection committee shall meet to read, consider and discuss each application. The scholarship selection committee shall create the following four lists: an Eligibility List, a Finalist List, a Scholarship Recipient List, and a Disqualification List. 

The Eligibility List shall be prepared first. The Eligibility List shall list all students who, based on their applications, meet the eligibility requirements set forth below.

 

The Finalist List shall list all students whose applications demonstrate that they may be worthy scholarship recipients. All students on the Finalist List shall be contacted by at least one member of the scholarship selection committee for a telephone or in-person interview. During the telephone interview, the scholarship selection committee member will fill out an interview sheet which lists each of the following questions:

 

1. Why do you want to go to college?

2. What would a college degree mean to you and your family?

3. What do you believe are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?

4. What obstacles, if any, have you had to overcome in your life?

5. What actions have you taken to overcome those obstacles? 

 

The scholarship selection committee will review the interview sheets and decide, based on the applications and the responses to the interview questions, which will be a scholarship recipient and how much each recipient will receive. 

The Scholarship Recipients List shall list all scholarship recipients and the amount of each scholarship awarded to that recipient. 

The Disqualification List shall list all students who submitted an application after previously failing to comply with the guidelines set forth below. 

 

Supervision of Scholarships

The scholarship selection committee will supervise the scholarship that is given by monitoring compliance with the scholarship guidelines. The scholarship selection committee shall monitor compliance with the scholarship guidelines by contacting the school at the end of each semester to determine whether the scholarship recipient is still enrolled full time in the school. If the student is not in compliance with these guidelines, he or she will be notified by mail at the address listed on his or her scholarship application that he or she is out of compliance and that he or she is disqualified from receiving any future scholarships from the Foundation. The student will further be notified in the same notice that he or she has fifteen days to seek exemption from the disqualification list. A student may seek exemption from the disqualification list by mailing the Foundation a cover letter seeking exemption accompanied by proof of a medical condition, in the form of a letter from a medical doctor who has treated the student for the medical condition, or proof of a death in his or her immediate family. The student will be notified within 10 days of receipt of the request for exemption of whether exemption has been approved.