PULLMAN — WSU has awarded Regents Scholarships to 247 students from 169 high schools across the state. The students, who were nominated in their junior year by their schools, will receive scholarships worth as much as $66,000.
The top 25 nominees were named Distinguished Regents Scholars, a designation that comes with a four-year scholarship worth approximately $66,000. Two-year awards worth $8,000 went to 75 selected students. Other Regents Scholars received two-year awards worth $6,000.
Each of the Distinguished Regents Scholars’ high schools will receive a plaque recognizing the contribution the schools have made to their students’ success.
Each year in March, qualifying high schools and participating tribes are invited to make nominations for the Regents Scholars Program.
“What’s unique about this program is that we ask the principals and guidance counselors in the high schools to nominate two students whom they feel can best benefit from a WSU education,” said WSU Vice President for Enrollment Management John Fraire.
“What we hope is that they will nominate their strongest students, whether or not they are currently considering WSU, because we’ve found that once a student visits the campus, meets the faculty and other students, they discover firsthand that there is so much more to WSU than they might have thought. We hear from students all the time that they hadn’t seriously considered WSU until they were nominated for this outstanding scholarship; they decided to visit the campus, and now they can’t imagine themselves going to college anywhere else,” Fraire said.
To qualify for nomination, students must be high school juniors who are Washington state residents or are selected by participating Native American tribes, and must also have excellent grades and ACT/SAT scores. Nominees are judged on academic performance, leadership capability and community and extracurricular involvement.
A major purpose of the Regents Scholars Program is keeping more of Washington’s best students in-state for their education. The total worth of the awards granted this year is more than $3.3 million. Since its inception in 2001, the program has awarded scholarships to nearly 2,700 students.
A complete list of this year’s Regents Scholars and their schools is available at www.regents-scholarship.wsu.edu.
