Discus Awards

You may have already noticed a few changes to the Discus Awards website and recognition and scholarship program.  If you haven't, then this post will help you understand just how hard we've been working to provide outstanding students with high school recognition and college scholarship opportunities!

The first major change we've made to our program that I'd like to share with you today is the addition of network scholarships.  These scholarships, administered by our partner SAGE Scholars, represent a guaranteed minimum scholarship at any school within the Discus Network.  Unfortunately, for you high school seniors, students are only eligible to receive network scholarships through their junior year.  However, we still have our open scholarships for you seniors!

The next change I'd like to point out is a section that we added to our scholarship application process.  Our nomination process is still one that we believe is quick and simple to navigate through, and we're excited now to give our judges an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of our applicants' activities and achievements, both in and outside of their high schools. 

This step asks some quick questions about extracurricular clubs students participate in, community service hours volunteered per week, and more.  We do have a question in this step that asks students to submit their GPA and their test scores.  Here at the Discus Awards we remain committed to our vision of honoring students for much more than their academic scores and athletic win-loss records.  That is why these numbers are NOT considered by our judges when reviewing nominations for Discus Award consideration. The Discus Award will always be a recognition award that honors students for their achievements in three attributes in and outside the classroom. These numbers are considered for additional scholarships that are offered through our program. 

Currently, we have two college scholarships that we offer through the Discus Awards, but we are constantly talking to potential partners, looking for more ways to help fund the post-secondary education of our outstanding winners!

On top of these major changes, we've been rolling out a few minor updates to our website.  For example, we have updated the appearance of students' 'My Account' area, and we've also made it so parents can log into a personalized Discus Awards account using their SAGE Scholars scholarship account credentials.

We are extremely excited about the success of our program to date and the direction we are heading in.  Thank you for your continued support of the Discus Awards program, and don't hesitate to drop us a line and let us know what updates you'd like to see our program make!

Filed under: Discus Dan