St. Timothy’s Lutheran Church of San Jose, CA is offering scholarships to high school graduates in our area who will be attending an accredited post-secondary school in the United States after graduation. This school must be a nationally accredited 4-year college or university, community college, vocational school or trade school. Scholarship recipients will receive $1000 towards tuition and fees. Payment will be made directly to the student. 
APPLICATION DEADLINE IS JULY 11, 2025 @ 5 pm PDT.
 
ELIGIBILITY FOR SCHOLARSHIP AWARD
The following criteria must be met to qualify for scholarship award under the program:
  1. The applicant must be currently affiliated with an NALC congregation within the Central Pacific Mission District or an LCMC congregation in Northern California.
  2. The applicant must have graduated from high school within the past two years and be planning to start or continue his or her post-secondary education during 2025-2026 academic year.
  3. The applicant may not have previously received a scholarship under the program.
  4. The applicant must complete an online application package (application form, an attached essay, a copy of the acceptance letter or proof of admittance from the school, and a letter of reference). Submissions are due no later than 5 PM (PDT) Friday, July 11, 2025.
 
APPLICATION PROCESS
Before beginning the online application, you will need to have 3 items ready to upload within the application (you will not be able to proceed without them).
 
REFERENCE LETTER- from the student’s pastor, youth director, or other adult leader in the applicant’s congregation that verifies affiliation with and level of activity in the NALC or LCMC congregation.
ACCEPTANCE LETTER OR SIMILAR PROOF OF ADMISSION- to a nationally accredited educational institution.
AN ESSAY- Please type an essay (500 words maximum and save as a PDF) on one of the following topics:
  1. What has your home church meant to you in your development as a Christian?
  2. How has your church or family prepared you to share your faith with others as you move on to college?
  3. How has your Christian faith affected your involvement with your community?
 
DIGITAL SIGNATURE- Applicant and a parent/guardian are required to digitally sign the application at the end so be sure to have a parent closeby when you finish.
 
SELECTION OF SCHOLARSHIP WINNERS
The selection of winners will be performed by the Scholarship Committee in a multi-step process and will be based strictly upon the application packages:
  1. The application packages will be subjected to detailed examination and ranking. The contents of the application form and the essay will be evaluated, and the application packages will be ranked. The acceptance letter or proof of admission, and the letter of reference will be used to support the information provided in the application and the essay.
  2. The ranking will be done based upon a process and set of specific criteria that have been developed and documented by the Scholarship Committee. The process is as follows:
          • The content of the application form will be weighted at 30% and the content of the essay will be weighted at 70%.
          •  The content will be evaluated on a scale of High (3), Medium (2), and Low (1) for the degree to which it addresses the assigned topic, indicates substantial church or community involvement, and shows promise for further growth.
          •  The weighted scores will be combined to create a total for each application package that will be used to rank the entries.
          • The highest-scoring packages will be declared scholarship recipients up to the maximum authorized number of scholarships.
The scholarship recipients will be notified by the end of July 2025.
 
If you have any questions, please contact the Scholarship Committee at Scholarship@stlcsj.org.
We will be happy to assist you in the application process.
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If you are having technical problems with the online application, email info@stlcsj.org