Scholarship for First-Year Students in Higher Education

High school students planning on attending a four-year college, technical college, trade school, or other post-high school institution of learning in the 2025–2026 academic year are invited to apply to the St. Mark’s Scholarship. While the forms below are designed for new High School seniors, these scholarships are also available for other adults embarking on new educational enterprises.  You may use these same forms and adapt them for your circumstances. Students looking to apply must:

Fill out the application form.

Attach a digital photograph of yourself with your application.

Write a brief essay (1-2 pages) where you:

• Describe your goals & aspirations.

• Reflect on your past year of education (e.g. What were some of the highlights and challenges? What did you learn?).

• Describe how you are connected to a life of faith:

  • Share your past or present involvement in St.Mark’s (Sunday School, mission trips, volunteering, service projects, etc.)

  • Describe the way you are living out your faith in relationship to your vocation and community

• Include any of the following information that would allow the committee to gain a more complete picture of you: your leadership, volunteer opportunities, clubs, employment, athletics, and extra-curricular school activities.

Include letters of recommendation from the current year (one academic and one personal) as pdf files with your application to scholarships@smlutheran.org.

• Please provide one academic and one personal (non-family) letter of recommendation. The letters should be no more than one page. (See the “Letters of Recommendation” template provided on the website).

  • The academic letter can be from a teacher, professor or advisor.

  • The personal letter can be from a coach, employer or mentor.

Applications will open for the 2025-2026 school year on April 14th, 2025. Application materials will also be available here at that time.