Awards of Excellence scholarship celebration The Awards of Excellence scholarship celebration recognizes and rewards student success across grades. Focusing on students who have overcome adversity and persevered in the face of challenge, Awards of Excellence demonstrates another way TOGETHER! advances educational and social equity. Following a successful 10-year run in partnership with The Olympian and a 5-year hiatus, the celebration was reignited in 2016 with a renewed focus on celebrating nontraditional student leaders, thanks to significant support from Gateway Rotary Club.
What is Awards of Excellence? The Awards of Excellence is an annual event that honors and celebrates youth in our community whose paths have been marked with adversity and whose grace and strength continue to shine through. Last spring at ESD 113, TOGETHER! honored 32 children and youth as part of our first Awards of Excellence ceremony since 2012. Thanks to the generous support of Gateway Rotary, TwinStar Credit Union, and South Puget Sound Community College Foundation, we awarded four $1,000 scholarships and one full-year tuition waiver for South Puget Sound Community College. Honorees are featured in The Olympian newspaper and publicly recognized at an award ceremony. Together with our partners we are proud to continue this tradition for another year based on the knowledge that supporting and encouraging young people helps our community thrive.
Nominations Schools and community organizations are invited to nominate a deserving youth between the ages of 11 and 21 who has shown leadership and resilience in the face of personal hardship. Junior and senior nominees will be considered by a committee of our staff and partners for one of five $1,000 scholarships, two of which will be awarded based on the theme “Service Above Self.”
Interested in nominating a youth? To submit your nomination, download this form, fill it out and email it, and along with your nominee's school picture or a head-and-shoulders snapshot, to CSpencer@thurstonTOGETHER.org with the subject “[nominee name] AoE Nomination.” Nominations are due by April 14, 2017. Please consider all the forms of diversity that characterize your community in making your selection. The Awards will be presented on May 13th, at SPSCC. If you have any questions about the event and nomination process, please contact Roger Jones at RJones@thurstonTOGETHER.org.
Thank you to our partners! A huge thank you to our partners and sponsors, without you this event would not be possible! Sponsors for the 2016 Awards of Excellence included: Gateway Rotary, South Puget Sound Community College, TwinStar Credit Union, The Olympian, ESD 113, Forrey’s Forza, CYS’ The BRIDGE, DZines, B&R Flooring America, TAGS Awards & Specialties, Shanna Paxton Photography
Thank you for all the ways that you support the youth in our community. Recognition of achievement is vital to the continued success of our youth, and we hope that you will join us in appreciating the young heroes in our community, whose stars shine all the brighter for their resilience and strength. If you are interested in sponsoring this event, please contact Roger Jones at RJones@thurstonTOGETHER.org or 360-493-2230 ext. 109