2025 Jackie Awosika Scholarship Rules

Hi all,

Here are the program rules for our 2025 Scholarship contest. Please contact president@uaeatempe.com if you need any clarification.

1. All applicants must be current UAEA members or children of UAEA members. Applicants must maintain their connection to UAEA, at minimum, up until the day the finalists are announced.

   1. Applicants may be deemed ineligible if the UAEA connection either leaves UAEA or their employment with the City of Tempe between the time the application is submitted and the time the finalists are announced.

2. All applicants must be enrolled in an accredited college or trade school as of the time of the application.

3. UAEA will only consider complete applications. UAEA may reach out to the applicants to request materials if the original submission does not contain all necessary information, but we are not required to do so.

4. All application materials will be anonymized by the UAEA President and given to a panel of at least 3 board members. Each panelist will independently review the materials, fill out an evaluation rubric with their scores, and then return their final scores to the President. The President will de-anonymize the data, aggregate the scores, and present the final results to the panel for discussion.

5. AI programs should not be used for essays. Any essay written by AI will be disqualified. All content submitted should be the original work of the applicant.

6. UAEA allocates $2500 annually for the Jackie scholarship. The UAEA panel reserves the right to distribute these funds in whatever way they like, as long as the distribution is based upon the results of the final anonymized scores. Funds may be given to only one applicant if their application clearly stands out from the others, divided up in chunks between multiple applicants if there is a degree of separation in final scores, or evenly distributed between all applicants if the scores were roughly equivalent.

7. Funds will be distributed in the name of the UAEA member connected to the applicant. If a child of a UAEA member wins the funds will be distributed in check form to their UAEA parent or legal guardian.

8. Applicants are evaluated primarily on the quality of their essay and responses to the application questions. Slight preference will be given to the children of UAEA members, those who have never received funds from UAEA, and first-generation college students, but all applicants who meet the main criteria are encouraged to apply.