Koshland Young Leader Awards

Koshland Young Leader Awards

By recognizing the next generation of leaders in our community with these awards, we hope to encourage these young people to continue on their path to leadership.

The Koshland Young Leader Awards, a scholarship program established by Dr. Daniel Koshland, Jr., provide financial assistance to college-bound San Francisco public high school students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Koshland Young Leadership Award recipients are high school students who are highly motivated to achieve despite facing formidable challenges in multiple aspects of their lives, such as economic and family responsibilities. They embrace a commitment to supporting their families and communities. It is our hope that the Koshland Young Leader Awards will allow the recipients to focus more on their studies, thereby improving their chances to succeed academically and to pursue their career goals. This is the 17th year these Awards will be presented.

Up to eight San Francisco public high school juniors will receive a two-year award of $7,000 to be used for education-related purchases. Examples of acceptable uses of the scholarship include: academic test fees, computers, books, and supplies for classes.

Nomination Process

Each winter, we invite teachers and counselors to nominate outstanding San Francisco public high school juniors for this award. The 2010 nomination process is now open.

It is a four-part nomination process with the following deadlines:

• Part 1: Teacher/Counselor submits online nomination form – Deadline was Friday, March 5, 2010
• Part 2: Teacher/Counselor submits complete official student high school transcript – Deadline was Friday, March 12, 2010
• Part 3: Student submits online self-nomination form – Deadline was Friday, March 12, 2010
• Part 4: Student interviews; after the Awards Committee reviews nominations, selected students will be invited for an interview – On April 30, 2010

Important Submission Information for Teachers/Counselors and Nominated Students:

• The Teacher/Counselor nomination form and the Student self-nomination form are different forms. Both must be submitted online. Emailed or mailed nominations will not be accepted.
  
• Student transcripts may be emailed to kma@sff.org or mailed to Kristen Angel, The San Francisco Foundation, 225 Bush Street, Suite 500, San Francisco, CA 94104. Please ensure that each student transcript is submitted in its entirety, including the both sides of double-sided pages.
• You must complete each nomination form in a single online session. You will not be able to return to a particular nomination form once you submit it; and if you exit the form before completing and submitting it, you will lose any content you have entered. We recommend saving all your responses to your computer (in a program such as Microsoft Word) before you begin filling out an online form.
  
• Teachers/Counselors: Please be as thorough and detailed as possible in answering each nomination question, as this nomination form is the primary determinant of which students proceed to the interview stage. We encourage you to download and review this sample nomination form (PDF).
  

For more information, please contact Tiffany Price at tjp@sff.org or Kristen Angel at 415.733.8585.

Selection Process

Each spring, we invite teachers and counselors to nominate outstanding San Francisco public high school juniors for this award. The 2010 nomination process includes the four parts outlined above. Nominations are then vetted by a committee comprised of San Francisco Foundation staff and Koshland family members. Students selected as finalists are interviewed at the Foundation. Winners will be contacted in May.

Awards Celebrations

We honor 2010 Koshland Young Leaders this year at a celebration in June and at the Community Leadership Awards event on Tuesday, September 28, 2010.  

2009 Koshland Young Leader Awardees

We are excited to announce our 2009 Koshland Young Leader Awardees:

• Christian Castaing, City Arts and Technology High School
• Rashim Khadka, Galileo Academy of Science and Technology
• Sandra Liu, Raoul Wallenberg High School
• Janette Marquez, City Arts and Technology High School
• Sha'Nice Patterson, City Arts and Technology High School
• Francesca Sadikin, School of the Arts
• Carly Tello, City Arts and Technology High School
• David Wu, Phillip and Sala Burton Academic High School

We celebrated these outstanding students at the Community Leadership Awards celebration on September 22, 2009. You can watch a short video profile of them below.

2008 Koshland Young Leader Awardees

• Tanea Lunsford, School of the Arts
• Clever Padilla, Mission High School
• Eduwiges Rivas, Mission High School
• Barbara Shipowo, Academy of Arts and Sciences
• Drakzin Wangmo, Gateway High School
• DongYi Zhao, Thurgood Marshall Academic High School

We celebrated these outstanding students at the Community Leadership Awards celebration on September 23, 2008. You can watch a short video profile of them below.