WRITTEN BY RIELLE CHLOE CANLAS AND JILL LUNA
The California Scholarship Federation, otherwise known as CSF, is an organization that awards and encourages students’ academic achievement during their time at the Valley Academy of Arts & Sciences. High school principal, Mr. Charles F. Seymour first proposed this idea at a convention of high school principles in Oakland in 1916. He led an active campaign to support his idea and it resulted in schools organizing similar societies. As an honors society that recognizes academic excellence, CSF has a series of requirements to join. You must have a GPA of at least 3.5 and have taken a few core curriculum classes each semester. Memberships to the program are only by application which is available at the beginning of each semester. There is a $5 donation when the application is completed and this helps fund membership awards. Late applications are NOT accepted. When in this program, a 10 hour minimum of community service is required each semester, outside of regular school hours, to keep the membership in CSF. During your fall semester in sophomore year, your freshman year grades first determine if you can join. Mrs. Kidwell, the advisor of this program, will send a paper to notify you about CSF. It’s not necessary to join but it’s a great opportunity for those who would like to add this on their future college applications. If you wish to achieve the highest awards from this program, you must complete 6 semesters, but joining your Junior year will still bring benefits, and has 4, the minimum amount of semesters required to receive these benefits, with your sophomore grades determining whether you are eligible for the program. As for rewards, the life membership (sealbearer) is awarded to those who qualified for four or more semesters, at least one semester in senior year. Those people would earn a CSF Gold Seal on their diploma and graduate with special honors. They’ll also be eligible to be nominated by the advisor to earn the Seymour Memorial Awards. According to the official CSF website, it states, “Over $100,000 is awarded to a group of 50 graduating Sealbearers each year. Each spring, regional subcommittees of five advisers choose outstanding Life Members (Sealbearers) from among candidates nominated by their advisers by the February deadline within each of the five regions. Each year, 50 finalists receive awards of $2,000 each, and five of these (one per region) each receive an additional $3,000 as the regional award recipient. The award is now regarded as one of the highest scholastic honors given to secondary school graduates in the state of California.” Overall, the California Scholarship federation assists with college expenses through the help of volunteering within your high school years. Comments are closed.
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EditorZachary Buenaventura Author
Yuliana Altamirano CategoriesArchives
June 2023
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