OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence, a nonprofit organization that recognizes and encourages academic excellence in Oklahoma’s public schools, is seeking nominations for its 2021 Academic All-State Awards.
Scholarships totaling $100,000 will be presented at the foundation’s 35th annual Academic Awards Banquet May 15, 2021, at the Cox Business Convention Center in Tulsa. In addition, the foundation will recognize five innovative public school educators who were selected in 2020 as Medal for Excellence winners but were unable to be honored last spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Academic All-State Award nominations are being accepted through an online portal at www.ofe.org. The award honors 100 public high school seniors with a $1,000 merit-based scholarship. To qualify, students must meet at least one of the following requirements: a composite ACT score of at least 30; a combined SAT evidence-based reading & writing and math score of at least 1370; or be selected as a semi-finalist for a National Merit, National Achievement or National Hispanic Scholarship.
Given the unique circumstances surrounding ACT and SAT testing during the COVID-19 pandemic, an alternative nomination criterion will be available to students who were unable to take the ACT or SAT test in 2020. For those students, the principal must certify that the student was unable to take the test due to COVID-19 and that the student ranks in the Top 4 percent, GPA cumulative, of their senior class. Students who took the ACT or SAT in 2020 but did not receive the minimum required score are not eligible for this alternative.
Eligibility for all Academic All-State nominations must be verified by the district superintendent or high school principal. Academic All-State nominations must be submitted by 5 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 3. The foundation will not be doing a selection process for Medal for Excellence Awards for educators this year so that it may honor the 2020 Medal winners, whose recognition was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Academic All-State Award recipients are chosen by an independent selection committee and is comprised of business, education and civic leaders and former Academic All-Staters and Medal for Excellence winners.