EAST LANSING — One of the Michigan High School Athletic Association’s most popular programs, the Scholar-Athlete Award, will again, with Farm Bureau Insurance, present 32 $1,000 scholarships to top student-athletes at member high schools during the 2019-20 school year.

The MHSAA-Farm Bureau Insurance Scholar-Athlete Award highlights the value extracurricular activities play in the total education of high school students, often improving their academic achievements in the process. The Scholar-Athlete Award is in its 31st year. Since the award’s inception in 1988-89, Farm Bureau Insurance has presented $800,000 in scholarships through this program.

The first 30 scholarships will be presented on a graduated basis across the MHSAA’s traditional class structure. From Class A schools, six boys and six girls will receive scholarships; from Class B schools, four boys and four girls; from Class C schools, three boys and three girls; and from Class D schools, two boys and two girls will be honored. The final two scholarships will be awarded at-large to minority recipients, regardless of school size. The scholarships may be used at the institution of higher learning the recipients attend during the first year at those colleges.

Applications from individual schools will be limited to the number of available scholarships in their enrollment class. Class A schools may submit the names of six boys and six girls. Class B schools may submit four boys and four girls. Class C may submit three boys and three girls and Class D may submit two boys and two girls.

Students applying for Scholar-Athlete Awards must be graduating during the 2019-20 school year, be carrying an unrounded 3.5 (on a 4.0) grade-point average and have won a varsity letter prior to senior year in a sport in which the MHSAA sponsors a postseason tournament: baseball, girls and boys basketball, girls and boys bowling, girls competitive cheer, girls and boys cross country, football, girls and boys golf, girls gymnastics, ice hockey, girls and boys lacrosse, girls and boys skiing, girls and boys soccer, softball, girls and boys swimming and diving, girls and boys tennis, girls and boys track and field, girls volleyball and wrestling.

Applicants will be required to show involvement in other school and community activities and submit an essay on the importance of sportsmanship in educational athletics. 

Information — including answers to a number of frequently asked questions — is available online on the Scholar-Athlete Award page of the MHSAA website at mhsaa.com/Schools/Students/Scholar-Athlete-Award. Applications are available in digital format only, either via the Scholar-Athlete Award page or directly at mhsaa.com/scholarship. All applications must be submitted online by 4 p.m. Dec. 6.

A committee composed of school administrators from across the state will select finalists and winners in early February, with the winners to be announced later in the month. All applicants, finalists and scholarship recipients will be announced on the MHSAA Website. The 32 scholarship recipients will be recognized during the MHSAA Boys Basketball Finals at the Breslin Student Events Center in East Lansing on March 28, 2020.