Flinn Scholars

A few weeks ago, one of the applicants for the 2014 Flinn Scholarship wrote me and asked a simple question: "Is it okay to be creative when I answer the essay prompts?"

Below is my response. There's no reason it shouldn't be available to anyone who's working on the Flinn Scholarship application:

You're absolutely on the right track with the essays, in this sense: There are straightforward, fairly easy ways to answer any of the three questions, and sometimes we've been rather prescriptive in terms of what we're expecting an essay to address.

We will probably receive 400 sets of essays that take those straightforward approaches, even with the "commencement address" prompt. The better among these essays will demonstrate that the writer has thought about the prompts and answered the questions they explicitly contain; these will be unremarkable essays that don't hurt the rest of the writer's application. The less-distinguished among these essays will be confusing, rushed, ungrammatical, and/or inauthentic. These essays will make it almost impossible to advance the writer's application into the second round of our review process.

So, you should most definitely find *some* way to make your essays creatively distinctive. Certainly, there is opportunity to do that with the "commencement address" prompt; much will change in the world in 40 years; you will change, too. We will get *lots* of essays written from the perspectives of politicians and doctors and entrepreneurs. Probably quite a bit fewer written from the perspectives of parents, community activists, classroom teachers, artists, ex-cons, professional magicians, or victims of terrorism, shark attacks, or Martian abductions. There's so much you can do.

There is room for the other two prompts to yield creative responses as well. For the "compromise" prompt, I hope that we'll receive essays that talk about group dynamics in school settings, in extracurricular activities like marching band and athletics, in religious organizations, in local politics, in junior-high student council, and on and on. I hope that some of the essays will reveal the writers' senses of humor, or emotional depth, or courage, or sense of personal moral strength. I hope some will be written in the third person. I hope they'll all take the question seriously.

For the challenge question, I know we'll get lots of responses about education, immigration, divisiveness in politics, health care, and economic development--as we should. Those are essential issues confronting our state. I really hope we'll also get responses about less well-known issues about which the writer really knows something important, issues in which the writer has a meaningful stake but about which the writer can still think and argue dispassionately. 

Hope that helps.

Flinn Scholars

Applicants for the Flinn Scholarship must submit scores from either the ACT or the SAT (or both). Our target minimum scores are 29 on the ACT or 1300 on the SAT (reading and math sections only, not writing).

Can you submit an application if your scores don't quite meet these minimums, but the rest of your application is exceptionally strong? Yes.

We review every application we receive, and occasionally an applicant becomes a Flinn Scholar with a score below our threshold. But this is rare; each year hundreds of applicants have scores well above our minimums.

What if you haven't yet taken the ACT or SAT, or have taken one of these exams but feel like you could do better? There is still time!

The final ACT that counts for our process will be administered on September 21. Students who take this exam can use Code 2175 to send their scores directly to the Flinn Scholars Program.

The final SAT that counts for our process will be administered on October 5. The deadline to register for this exam is right around the corner: Monday, September 23.

Students who take the October 5 SAT can use Code 2175 to send their scores directly to the Flinn Scholars Program. Although scores from this exam will be posted after our application deadline, we can add these scores to an applicant's file.

Flinn Scholars

Marla Smith-Nilson, a Flinn Scholar from the Class of 1987, is a SELF Magazine Women Doing Good Honoree for her work with Water 1st, a nonprofit she founded to bring clean water to impoverished communities around the world.

Flinn Scholars

This year has seen several Flinn Scholars--current and alumni--awarded nationally competitive scholarships and fellowships allowing them to pursue further study and research at their universities or abroad.

Flinn Scholars

Trick question.

Sure, there are far more Flinn Scholar alums with PhDs, MDs, JDs, and MBAs than in the general population. But how they get there, or to whatever other destination, is a unique story, every time.

Late last night, I heard from alum Ke Wu ('06), one of the most intelligent, thoughtful, and big-hearted people you'll ever meet. She let me know the next step in her "typical path." I'll let the post from the Public Interest Law Center at NYU speak for itself:

Ke Wu
Filomen M. D’Agostino Scholar for Women or Children

Ke was born in Wuhan, China and raised in Tucson, Arizona. A graduate of University High School, she has been deeply influenced by the liberating potential of a progressive public education. While studying biochemistry as a Flinn Scholar at Arizona State University, Ke travelled around the world investigating education initiatives on a Circumnavigators Club Foundation Grant. This research inspired her to deepen her understanding of issues in domestic education, leading her to join Teach For America after graduating in 2010.

As a chemistry teacher at John C. Fremont High School in South Los Angeles, she witnessed how school reconstitution, followed by large budget cuts, left students disillusioned with schooling. In response, she engaged students in discussions about the role of social inequity in education. These discussions shaped her role as the Academic Decathlon coach, through which she witnessed the transformation of her decathletes into social justice advocates. These experiences, along with the prolific encouragement of her students, led her to pursue an MPhil in Education on a Gates Cambridge Scholarship and now, a law degree. With a legal background, she hopes to improve the capabilities of all children, starting with the right to equal access to education opportunities.

Flinn Scholars

Every summer since 2000, Flinn Scholars have marked the end of their first year of college with a group study-abroad seminar. This year featured the most significant change since the three-week seminar’s introduction: After a 12-year run with Budapest, Hungary as home base, the seminar has moved to China. Here are reflections from three members of the first class of Scholars to travel to China together.

Flinn Scholars

Each summer, Flinn Scholars who have completed their first year of college travel together internationally for three weeks. This all-expenses-paid group seminar is a cornerstone of the Flinn Scholars Program: It cements the Scholars' connections to one another, thrusts them into unfamiliar settings, and infuses them with the confidence and judgment for a future of purposeful travel throughout the world. This year, after 13 summers in Hungary and Romania, the seminar found a new home in China.

Flinn Scholars

The Flinn Scholarship application opens August 26 and is due October 18. Whether you are a student, a parent, a teacher, or a counselor, you may be wondering if there is anything to do right now to prepare for the application window. Good news: There is.

Flinn Scholars

Sixteen graduating Flinn Scholars, who are preparing to start new life adventures later this year, were honored during the Flinn Scholars Program’s annual Recognition Dinner May 4 at the Ritz-Carlton in Phoenix.

BioscienceFlinn Scholars

The Flinn Scholars Program and its Class of 2013 honored the Arizona educators who played a special role in the education and development of the high-school seniors.