Kyoto Prize Symposium Scholarships available to San Diego area students

Scholarship awards of up to $10,000 are available to San Diego City and County high school senior students (public, private and parochial) through the auspices of the Kyoto Prize Symposium Scholarships, the San Diego Foundation, and the Inamori Foundation of Kyoto, Japan. The deadline for submitting applications is Jan. 7, 2011.

The Kyoto Scholarship award, based on merit and community service, is given to graduating students who aspire to use their studies and work to improve society — a concept consistent with the philosophy of the Kyoto Prize. As part of the application requirements, students write an essay about one of the 2011 Kyoto Prize laureates, which this year are Dr. John Werner Cahn, chosen from the field of materials science and engineering; Dr. Rashid Alievich Sunyaev, selected from the field of earth and planetary sciences, astronomy and astrophysics, and Tamasaburo Bando V, chosen from the field of theater and cinema.

Winners of the 2012-2013 Kyoto Scholarships will be recognized March 20 at the Opening Ceremony and Gala of the 11th annual Kyoto Prize Symposium to be held at the San Diego Hilton Bayfront. They and fellow high school students will be invited to attend the Laureate presentations at three sponsoring universities: Dr. Cahn, at SDSU and Dr. Sunyaev at UCSD, both on March 21, and Bando at USD, March 22.

Applications forms for the scholarship awards are available at www.sdfoundation.org/scholarships. The forms and essays must be submitted to the San Diego Foundation by Jan. 7. The essays will be evaluated with guidance from the “Formula for Success” developed by the Kyoto Prize founder, Dr. Kazuo Inamori.