Applicant Selection and Award Method
As a “need-based” award, our Scholarship Committee will look carefully at the applicant’s ability (or their family’s ability) to pay for a college education. Financial need will be established through the applicant’s FAFSA Submission Summary Report where we will evaluate the applicants Federal Pell Grant amount and their assigned Student Aid Index (SAI) which has a range of -1,500 to 999,999.
Transcripts, essays, resumes and letters of recommendation will then be evaluated.
Lastly, to ensure our scholarship organization and the applicant are both successful in meeting our generational (long term) goals, our Scholarship Committee will evaluate the alignment of the applicant’s chosen field of study to what we believe to be the future national and global employment trends as well as their earning potential over the next 5, 10 and 20 years. Although we cannot accurately predict the future earnings of the applicant’s chosen field of study, we clearly see significant long term disruptive shifts in our workforce needs in the next few decades. For example, due to the rapid growth of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Automation, we are seeing a few new career opportunities being born while at the same time observing many historically secure high paying careers moving towards extinction. As such, we are advising all our applicants to carefully consider their long-term career objectives and our Scholarship Committee's selection methodology .
Scholarship Winner Notifications
Scholarship winners will be notified of their award via email and text message no later than the Scholarship Award Notification date of May 7, 2027.
Scholarship winners must officially “Accept” their 1st year award (via email) no later than the 1st Year Award Acceptance Deadline date of May 14, 2027. All scholarship winners who accept their award must provide the following information to the Scholarship Committee to properly process their award to the University of your choice:
a) The name and address of the school they will be attending this fall
b) Their name as it appears (or will appear) on their student ID Card
c) Their student ID number
Important: If the scholarship winner does not formally accept their award by email before the 1st Year Acceptance Deadline date of May 14, 2027 or choose to decline their award, our Scholarship Committee will immediately and irreversibly redirect their scholarship award to the next eligible candidate .
Scholarship Disbursement
$5,000 1st year awards will be deposited into the student's college account in the month of June.
$3,000 2nd year awards will be deposited into the student's college account in the month of July.
After the student’s college/university confirms receipt of the scholarship funds, The Scholarship Committee will inform the scholarship winners (via email and text) of the completed transaction. The scholarship winners can then independently verify the deposit.
If allowed by the college or university, any unused funds at the time of college graduation may be used by the student to pay down any outstanding student loan balances or any other sources of student debt.
Award winners must notify our Scholarship Committee immediately if they withdraw from the college or university prior to their scheduled graduation date and must return all unused scholarship funds back to our Scholarship Committee within 30 calendar days after their official withdrawal date.
Student Information Disclosure
All applicant information sent to The Kawamoto Family Japanese American Scholarship is considered "Personal and Confidential" and will never be shared with anyone outside of our scholarship organization.
Due to the inherent privacy concerns associated with need-based awards, we do not disclose or publish the identity of any of our scholarship winners (e.g. names, photos, school, etc.). All scholarship winners will remain anonymous,