Sttark Scholarship Opportunities

Spring 2025 scholarship applications are now open. Application Period: November 1, 2024 – March 1, 2025

There are two scholarships you can submit for:

“You Can’t Label People, but You Can Label Products” Essay & Label Design Scholarship

An essay and label design scholarship of $3,000 to be awarded to a U.S. high school senior, undergraduate, or graduate student. Recognizing the pitfalls of misleading labels, we believe the best ideas begin with a blank slate —free from biases and assumptions. Embrace your inherent creativity and uniqueness through writing and design. Write a 1,000-word essay and create an original label design to show us how products can be labeled but people can’t.

Essay Prompt

“You can’t label people, but you can label products.”

You can use the following questions to spark your creativity, but you are not required to answer them.

● Has consumerism influenced the way we view people?

● Do people try to market themselves for acceptance?

● What effect do labels have on creativity? How might it differ between products and people?

● Is there a distinction between negative and positive labels? Is labeling yourself or another individual ever beneficial?

Write a 1000-word creative essay showing how you relate to this statement and why it matters. Additionally, design a label related to your essay topic that you would use for a product but not a person.

IMPORTANT: Please include both your essay and label design with your application. We will not consider incomplete applications.

Application for the Essay Scholarship

Website: https://www.sttark.com/scholarship/labels-scholarship/labels-application

Important: When adding the shareable link to your PDF file within the application, ensure that it is shared publicly if using a service like Google Drive or Dropbox.

Our team will need viewer access to your file to consider your submission. Please check your file share settings to ensure we have access.

For questions about your application, please email scholarship@sttark.com

Eligibility & Requirements for Essay Scholarship:

If you’re an aspiring designer, manufacturer, engineer, artist, architect, or any other type of innovator, this essay scholarship is for you. The application is open to current high school seniors, undergraduate students, and graduate students of any major. Due to complexities with international funding, we will only consider submissions from U.S. citizens.

If you are selected as the scholarship winner:

You will need to provide proof of college acceptance or a current transcript for high school students. Undergraduate and graduate students will need to provide proof of attendance from their college or university.

We’d love to know your future goals and why you deserve this scholarship, so we’re asking you to submit a brief biography of no more than 250 words with your application. In this bio, please specify your intended field of study and your current grade or degree level.

We will not assess this bio in our submission evaluation, but it will help us better understand your vision.

We will not consider your submission if it does not include the following:

● A short bio with your intended field of study and education level

● Evidence of U.S. citizenship (valid US postal address)

● A 1,000-word essay

● An original label design

We recommend checking out sites like Canva that allow you to design labels online for free. You can also check out our Product Labels page for inspiration.

● Proof of education: If chosen as the scholarship winner, we will request proof of education documents before sending the funds to your school. (examples: current transcript, student ID with current year, acceptance letter)

Evaluation

Your essay and label design will be evaluated by these five criteria:

1. Originality – overall uniqueness

2. Creativity – a blend of imagination and great ideas

3. Quality – superb execution

4. Competency – an evident eye for design and clear written communication

5. Connectedness – clear unity between the essay and label design

Only submit your own work. Plagiarism is the opposite of innovation, and we will eliminate any stolen work. This is a creative, not an academic essay, so you’re not required to include sources. However, if you do reference the work of another individual, please use a citation.

“Unboxing Your Life” Video Scholarship

A video scholarship of $3,000 to be awarded to a U.S. high school senior, undergraduate, or graduate student who doesn’t live boxed in. Enticing carton packaging creates the first impression, but it’s the contents inside that keep people coming back. We understand that your presentation is merely a glimpse into who you are. Create a 5-minute unboxing video that shows us the contents of your life that make you who you truly are.

Video Prompt

“This Is Who I Am: Unboxing My Life”

On the shelf, the folding carton or box is what first grabs attention, but the unboxing reveals a lot more about the product. The same is true with people. Packaging can promote personality, but contents reveal character and tell a story.

You’re welcome to use the following questions to help spark your creativity, but you are not required to answer them.

● Our “packaging” encases us, but our experiences shape us. The more we see about a person, the more we understand them and their values. Have your experiences ever changed the way you present yourself? In what way and why has it changed?

● Some people prefer to leave valuable products in their packaging, unopened or barely used, out of fear that they may be lost or damaged. Sometimes people find it more comfortable to stay “boxed in.”

Can you relate? Is there a significant moment in life when you opened up? Why did you choose to open up, and what did you discover about yourself or the world when you decided not to let yourself stay boxed in?

● Steve Jobs said, “Packaging can be theatre; it can create a story.” What does our personal packaging communicate, and is this message important? Can this presentation ever be misleading?

● No one wants to be criticized and put in a box. Have you ever been mislabeled? Were you able to change someone’s initial perception of you? Has someone ever told you they misjudged you? What was this experience like? And why do you think people are sometimes too quick to put others in a box?

Create a 5-minute unboxing video of your life that showcases your originality and unique personality.

You can shoot your video on a phone with basic editing like iMovie or as a single shot on a phone. Your submission will be judged for creativity, so keep in mind that the quality of your video matters.

Application for the Video Scholarship

Website: https://www.sttark.com/scholarship/unboxing-your-life-scholarship/video-application

We’re confident your story will inspire others, and we think it’s worth sharing. But Sttark will not publish, use, or distribute any student submissions without prior written consent.

Important: When adding the shareable link to your video within the application, ensure that it is shared publicly if using a service like Google Drive or Dropbox.

Our team will need viewer access to your file to consider your submission. Please check your file share settings to ensure we have access.

For questions about your application, please email scholarship@sttark.com

Evaluation:

Your unboxing video will be evaluated by these four criteria:

1. Originality – overall uniqueness

2. Creativity – a blend of imagination and great ideas

3. Quality – superb execution

4. Competency – good composition and clear, engaging communication

Only submit your own work. Plagiarism is the opposite of innovation, and stolen work will be eliminated. This is your story–it’s uniquely valuable, and we want to hear it. No one can tell a story better than the one who has lived it, so stick to telling your story and no one else’s. If you do reference the work of another individual, please use a citation.

Refrain from submitting previously recorded videos if they do not align with the prompt “This Is Who I Am: Unboxing My Life.”

Eligibility & Requirements: Video Scholarship

This application is open to all high school seniors, undergraduate, and graduate students. Due to complexities with international funding, we will only consider submissions from U.S. citizens.

If you are selected as the scholarship winner:

We will not assess this bio in our submission evaluation, but it will help us better understand your vision.

We will not consider your submission if it does not include:

● A short bio with your intended field of study and education level

● Evidence of U.S. citizenship (valid US postal address)

● A 5-minute unboxing video (no shorter than 4 minutes and no longer than 6)

Submission Deadlines

Application Opens: November 1, 2024

Application Closes: March 1, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. EST

Winner Announced: March 18, 2025.

The scholarship winner will be notified via email and featured on our scholarship page. Before receiving funds, the winner will be required to provide proof of acceptance to a college or university. Sttark will send all scholarship funds directly to the winner’s school.