Partner portal
You are the reason most of them ever hear about it.
The students who most need this scholarship are consistently the least likely to put themselves forward for it. They assume it is meant for somebody else, and then nobody tells them otherwise. Everything on this page exists so that telling them takes you five minutes instead of an afternoon.
Before anything else
If you do one thing this year, make it February.
Last cycle, 72% of applications arrived in the final week, and roughly half the students who started one never sent it. The window is open for more than four months and almost nobody uses the first three.
We cannot fix that from here. You can. A reminder from you in February — in a bulletin, a team chat, a hallway — is worth more than anything we could email a seventeen-year-old in April.
The mechanics of it. Applications open December 1 and close April 9. The two things that take the longest are a transcript and two recommendations — at least one coach and one teacher. Both depend on somebody else’s calendar, which is exactly why they should be asked for in January rather than April.
Your toolkit
Pick your role. Take what you need.
Everything here is ready to use as-is. Editable documents open as a copy you own, so nothing you change affects anyone else.
District-wide announcement and a letter your office can send.
One email to staff, one blurb for announcements, one deck for a huddle.
A briefing you can deliver, and print you can put on a wall.
Sixty seconds after practice is genuinely enough.
What to do, in order, and what it takes.
Need something that is not here — a different size, a translation, a version with your school’s logo on it? Ask us. We would rather make it than have you go without.
Information sessions
Four sessions before the rush, on Zoom.
Forty-five minutes. Open to students, families, counselors, coaches and school leaders — the same session serves all of them, and questions are usually the best part. Mountain Time.
Cannot make any of them? They are recorded, and we will send you the recording — or read on, because we would genuinely rather come to you.
New this year
Or skip the webinar and have us come to you.
A Zoom session at 7pm competes with everything else in a teenager’s evening. Thirty minutes in your gym during an advisory period does not. If you would like us at your school, tell us — we are building the spring calendar now and we will travel.
An in-person session
We come to your school and walk students through the scholarship — what it is, what it takes, and how to finish an application. Assembly, advisory period, team meeting, or a table in the commons at lunch.
Paired with a Changemakers Circuit session
While we are already in the building, Angela can also deliver a Circuit session — confidence and resilience, healthy team culture, the athlete-to-leader transition. One visit, two things, and the second one reaches every student rather than only the seniors.
A private virtual session
If travel is not practical — and for a good part of Idaho in February it is not — we will run a session on Zoom just for your school, at a time that suits your bell schedule rather than ours.
No cost for a scholarship information session. Circuit sessions start at $500, and Idaho schools that cannot cover it are not turned away — say so and we will work with what you have.
Eligibility
Check a school in about five seconds.
Districts III, IV, V and VI are eligible this cycle. Districts I and II join for the 2027–28 school year. Mountain Home High School is eligible every year, without exception. The IHSAA directory lists every school with its district →
The six standards a student must meet. On track to graduate this year from an accredited high school · a minimum 3.5 GPA · two or more sports across their high school career · community service locally · planning to enroll full-time in the fall, in a bachelor’s or a vocational program · financial need, which is considered but is not a gate. Full detail on the overview page.
Questions we actually get
The short answers.
Do the criteria change as you expand across the state?
No. The LEAD criteria and the application requirements are identical statewide. The only thing that changes by year is which districts are eligible, and that follows the published rollout.
What does a student actually have to submit?
The application itself, a short recorded video interview, and two recommendations — at least one from a coach and one from a teacher. The recommendations are the part that needs lead time, so students should ask in January rather than April.
Can I nominate a student, or do they have to apply themselves?
Either. Teachers, coaches, counselors and administrators can all put a student forward, and a nomination carries no less weight than a student’s own application. In practice it is often the only reason a student who assumed this was not for them ends up applying at all.
Is the award renewable?
Currently these are one-time awards. We are building an endowment specifically so that they can become multi-year — the intention is to support recipients through to a completed degree rather than only through their first semester. More on that here.
Our district is not eligible yet. What can we do now?
Tell us where you are and we will make sure you hear from us directly when your year arrives, rather than hoping the news reaches you. In the meantime the Changemakers Circuit and iWIN IX Grants are open to schools statewide right now.
What if a student needs an accommodation, or a family needs materials in Spanish?
Ask us. Accommodations and language support are available on request, and no student has ever been disadvantaged for needing them. The Parents’ Guide is available in English and Spanish.
One student
Somebody in your building qualifies and does not know it.
That is not a figure of speech. Last cycle we named fourteen scholars from schools across the state, and every one of them was told about it by an adult who took two minutes. You are almost certainly holding the same two minutes right now.
Questions? hello@taylorleadscholarship.com · 208.477.1522 · a person reads every one.