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The
United States Presidential Scholars Program was established
in 1964, by Executive Order of the President, to recognize
and honor some of our Nation’s most distinguished
graduating high school seniors. Each year, up to 141
students are named as Presidential Scholars, one of
the Nation’s highest honors for high school students.
In honoring the Presidential Scholars, the President
of the United States symbolically honors all graduating
high school seniors of high potential.
From
President Lyndon Baines Johnson to George W. Bush, the
Presidential Scholars Program has honored more than
5,000 of our nation’s most distinguished graduating
high school seniors. Initiated by President Johnson,
the Presidential Scholars Program annually selects one
male and one female student from each state, the District
of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Americans living abroad, 15
at-large students, and up to 20 students in the arts
on the basis of outstanding scholarship, service, leadership
and creativity through a rigorous selection and review
process administered by the US Department of Education.
President
Johnson opened the First meeting of the White House
Commission on Presidential Scholars by stating that
the Program was not just a reward for excellence, but
a means of nourishing excellence. The Program was intended
to stimulate achievement in a way that could be “revolutionary”.
During
the first National Recognition Week in 1964, the Scholars
participated in seminars with Secretary of State Dan
Rusk, Astronaut Alan B. Sheppard, and Chief Justice
Earl Warren. President Johnson challenged the Scholars
to give their talents and time “in our land and
in all lands to cleaning away the blight, to sweeping
away the shoddiness, to wiping away the injustices and
inequities of the past so that all men may live together
in a great world community of decency and excellence.”
Over
the next decade, several changes occurred in the Presidential
Scholars Program. In 1969, the medallion design became
the Great Seal of the Nation. In 1972, the National
Teacher of the Year was invited to become a Commissioner.
Alumni Scholars were invited to serve as Advisors to
the program. A booklet of Scholars’ essays on issues
facing the nation was issued by the Joint Commission
on Arrangements for the Bicentennial in 1976.
In
1979, President Carter expanded the program to honor
up to 20 students selected by the Commission through
an artistic competition. In 1980, a compendium of Scholars’
essays, poems, and musical compositions was published,
following a performance by the Scholars in the National
Academy of Sciences’ auditorium.
In
the 1980s the selection process was refined to emphasize
the key elements of leadership and community service.
The Horace Mann Learning Center produced a collection
of Scholars’ essays on ways to improve the nation’s
education system.
In
1981, the National Foundation for Advancement in the
Arts was created and its Art Recognition and Talent
Search program began to conduct the annual artistic
competition. In 1983, the Distinguished Teacher awards
were created, and the twentieth year celebration of
the program included an Alumni reunion and a performance
by the Scholars at the John F. Kennedy Center for the
Performing Arts.
In
1994, The American Association for Gifted Children published
its second working paper, "The Presidential Scholars:
A Portrait of Talent and Its Development." The
theme that emerged from the study suggested that the
talents of these Presidential Scholars came forth in
part because of the encouragement of teachers and parents
and in part because their experienced built upon, rather
than impeded, their abilities.
In
1998, the Distinguished Teacher award was renamed the
Presidential Scholars Program Teacher Recognition Award
to serve as mean for rewarding good teachers for knowledge,
skill, and performance. The award symbolizes the steps
that schools, communities, parent, students, teachers,
and the US Department of Education are taking to improve
teaching and learning in schools across America.
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