Quick Tips to Write Your Seymour Nominee Personal Statement

Has your adviser expressed an interest in nominating you for the Seymour Memorial Award?

It’s an honor to be nominated for this award and a lot of effort on the part of your adviser to complete the nomination requirements. Advisers may nominate no more than two students each year.

There are a few requirements to be eligible:

  1. Nominees must be Sealbearers.
  2. Nominees must attend the mandatory Seymour Interview for their region. See Calendar for dates.
  3. A member of a CSF chapter in good standing for the current academic year.

…and responsibilities:

You must write a Personal Statement to be submitted with the nomination.

What is a Personal Statement?
The Seymour Committee is interested in specifics about how your background, family life and viewpoints have made you the person you are. In general, do not include data available from other materials in this application, but we are very interested in your experiences with CSF and Community Service (not just with CSF) in your community. This statement should not just be a copy of a college statement, but it may be similar, and does need to include specific information about community service and your leadership role(s). Limit to 2 double-spaced pages PDF. Parts of your personal statement may be quoted at the Celebration of Awards.

Provide your adviser with your contact information: mailing address, phone, and a non-school/district email. We need to be able to email you so make sure it’s an email address that can receive email from outside your school/district.

List of your activities (PDF) – presented in this order:

CSF membership by grade level and semester
CSF offices held, note grade level
CSF activities by grade level and semester
Non-CSF offices & activities
Academic awards & recognitions
Employment

Recommendation Letter from a Community Member

This person must be outside of school, and not a relative. This letter should focus on your character and role in the community. It should be written by an adult who knows you well outside of the school environment. Persuasive letters have been written by supervisors of volunteer or paid work, community service club advisers, neighbors, religious leaders, etc. The writer should include how long he or she has known you and in what capacity. Limit to 2 double-spaced pages (PDF). Parts of this letter may be quoted at the Celebration of Awards.

High school transcript (PDF) – Must include first semester senior grades. The transcript should also show any classes taken off-campus for which the nominee has received credit.

CSF Publicity Release – Seymour Award.

Get these materials to your adviser as soon as possible. Do not wait until the last minute and risk missing the deadline of 6 pm on February 18, 2021. Give yourself and your adviser a few weeks lead time for a low stress experience.

2023-2024 SEYMOUR AWARDS CENTRAL COAST REGION FINALISTS

Ellery Barnes, Chapter 225 – Tamalpais High SchoolAdviser Amanda SpahtPrincipal Kimberly ClissoldTamalpais Union High School District President of Tamalpais High School’s CSF chapter for the past two years, and co-president the year before, Ellery was highly...

Video: CSF Advisers Virtual Workshop January 18, 2024

Q&A from the meeting Chat Slides – Brief introductory presentation in PDF format Can you confirm the dates & location for awards? Complete details on Calendar. March 9 — Central Coast March 16 — Central March 23 — South Central April 6...

Steps to nominate for the CJSF Huhn Award

Nominations open November 15th and are open through February 25th every year.
Note: The nomination form will be open until 6pm. Don’t wait until 5:59pm to hit the submit button, you risk losing out.

CJSF Advisers are encouraged to nominate one or two 7th or 8th grade CJSF members for the Marian Huhn Memorial Award.

Get started – Identify one or two 7th and 8th grade CJSF members you want to nominate and find out if they will be able to attend the Region Conference in the Spring. Check the Calendar for the dates. All nominees must attend your region conference and participate in the Huhn Award Workshop. Once you have established that they will be able to attend you can move forward collecting the materials needed for the nomination.

Nominee Requirements
Ask your nominees to provide these materials to you. Give them a due date enough in advance to allow yourself time to make the nomination deadline.

  1. Parent contact information including telephone, email and mailing address.
  2. Service & Awards (PDF or Word) – This is a single document (not limited to one page) with the following category headings. List items using bullet points. Include degree and length of involvement. Only list items that have occurred in 7th & 8th grade but include previous years if activity has continued into 7th & 8th (eg. played AYSO soccer from 3rd grade to present).
     – CJSF Service & Activities
     – Academic Awards & Activities
     – School Service & Activities
     – Community Service & Activities
  3. Nominee’s Personal Statement (PDF or Word) – One typed page double-spaced, signed by the nominee. The Personal Statement should give the selection committee insight into the nominee’s character, interests, hobbies, and goals for the future. Do not include photographs.
  4. Publicity Release form signed by a parent or guardian.

Adviser Requirements

  1. Write the CJSF Adviser Letter (PDF or Word) – One page letter signed by the advisor. This letter should help the committee to gain insight into the nominee’s intellectual and emotional maturity, reaction to criticism and disappointment, leadership capacity or organizational skills, sense of humor, integrity, concern for others, willingness to serve, and creativity. Support generalities with specific anecdotal evidence whenever possible. The committee will already be familiar with the nominee’s academic and activity records.
  2. Gather all of the nomination materials in a folder on your computer. The nomination form requires four files to be uploaded when completing the nomination form. Only Word and PDF files are acceptable.
    Name these files as follows:
     – Nominee Service & Awards: nominee_last_name-service | Example: tyler-service.pdf or Tyler-service.docx
     – Nominee Personal Statement: nominee_last_name-personal | Example: tyler-personal.pdf or Tyler-personal.docx
     – Nominee Adviser’s Letter of Recommendation: nominee_last_name-adviser | Example: tyler-adviser.pdf or Tyler-adviser.docx
     – Nominee Publicity Release Form: nominee_last_name-release | Example: tyler-release.pdf or Tyler-release.docx
  3. Complete the nomination form and upload the documents one at a time. Nomination form: https://csf-cjsf.org/cjsf-awards/

2022-2023 SEYMOUR AWARDS NORTH REGION FINALISTS

Aja Brunet, Chapter 267 – El Dorado High SchoolAdviser Amy Linden Principal Elizabeth Sisson El Dorado Union High School District Not only has Aja been a 4-year member of CSF at Eldorado High School, but was a member during her 7th and 8th grade years as well....