This document details the judging procedures and scoring process of the AFSA Merit Awards Competition. Only high school seniors of Foreign Service employees are eligible to apply for these one-time only awards. Winners receive $1500 awards and "Honorable Mention" winners receive $500 awards. From among the Academic Merit applicants, a "best essay" and "community service" awards are bestowed to the most deserving students.
| I. | General Information on Judges |
| II. | Panels |
| III. | Academic Merit Criteria |
| IV. | Selecting Academic Merit Winners |
| V. | Art Merit Scoring |
| VI. | Feedback |
I.
General Information on Judges
Approximately 16 people participate as judges (12 for Academic Merit and 4 for Art Merit). Members of the AFSA Committee on Education serve as judges of the Merit Awards along with others who are connected to the Foreign Service community. All judges are active-duty or retired Foreign Service employees or are Foreign Service spouses. To help with continuity of scoring, each year 2/3 of the group consist of returning judges. With the Art Merit Competition, all judges have expertise in at least one of the four art categories: dance, musical arts, visual arts or creative writing.
II. Panels
Since 1997, the AFSA Scholarship Fund has bestowed 15 Academic Merit Awards and 1 Art Merit Award. A range of 60-75 students apply for Academic Merit Awards each year. All Academic Merit applications are divided into three panels based on the student's SAT and GPA scores. To make the panels fair, each panel has a range of students with high, medium and low SAT scores and high, medium and low GPA's. Each panel of students is scored by four people. The same goes for the Art Merit Award. A range of 10-22 Art Merit applications are submitted each year. One panel of four individuals scores all the Art Merit applicants. All judges, whether new or returning, attend an orientation session each year before judging begins.
III. Academic Merit Criteria
There are six criteria the students are judged on (GPA, SAT scores, high school activities, 2 page essay, 2 letters of recommendation and special circumstances, if any) and not all criteria are weighted equally. The Committee on Education each year reviews the weight/points assigned to each criteria. In the 2005 program the points were as follows:
Academic Merit Criteria |
Points |
|---|---|
| Grade Point Average (GPA) | 20 points |
| SAT Combined Scores | 20 points |
| Extra-curricular Activities | 20 points |
| Essay | 30 points |
| Recommendation Letters | 0 points (but mandatory) |
| Special Circumstances | 5 points (if applicable) |
TOTAL |
95 points |
GPA
In the GPA category, AFSA begins with the student's unweighted GPA. The student only receives 80% of the maximum points (16 points) in that category for having a 4.0 without any honors or higher level classes. This structure is in place because the typical AFSA applicant has taken a number of higher level classes and AFSA needs a way to recognize such accomplishments. Students obtain more points based on the number of advanced, honors, gifted and IB courses, etc. they take their sophomore, junior and senior years of high school. Schools send the transcripts (SAT scores and GPA's) directly to AFSA and are asked to submit unweighted and weighted GPA's. The AFSA Scholarship Director then verifies this information.
SAT
In the SAT scoring, the student's SAT verbal and math scores are summed, and the student is assigned points based on this total. The higher the combined SAT score, the higher number of points awarded. The 2006 program will not take into account the new writing component of the SAT.
Activities
With the "activities" score, the judges look at the following activities: academic activities, sports activities, other extra-curricular activities/employment, and volunteer activities. Judges give points for: evidence of sustained effort, evidence of real achievement in one or more fields, and social, character-building or intellectual value of activities.
Essay
Students write an essay on "Describe your most memorable Foreign Service experience and why." Judges score on grammar, essay structure, analytical skills, conclusions drawn, and especially the "why" part of the essay.
Letters of Recommendation
In the "letters of recommendation" category, no points are given for the letters but students must submit them. Using past experience, 99% of the letters tended to be glowing and scoring these letters was a mute point. The letters are now viewed as just one more information/background piece to try and fully know the student since personal interviews are not possible.
Special Circumstances
In the "special circumstances" area, points can be awarded for unusual conditions such as post evacuation, a disability, a traumatic illness or death in the family, numerous high school transfers, etc. It is totally up to the judges to allocate any points in this area.
IV. Selecting Academic Merit Winners
Again, all Academic Merit applicants are divided into 3 panels. Once the students are individually scored, each 4-person judging panel meets. Each judge's score for each student is added together. The four highest-ranking students from each panel become automatic winners (12 of the 15 winners are chosen this way). The applicants in the 5th, 6th, and 7th position of each panel then are judged all over again, using the same criteria but by only the Committee on Education. The 3 highest scoring students (in this round of 9 students) become the 13th, 14th, and 15th place Academic Merit winners; the remaining six students are the Academic Merit Honorable Mention winners.
When the judges of the panels meet as a whole they undertake a careful review of students in the 8th and 9th positions (of the 22 students or so in their group) to make sure they did not miss something since they know these applicants will not be in the running for any award. If a panel makes any changes, they need to document why an applicant's score was changed. The AFSA Scholarship Director is present during all panel meetings.
V. Art Merit Scoring
The Art Merit scoring follows the same general format of the Academic Merit scoring. SAT scores and GPA's are not factored into the Art Merit scoring since this award was instituted to recognize students who excel in the arts but are not necessarily academically gifted. The Art Merit panel judges score the student's essay and read the letters of recommendations individually on their own. Then the 4-person judging panel meets as a group to view, listen to or read the student's art submission. The student with the highest score is the winner. The criteria used in 2005 were as follows:
Art Merit Scoring Criteria |
Points |
|---|---|
| Essay | 25 points |
| Letters of Recommendation | 0 points but mandating |
| Special Circumstances | 5 points (if applicable) |
| Submitted Art Work | 70 points |
| TOTAL | 100 points maximum |
With funds for only 1 art award, we understand we have a difficult task to compare the different art forms. However, since the Art Merit Award's inception 6 years ago, we have had winners in 3 of 4 categories (musical arts, visual arts, creative writing, and dance), and no student has ever submitted a dance application.
VI. Feedback
After the scoring is finished, all judges are asked to complete an evaluation of the Merit Competition and offer suggestions on how to improve the program. Judging the applications is a long and involved process, and AFSA does not compensate the merit judges. Each year after the feedback has been collected; the Committee on Education reviews and tweaks the scoring system based on input from the merit judges.
All students who apply are very accomplished, and AFSA wishes there were more monies available to honor more of these young people. AFSA has tried to set objective criteria in sometimes subjective areas. The Committee on Education is always open to suggestions on how to improve this competition. Comments can be sent to Lori Dec, AFSA Scholarship Director, AFSA, 2101 E Street NW, Washington, DC 20037, 202 1800-704 2372 ext. 504 or dec@afsa.org.