JACGP Community Awards

JACGP Community Awards are given to students who have shown exemplary involvement with two or more of the JACGP sponsoring organizations.

A. A minimum of 30 total volunteer hours accumulated in the last four years from at least two sponsoring organizations

(For example: 10 volunteer hours with JAAC, 8 hours with Simpson UMC and 12 hours with JACGP, for a total of 30 volunteer hours)

1. Participating Organizations for this award include the following:
   • Brighton Japanese American Association
   • Denver Nisei Bowling Association
   • Japanese American Association of Colorado
   • Japanese American Community Graduation Program
   • Japanese Business Association of the Rockies
   • Mile High Chapter Japanese American Citizens’ League
   • Nisei Veterans’ Heritage Foundation
   • Sakura Foundation
     • Chibi no Gakko
   • Simpson United Methodist Church
   • Tri-State/Denver Buddhist Temple
     • Denver Bonsai
   • Contact information of these groups can be found here.
2. Download Letters of Attestation to be filled out with your volunteer organization.
3. Upload the completed form in the Secure Application as a .PDF or .JPG. (Tip: Scan document or take a legible picture on your phone. Download this easy-to-use, free app TinyScanner to turn your photo into a PDF for upload purposes.)

B. Lists of additional curricular and extra-curricular involvement.

• List school activities, awards, honors, etc., and names of clubs or organizations, positions held, conferences, science fairs, etc. Please do not use abbreviations. Use this format: National Honor Society, 9, 10, 11, 12 Vice President, 11
• List non-school activities, hobbies, special skills or other pertinent information: church or temple activities, community organizations, part-time or full-time work, experiences both during school and vacations, etc.
• List activities involving the Japanese American Community.

C. Official High School Transcript

D. Brief Paragraph about Yourself

Tell us something unique about yourself in 150 – 200 words.

E. Complete Essay Questions

Note: Essay questions are currently being reworked for graduation year 2022 and may not be the ones presented below. Please check back periodically for updates.

Please submit typed answers to the following questions with a minimum of 500 words and a maximum of 1000 words for both of the essay questions below.

1. What Japanese American values (i.e. shikata ga nai, kodomo tameni, on, gaman, giri, mottainai, enryo suru) would you like future generations to possess? Why is it important for them to have these values?
2. The Japanese American community has had a deep and diverse history in Colorado. Many individuals have contributed to this history. Please identify an individual and write about how s/he has affected the Japanese American community today and how s/he has affected you personally.

These awards are judged separately by an independent panel of judges.

The final decision of the judges is based upon grade point average, academic courses, school activities, community participation, leadership, personal sacrifice and the oral interview.

All JACGP scholarship applicants will be required to attend an oral interview on Saturday, May 7, 2022, as part of the interview process. The interviews will be held in the Denver metropolitan area.

The JACGP committee acknowledges that under certain circumstances, there may be an occasion in which the interview date and time conflict with a school sponsored activity. Under these circumstances, an alternative method of interview may be accepted. Under the discretion of the JACGP committee, arrangements may be made to interview via video conferencing on the same day as the personal interviews. Requests for interview via video conferencing must be made to the JACGP committee at least 72 hours prior to the interview and accompanied with a dated letter from a school official verifying the date of the event and applicant participation. Upon receipt of the written request and verification, a decision will be made and applicant notified in a timely manner.

All decisions of the JACGP committee are final and not subject to appeal.