Scholarships

During a ceremony in May 2022, SDCEA board member Suzy Kelly addressed the audience in advance of naming the Buena Vista High School Graduates who received scholarship awards.

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♦ Thank you for your interest in the SDCEA scholarship program. Deadline to submit your application was 5 p.m. January 12, 2024. Please check back this fall for 2025-26 school year award applications.

Applicants: Please confirm your scholarship application has been submitted. To do this, scroll to the bottom of the page after your information has finished uploading. If submitted successfully, you will see a message at the bottom of this page that says:

Thank you for submitting your scholarship application to SDCEA! We will contact you after applications are reviewed over the next few weeks.

If you do not see this confirmation, and instead see information highlighted in red, that means your application has not been accepted. You are being prompted to re-upload a file or files. Files need to be less than 60 MB or uploaded in the proper extension format (ie: a .jpg, not a .png or a .doc, not another word processing format).

If you need help or would like to confirm your scholarship has been submitted, please contact prior to the 5 p.m. January 12 deadline:

Tracy Linza, Administrative Assistant III
Sangre de Cristo Electric Association, Inc.

Direct Line: (719) 395-4136
Email: linza@myelectric.coop

with questions or to confirm receipt of your scholarship application.

2024-25 School Year Scholarship Information

♦ Applications will only be accepted through our online portal (link below) by deadline. Incomplete applications will not be considered for SDCEA scholarship awards.

♦ Deadline: 5 p.m. Friday, January 12, 2024. 

In 2024, SDCEA will award one four-year scholarship at $2,000 per year (which is available to a graduating high school senior only) and 13 $2,000 one-time scholarships. Industry associates may fund additional scholarships.

The application form below covers all of these available scholarships.

The scholarships may be used by any full-time student at any accredited two or four-year college, university or vocational/technical school and at any level of the student’s education.

To be eligible for these scholarships, the applicant must be a SDCEA Member or a Dependent of a member. Anyone with an active electric account in his or her name is considered a member. For scholarship purposes, the member must be a person, not a business or organization.

Scholarship applicants will be judged on grade point average, ACT/SAT tests, activities, goals, and need.

Past recipients are eligible to apply again.

Here’s what you need, prior to completing the application. You must have the following information finalized and saved as individual .pdf or high-resolution .jpg files to upload when prompted to do so.

• An estimated budget of expenses for the college or colleges in which you are interested in attending (tuition and fees, room and board, books and supplies, personal expenses), as well as available funds (wages, parental support or other). Many schools provide a cost calculator on their website. If available, work through that calculator, take a screenshot or save the information as a .pdf to upload with your application.
• A copy of a recent academic transcript from your high school, college, university or trade school.
• If you are a current college freshman, you will need to submit a copy of your high school transcript, as well as a current college transcript.
• A copy of your college entrance examination scores (ACT and/or SAT) if the scores are not included on your transcript.
• A signed letter of reference from a teacher, counselor, school official or employer.
• A short essay, saved in a .pdf format, ready to upload, written by you, outlining your high school/college honors; school, work and community activities; goals and need.
• Once your essay is completed, then answer in 100 words or less, the following question: Explain the difference between an electric cooperative and an investor-owned utility and share what would be some advantages to the cooperative business model.

Lastly, we ask you to provide:

• A recent high-resolution digital photograph,.jpg format, prepared to upload.

Once you have these items ready to include on the application, please allow at least one hour to complete the form online. The form cannot be saved as you work and returned to for completion at a later time.

Incomplete or late applications will not be accepted.

Questions? Please contact:

Tracy Linza, Administrative Assistant III
Sangre de Cristo Electric Association, Inc.

Direct Line: (719) 395-4136
Email: linza@myelectric.coop