Brian Shults Memorial Scholarship

The Brian Shults Memorial Scholarship recognizes a current Shorthorn staff member for demonstrated academic achievement during his or her service to The Shorthorn. This scholarship memorializes Brian Shults, who wrote for The Shorthorn in the early 1990s. Shults maintained a 3.9 grade-point average while writing for both The Shorthorn and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram as a student. Applicants must be current staff members who still will be undergraduate UTA students pursuing an undergraduate degree and who will return to The Shorthorn staff for the following semester. Applicants must also have a 3.0 GPA or higher and have already earned at least 18 hours of academic credit at UTA while holding a Shorthorn staff position. Enrollment this semester does not count toward the 18-hours requirement.

A complete application for the Brian Shults Memorial Scholarship must include:

1. The completed electronic application via MavScholarShop.
2. A well-focused, one- to two-page letter addressed to the Scholarship Committee (typed or computer-generated, single-spaced) explaining the student’s contributions to The Shorthorn this semester, what the student hopes to achieve in the student’s career and how the student’s work in Student Publications has helped the student toward that goal. The letter is also a good place to provide a brief explanation and examples of how the student’s work this semester reflected and contributed to The Shorthorn’s digital-first publication strategy. This statement or letter must include information about the student’s career plans.
3. The student’s resume (one page)
4. Samples (no fewer than five, no more than eight) that reflect the student’s work this semester for The Shorthorn. All work samples must be things you did this semester for The Shorthorn.
5. An unofficial copy of the student’s UTA transcript.
6. Information about the student’s academic status, which is pulled from your MyMav account as part of this application. If this is the student’s first semester at UTA and you do not yet have a UTA GPA, include an unofficial copy of the student’s transcript from the student’s previous school. (A photocopy of the student’s transcript is fine. It does not have to be an official transcript.)

Selection for this Student Publications scholarship is based on the following:

(1) Academic achievement. Applicant must have an overall UTA GPA of 3.0 or higher and must have already earned at least 18 hours of academic credit at UTA while holding a Shorthorn staff position, demonstrating the ability to maintain a high GPA while fulfilling Shorthorn responsibilities. (Your enrollment this semester does not count toward the 18-hours requirement.)
(2) Contributions of The Shorthorn. Applicant should be meeting or exceeding requirements for his or her Shorthorn staff position.
(3) Financial need. Applicants for the Brian Shults Scholarship must complete the section of the Student Publications Scholarship and Award Application form that asks for financial need information and also must submit an unofficial copy of their UTA transcript with their application.

Basic requirements for all scholarships and awards include the following:
• You must be in compliance with all requirements for working at The Shorthorn and in Student Publications.
• You must be in good academic standing with the university and be eligible to receive a scholarship.
• You must have held a staff position this semester that reflects the work being recognized in the scholarship or award.
• Priority consideration will be given to applicants who have been on staff the whole semester.
• You may apply for more than one scholarship or award, but no student may receive more than one Student Publications end-of-semester scholarship or award in any single semester.
• Selection committee members have the option of not awarding any scholarship or award if they conclude performance in that area has not met the level of accomplishment that these scholarships and awards are intended to recognize. Quality of work samples submitted with applications will be a major factor in deciding whether a scholarship or award will be awarded this semester.

A recipient will forfeit the full amount of any scholarship or award if:
• He or she fails to earn a minimum of 6 credit hours at UTA this semester unless the student completed a degree this semester and needed fewer than 6 credit hours to do so.
• He or she is not in good academic standing with the university after grades for this semester are posted.