Marine Corps High School Awards Program
The Marine Corps High School Awards Program is designed to assist educators in recognizing a deserving student in their schools. Below are the three types of awards that students can be nominated to receive. After viewing the awards, if you would like to submit a name, click here to download the printable application. Fill out the form and email it to the marketing and public affairs representative at your respective recruiting station. Click here to find your local recruiting station.
Scholastic Excellence Award
The Scholastic Excellence Award reinforces the “tough and smart” image of the Marine Corps by recognizing noteworthy academic achievements as well as leadership excellence. Nominees should be exemplary students who are role models and leaders of their peers. Recipients need not be "Straight A” students, but can be students who show the most academic improvement in the past semester or year.
Distinguished Athlete Award
The Distinguished Athlete Award is yet another facet of our program that has received a tremendous response. The Distinguished Athlete Award, unlike others of its type, need not recognize that naturally talented high school athlete who is in line for MVP honors or an athletic scholarship to college. Although selection of the award recipient is left completely to the school’s athletic director, the Marine Corps has designed the Distinguished Athlete Award to be given to young persons (we encourage selection of one young man and one young woman) who have perhaps “played over their head” or are the athletes with a “never-say-die” attitude. Those athletes who epitomize the adage, “when the going gets tough, the tough get going,” are the ones we would like to recognize.
The "Semper Fidelis" Award
High school musicians embody many virtues that we, as Marines, admire. By and large, a high school musician is someone who gives 110 percent throughout the year. Not only does the young musician have to maintain a high degree of proficiency with an instrument through practice and rehearsal, but he or she has to maintain passing grades and devote time to the extracurricular needs of the band or orchestra. In doing so, the high school musician displays traits that Marines consider essential to being a good leader...endurance, knowledge, unselfishness, dependability, enthusiasm and loyalty. To help high schools promote recognition of achievements and sacrifices their musicians make, the Marine Corps provides the “Semper Fidelis Music Award,” a tradition that dates back to the days of John Philip Sousa and his role in making the Marine Corps Band the premiere musical unit it is today — The President’s Own. The award need not be geared toward the top-notch instrumentalist who may be receiving music scholarships, but can be used to recognize your competent musician who has shown yearly improvement, dedication and enthusiasm.