Nine students earned a total of $36,000 in scholarships this year from the Sandpoint Tomorrow Scholarship, which prioritizes students who want to make a positive impact on the world, said Jessica Lippi, co-director of Sandpoint Tomorrow.

The $4,000 scholarship was founded by Sandpoint resident Dennis Pence, and open to all students with a 3.5 GPA or higher for any accredited trade and technical schools, as well as traditional four-year universities.

The scholarship is based on two essay questions: “What is the most important thing you have learned so far in your life?” and “If it was in your power to change one thing about our society, what would it be? How would you go about making that change?”

“It was really humbling to read through all of the scholarship essays and learn how these students are planning to take their education,” Lippi said. “Whether it's conservation, or environmental engineering, or criminal justice. they all were very passionate about the fields that they were going into, it was really hard to choose.”

In total, Sandpoint Tomorrow received 116 applications, she said.

“We were excited because we kind of came into the scholarship scene a little bit late this year,” Lippi said. “So we were really thrilled with the number of scholarships, applications that we saw.”