Herb Kohl

Educational Foundation, Inc

Application & Selection


Application and Selection Process
Graduating high school students who are residents of the State of Wisconsin may apply by accessing the Herb Kohl Educational Foundation website.  In order to provide all nominees an equal opportunity, they must follow all instructions in the application. 

The application window opens annually in August and closes on the November submission deadline. Students must have submitted their completed applications, including letters of recommendation, no later than Tuesday, November 8, 2022, at 5:00:00 p.m. Central Time.  Applications submitted by the deadline without the required three letters of recommendation are incomplete and will not be considered.

There is no limit to the number of applications that can come from a single high school or a district. Additionally, there is no selection process at the school district or building level. The first round of application scoring will take place at the CESA level, or for Milwaukee Public School District (MPS) students, at the district level. 

Once completed, the student applications are then forwarded to the Regional Selection Committee, which is coordinated in each of the state’s 12 Cooperative Educational Service Agencies (CESAs), or Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS).  Students who have reached the Regional Selection Committee will be notified by their CESA or MPS whether or not their application has progressed to the Statewide Selection Committee.

Successful applicants' materials will be forwarded to a Statewide Selection Committee by Tuesday, January 10, 2023.  Applicants not advancing to the Statewide Selection Committee will be notified by their CESA agency or MPS. Representatives of the Herb Kohl Educational Foundation, CESAs and MPS, the Wisconsin Newspaper Association, Wisconsin Homeschooling Parents Association, and state education-related associations serve on the State Selection Committee.  Applicants who have reached the Statewide Selection Committee will be contacted no later than March 2023 with the results.

Use of Scholarship Grant
A Kohl Excellence Scholarship may be used to directly reimburse the student’s post-secondary institution for tuition, room and board, books, technology, equipment, and fees.  In August 2023, the Herb Kohl Educational Foundation will send the scholarship grants directly to students' postsecondary institutions. Students will be able to choose from among four scholarship disbursement options:  

​1.  The scholarship can be paid in full all at once;
​2.  The scholarship can be distributed over two years at $5,000 per year;
​3.  The scholarship can be distributed over four years at $2,500 per year;
4.  Other disbursement arrangements, such as deferral, as requested by the student and approved by the Herb Kohl Educational Foundation.

The scholarship must be used in its entirety within four years of the date of the recipient student's high school graduation.