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. 

The application window opens annually in August and closes in November at the submission deadline. 

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 takes place at the Cooperative Educational Service Agency (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 are notified via email from contact@herbkohlphlinathropies.org whether or not their application has advanced to the Statewide Selection Committee.

Successful applicants' materials are forwarded to the Statewide Selection Committee in January. Representatives of the Herb Kohl Educational Foundation, CESAs and MPS, the Wisconsin Newspaper Association, Wisconsin Homeschooling Parents Association, state education-related associations, and community leaders serve on the State Selection Committee. Applicants who have reached the Statewide Selection Committee are contacted in March with the results.

Use of Scholarship Grant
The Herb Kohl Educational Foundation sends scholarship grants directly to the students’ postsecondary institutions. 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. Students will be able to choose from among four scholarship disbursement options:  

​1. The scholarship can be disbursed all at once;
​2. The scholarship can be disbursed over two years at $5,000 per year;
​3. The scholarship can be disbursed 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.