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John Stanford Continuing Education Scholarship

$1000 to a current WLA member of color toward a degree, certificate, or graduate level study in the Library or Education fields.

John Stanford served as Superintendent of Seattle Public School from 1995 until his death in 1998. His community-wide "reading offensive" prompted donation of thousands of books to school libraries. Ethnic minorities are eligible for scholarships in memory of John Stanford.

Scholarship Forms

Applications for the 2023-2024 WLA Scholarship cycle are now available! Scholarship winners will be notified by Aug. 31 and announced to WLA membership the week following.

How to Apply

Complete the online WLA Scholarship Application and attach to it and/or send separately to [email protected]:

  1. Your current resume
  2. Three letters of recommendation, with at least one from someone who knows your work, such as a supervisor, advisor, teacher or professor. Please refer to the Scholarship Recommendation Form for further instructions.

The application and ALL materials must be sent by the deadline. Incomplete applications will not be eligible for consideration.

Scholarship Criteria

  • Applicants must be individual Washington Library Association members.
  • Scholarship recipients are required to share the outcome of or information about the results of their scholarship by choosing one of these responses: 
    • prepare a piece for WLA publication 
    • present at a WLA conference, event, or workshop, either a session or a poster for Spotlight on Success

Selection Criteria

These criteria will be used by the WLA Professional Development Committee to evaluate applications:

  • Current membership in the Washington Library Association.
  • Demonstration of potential for leadership in the profession and commitment to libraries and library service.
  • Benefits of the scholarship
  • Need and desire for the scholarship
  • Current or previous involvement with WLA, or plan to be active in WLA during the academic year in which the scholarship is awarded; examples: serve as intern to Alki editorial committee, contributor to Alki, student liaison to WLA Board, active in WLA Division or Section or committee, involvement with WLA, WLA conference, or WLA-sponsored workshop.