“You Can’t Label People, but You Can Label Products” Essay & Label Design Scholarship by Sttark

A $3,000 Essay Scholarship for students who think outside of the box
Sttark is excited to award a $3,000 scholarship to a U.S. high school senior, undergraduate, or graduate student who can show us how products can be labeled but people can’t. We understand the harm in mislabeling and believe the best ideas begin with a fresh slate – without prejudices or preconceptions. For this reason, we want you to forget about any labels you’ve received in the past related to academics or talent. Tap into your innate originality and creativity through writing and design.

Essay Prompt
“You can’t label people, but you can label products.”
You can use the following questions to spark your creativity, but you are not required to answer them.

● Has consumerism influenced the way we view people?

● Do people try to market themselves for acceptance?

● What effect do labels have on creativity? How might it differ between products and people?

● Is there a distinction between negative and positive labels? Is labeling yourself or another individual ever beneficial?

Write a 1000-word creative essay showing how you relate to this statement and why it matters. Additionally, design a label related to your essay topic that you would use for a product but not a person.

IMPORTANT: Please include both your essay and label design with your application. We will not consider incomplete applications.

Eligibility & Requirements
If you’re an aspiring designer, manufacturer, engineer, artist, architect, or any other type of innovator, this essay scholarship is for you. The application is open to current high school seniors, undergraduate students, and graduate students. Due to complexities with international funding, we will only consider submissions from U.S. citizens.

If you are selected as the scholarship winner:

You will need to provide proof of college acceptance or a current transcript for high school students. Undergraduate and graduate students will need to provide proof of attendance from their college or university.

We’d love to know your future goals and why you deserve this scholarship, so we’re asking you to submit a brief biography of no more than 250 words with your application. In this bio, please specify your intended field of study and your current grade or degree level.

We will not assess this bio in our submission evaluation, but it will help us better understand your vision.

We will not consider your submission if it does not include the following:

● A short bio with your intended field of study and education level
● Evidence of U.S. citizenship (valid US postal address)
● A 1,000-word essay
● An original label design

We recommend checking out sites like Canva that allow you to design labels online for free. You can also check out our Product Labels page for inspiration.

● Proof of education: If chosen as the scholarship winner, we will request proof of education documents before sending the funds to your school. (examples: current transcript, student ID with current year, acceptance letter)

Evaluation
Your essay and label design will be evaluated by these five criteria:

1. Originality – overall uniqueness

2. Creativity – a blend of imagination and great ideas

3. Quality – superb execution

4. Competency – an evident eye for design and clear written communication

5. Connectedness – clear unity between the essay and label design

Only submit your own work. Plagiarism is the opposite of innovation, and we will eliminate any stolen work. This is a creative, not an academic essay, so you’re not required to include sources. However, if you do reference the work of another individual, please use a citation.

Application for the Essay Scholarship
Apply Today

Important: When adding the shareable link to your PDF file within the application, ensure that it is shared publicly if using a service like Google Drive or Dropbox.

Our team will need viewer access to your file to consider your submission. Please check your file share settings to ensure we have access.

For questions about your application, please email scholarship@sttark.com

Submission Deadlines
Application Opens: November 1, 2024
Application Closes: March 1, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. EST

Winner Announced: March 18, 2025.

The scholarship winner will be notified via email and featured on our scholarship page. Before receiving funds, the winner will be required to provide proof of acceptance to a college or university. Sttark will send all scholarship funds directly to the winner’s school.

About Sttark
We’re a creative and passionate team of experts at making products presentable. Our custom labels give a product’s story the chance to shine, and we hope to do the same for the next batch of designers, engineers, or entrepreneurs. Our purpose extends beyond labeling products. We believe that people are uniquely packaged, and labels can limit ingenuity.

Giving is fundamental to our business, and we want to invest in young innovators at Sttark because we’re certain their success will lead to big ideas that bring a better future for everyone. For us, that’s an exciting possibility and a worthy investment.

Be sure to check out our About page if you’d like to learn more about Sttark.