AkronReads Book Awards

AkronReads, an OhioReads initiative, is a community tutoring partnership between the Akron Public Schools and the AkronReads Business Partners a coalition of local businesses, government agencies, and nonprofit and civic organizations. Since the program began during the 1999-2000 school year, thousands of employees from the AkronReads Business Partners organizations have volunteered their time to help ensure that Akron’s youngest students are reading at their grade level.

The AkronReads Book Awards honor the late H. Peter Burg, Chairman and CEO of FirstEnergy. As a member of Ohio Gov. Bob Taft’s OhioReads Business Council, Pete led the effort to establish AkronReads in partnership with the Akron Public Schools and area businesses.
The AkronReads Business Partners encourage graduating seniors to apply for a book award in the spirit for which AkronReads was created.

H. Peter Burg AkronReads Book Awards of $500.00 for the purchase of college textbooks are available to two graduating seniors from each of the following Akron Public High Schools:

• Buchtel High School
• East High School
• Ellet High School
• Firestone High School
• Garfield High School
• Kenmore High School
• North High School

If there is no applicant/winner in one of the high schools, the book award will go to a student of one of the other Akron high schools based on the strength of the student’s application/essay.
The awards will be presented during the AkronReads Celebration Luncheon in May. Winners are asked to be present, but this is not a requirement to receive the awards.

Eligibility Requirements
To be eligible for the H. Peter Burg AkronReads Book Award, the student must:

• Be a graduating senior from one of the Akron Public high schools.
• Be accepted to an accredited college, university, junior/community college, or two-year/technical school in the United States. (Acceptance is not required at the time of application, but is required when the award is presented.)
• Submit a current high school transcript that demonstrates improvement in grades over the past four years.
• Write a one-page essay (400 to 500 words) about a book that most influenced the student’s love of reading; essay must be typewritten and include a cover page with the student’s name, address, telephone number(s) and email address, if applicable.

For more info, please visit the AkronReads website: http://www.akronreads.com/Awards.htm