As of Oct. 1, BYU students can apply for the prestigious Wheatley Institute scholarship to become 2026 Wheatley Scholars.
The Jack and Lois Wheatley Endowed Leadership Scholarship program provides recipients with up to four semesters of financial support for BYU undergraduate education, with possible assistance for graduate school. The scholarship is geared toward students with a special interest in any of the Wheatley Institute's three initiatives: family, religion and constitutional freedom.
Students who receive the scholarship gain firsthand research knowledge and form connections with figures within the Church and academic communities. In addition to financial support, Wheatley Scholars are given the opportunity to attend weekly lunch meetings with Wheatley fellows and enroll in a class focused on the aims of the Wheatley Institute.
Sarah Sun Kanell, a 2025 Wheatley Scholar and former BYUSA president, said the Wheatley Scholarship is one of the most impactful opportunities she has had as a BYU student.
“The opportunities have been incredibly soul expanding,” Kanell said. “It is wonderful to be a part of a community where everyone is engaging deeply and critically with issues that concern all of us.”
Molly Chadwick, a 2025 Wheatley Scholar, was attending the weekly lectures held by the Wheatley Institute when she heard about the scholarship and decided to apply.
“It just has put my foot in the door and given me a greater opportunity to rub shoulders with really incredible people who are not just experts in their field, but who are so dedicated and willing to help everyone around them, including us Wheatley Scholars,” Chadwick said.
Nathan Dunn, communications coordinator for the Wheatley Institute, said the scholarship was started to give students opportunities to meet with distinguished fellows, scholars and Church authorities. The scholarship also helps scholars focus on the institute’s initiatives.
Dunn says the initiatives are specifically designed to align with the values of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and assist in related research.
“There’s no other scholarship like it,” Dunn said. “Aside from the financial value there’s also personal value and civic value and spiritual value that you’re gathering from meeting with these important people.”
Madi Curtis, a 2025 Wheatley Scholar, said that a quote from Jack Wheatley, the founder of the Wheatley Institute, has become an unofficial mission statement of the institute: “Weigh success not in gain, but in improvements to the world.”
Curtis said that the experiences she has had as a Wheatley Scholar has strengthened who she is both as a student and as a disciple of Christ.
Camron Angell, another 2025 Wheatley Scholar, said the scholarship has helped him form connections not just with scholars, but with friends.
“It’s not just about the scholarship,” Angell said. “It’s about a fellowship.”
Angell and the other Wheatley Scholars encouraged any interested student to apply.
“If you yourself have become the type of person that is driven and wants to learn and wants to do good things in your life, then that’s exactly what the Wheatley scholarship is for, so just go for it,” Angell said.
Applications to be one of the 2026 Wheatley Scholars are currently open and will run through the end of the calendar year.
More information can be found by visiting the Wheatley Institute’s website or visiting the Wheatley Institute’s office in the Hinckley Center.