Often, one hears the term, "state Sterling scholar." However, given the fact that Utah Sterling scholars compete against one another in one of five regional programs, the term state Sterling scholar is really a misnomer and doesn't actually exist.
Those colleges and universities offering scholarships to Sterling scholars and listed elsewhere in this special section, don't discriminate among regional winners. A Sterling scholar in music from northeast Utah is accorded the same scholarship as a winner from the Wasatch Front.Only the Wasatch Front regional program is directly administered by personnel from the Deseret News and KSL-TV. This includes 51 public high schools from Cache, Box Elder, Weber, Davis, Salt Lake and Utah counties, and only Sterling scholars from the Wasatch Front are featured in this special section.
The four regional or satellite Sterling scholar programs follow the basic format of the Deseret News/KSL Television Sterling scholar program as implemented on the Wasatch Front with some slight modifications as well as following their own schedules.
The central Utah Sterling scholar program is coordinated by Mark Anderson of Manti High School. The program for high school seniors in northeast Utah is directed by Linda Morrison, a teacher at Morgan High School. Jean Gough, Grand County High School, oversees the southeast Utah regional program. And the southwest Utah Sterling scholar program is directed by Cindy Lovell from the Southwest Educational Development Center in Cedar City.