The American Council of Teachers of Russian designates ACTR Russian Scholar Laureates each school year. Every school with an established Russian program may designate one out­standing sophomore or junior for this award. Institutions can nominate one student per hundred Russian students. For example, a school with 300 students can nominate 3 students. To nominate more than one student, fill out the form multiple times.

1. The nominee must be a tenth- or eleventh-grade student of the Russian language in a high school in the United States during the academic year of the award;
2. Russian teachers can directly nominate their students. However, there is also space to include an administrator/principal/headmaster nomination letter if that is part of your school's nomination tradition;
3. The nomination documents must include: 

• a high-quality, portrait-style color digital photo to be uploaded to the nomination Google Form
• the current Russian teacher’s name and information about the institution

The student’s Russian teacher should complete an online application-nomination by clicking the "Submit the nomination" button. The nomination must be completed and received no later than June 30 each year. Only online completed application-nominations are accepted.

The Russian Scholar Laureate from each school receives:
- The student receives a letter in October;
- The date of receiving an award depends on the time of publication of ACTR newsletter:

• an official lapel pin to wear and a certificate of achievement suitable for framing;
• recognition in the form of letters to the school teacher and principal or headmaster con­firming the award;
• inclusion in a nationally published an­nouncement of the award in the ACTR Letter [the newsletter of the American Council of Teachers of Russian]

The award announcement will in­clude the student’s photo, name, school, and Russian teacher’s name.

There is no fee for participation, but teachers must be current members of the American Council of Teachers of Russian by the decision of the ACTR Board of Directors.