To win a Beacon Scholarship candidates must show strong evidence of:

1. Exceptional academic ability; and
2. Excellence in sport, music or drama; and
3. Outstanding interpersonal skills; and
4. Model citizenship

Additionally, they should, in their behaviour and outlook, demonstrate that they are a Changemaker:

(a) show the capacity to 'take people with them'; and

(b) already be making a difference now, not at some later point in time.