President M. Russell Ballard
The Church’s Correlation Research Division studied the impact of seminary, institute, and Church colleges. Their study showed that seminary was the leading influence on lifelong Church activity, testimony, feelings of belonging, feeling the Spirit, and personal devotion and family devotion.
S&I Annual Training Broadcast, January 21, 2022
Ward leaders' role in seminary enrollment is to (1) teach the importance of youth prioritizing participation in seminary while in high school and (2) ensure each youth receives an invitation to participate in seminary. This is best done by initiating conversations between leaders, parents, and potential students.
Ward leaders of youth can see a list of potential students in MySeminary (or use the potential list provided by the seminary). The Bishop assigns a member of the bishopric or Young Women's presidency to use this list of potential students to complete the following:
JANUARY: Remove out-of-age students. The list of potential students may include youth going into 8th grade or students that have already graduated. To create a more accurate list of potential students, students that are too young or have graduated need to be identified so the seminary can update their records and remove them.
For the 2026–2027 school year, students whose birthdates fall between September 1, 2008 and August 31, 2012 are most likely to be enrolling in high school.
Notify the seminary if a student's grade is wrong or a if student has graduated early. If we change records on our end, then future reports will permanently reflect that change.
JANUARY: Invite likely attenders to register. Identify students likely to attend seminary that have not yet registered and remind their parents to register their student (easily done by text message or email). This page on registering for seminary may be especially helpful to share with parents to help them understand how to register their student for seminary.
IMPORTANT: Enrolling students in seminary is a two step process. Parents registering their youth with the Church does NOT put seminary on a student’s school schedule. When students build schedules in March, students must select “Released-Time Seminary” as an elective on their school schedule for both semesters to actually be assigned to a seminary class. Homeschooled and online students coming to seminary in-person and students attending seminary online should see this page and scroll down to find the appropriate information.
The following steps are completed under the Bishop’s direction:
EARLY FEBRUARY: Bishop assigns who invites each remaining student. The Bishop delegates which counselors, secretaries, clerks, YW/YM leaders, class or quorum leaders, seminary council members, or seminary personnel would be best suited to invite each remaining student to participate in seminary. This could be an excellent opportunity for training youth about ministering and inviting.
Seminary staff have difficulty influencing incoming 9th graders who have no experience with seminary. Incoming 9th graders also may not know how to register. Please give these students extra consideration! Note, also, that many youth who choose to be less involved with their ward become excellent seminary students. Ward leaders are urged to not decide for youth whether they are interested in seminary.
IDEA: Use this invitation card as a deliverable to encourage/help students to enroll in seminary.
FEBRUARY–MARCH: Invite students to register or mark as "not attending." Parents of interested students register them on MySeminary and add a period of "Release Time" to their school schedule each semester. Students not interested in enrolling are marked as such by the Bishopric in MySeminary by clicking “Mark as not attending.” Registration can also be completed by contacting the seminary by phone or email (see bottom of page).
LATE MARCH/EARLY APRIL: Remind youth to add "Release Time" to their school schedules. Students typically make their school schedules for the following school year at the end of February or beginning of March. It will increase the likelihood that students remember to add seminary to their course schedules if they are reminded to add "Release Time" to their schedule in late February and early March.
IDEA: Have a sacrament meeting talk, activity night, or fifth Sunday lesson focused on seminary from a youth in the ward, a member of the seminary council, or a seminary faculty member.
MAY: Identify stragglers. The seminary will send wards an enrollment report that shows which potential students in their ward have seminary on their class schedule for the next year and which do not. Some that registered with the Church may not have completed the second step to add it onto their school schedule. Ward leaders can take action to encourage these youth to add "Release Time" to their school schedule by visiting with their counselor before the school year ends.
MAY–JUNE: Coordinate efforts with the seminary. The seminary will contact each ward to coordinate and share information/resources. This can be done in a phone call with the Bishop (or someone he assigns), in a Youth Council meeting, or in another setting that the Bishop feels would be most useful. At the end of the summer, the seminary will send an updated report indicating the final list of who is/is not enrolled in seminary for the next school year.
THANK YOU, leaders, for your tireless efforts to bless the youth in your wards! We are grateful that we get to work with them and are confident their time in seminary will be a positive influence in their lives.
President Steven J. Lund
On average, youth who show up for seminary end up having better lifelong outcomes. They are more likely to become endowed, more likely to serve missions, more likely to marry in the temple. Those who attend four years of seminary gain a connection to the gospel that seldom breaks.
S&I Annual Training Broadcast, January 27, 2023
The purpose of seminary graduation is to recognize students for their participation in seminary. As long as students complete their senior year, they are recognized at seminary graduation the same as if they had completed all four years (but still only receive a certificate for the years they did complete).
Last week of January: Each graduate’s current status will be sent to ward and stake leaders.
These reports are generated in consultation with every seminary where students in your wards might be attending and reflect their actual, current status with graduation as reported by these seminaries.
As leaders review these reports, it would be appreciated if Bishops identify students that may be struggling to receive credit and encourage those youth to complete the necessary make-up work so that they may be recognized at stake seminary graduation.
Last week of February: Each graduate’s current status will be sent to ward and stake leaders.
Last week of March: Starting here, each graduate’s current status will be sent to ward leaders every-other week.
Beginning of April: Stake leaders could begin planning stake seminary graduation exercises.
Include stake youth committee and stake seminary council members as desired. See “A Guide to Seminary and Institute Graduation Exercises” for assistance in planning seminary graduation. S&I stake representatives could also be included in this planning if desired.
Beginning of May: Make-up work deadline for seniors (soft).
One week before graduation: Final list of graduates sent to ward and stake leaders.
Stake leaders can now create programs, etc. If Bishops do not clear a name, stake leaders remove it from the program—the seminary does not need to be notified.
Seminary Graduation. Typically the Sunday prior to High School graduation: Times and assigned S&I representatives are below:
Erda: 7:00pm - Mark Lewis
Lake Point (@ Porter Way): 7:00pm - Dave Douglas
Stansbury: 4:30pm - Mats Peterson
Stansbury South: 6:00pm - Nick Daynes
Tooele East: 6:00pm - Michael Burnham
Tooele North: 4:00pm - Jason Pearson
Tooele West: 5:00pm - Shane Hardy
Valley View: 6:00pm - Denise McCubbins
Beginning of June: Seminary staff will deliver diplomas to stake leaders to be given to ward leaders to distribute to youth who earned them.