In case any of you aren’t on the ESRI Education email Newsleter, this is an item that of you may be interested in following. From the newsletter:
“SkillsUSA has partnered with the GIS industry to develop a competition program that will provide universities, colleges, and their students with a way to validate their geospatial programs and measure them against national standards…. By successfully passing an online qualifying exam (available in March and April) to test knowledge in GIS and remote sensing, students will be eligible to compete nationally and have a chance to earn national recognition and cash awards.”
Winners will receive cash and software prizes. I didn’t see anything specific about level of education, but as we find out more we will definitely share 
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Details online here (pdf): http://www.skillsusa.org/contests/geospatial.pdf
Gory details: post secondary/college students only, $40 fee to do online preliminary test (March-April), top 60 invited to Kansas City (pay your own way) for final test and presentation of project (June)
Prizes: The gold medalist will receive a complete ArcGIS ArcView and four Extensions software package worth $10,000 and a $1,000 stipend to reimburse travel expenses to Kansas City, as well as registration to attend the ESRI Education User Conference in California. Prizes for the silver and
the bronze medalist include the Arc GIS software package, registration to the EdUC, and $500 and $250 stipends, respectively. Prizes and awards for other contestants are still in development.