College Admissions Essay: Why I Want This Scholarship

Words cannot express my gratitude. Receiving the Bettye McDonald Caldwell and Fred T. Caldwell, Jr. scholarship is truly an honor! After the lottery scholarship, I end up having to pay for about half my tuition, which makes this gift is an incredible blessing. Going to school full-time and working full-time is a difficult balancing act, but not working is not an option. When I opened the email stating I had been awarded this scholarship, a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders and an overwhelming sense of accomplishment overtook me. It gave me a deep and powerful feeling of success. This scholarship award is proof to me that hard work does pay off. It is a motivator to work even harder to achieve my goals and reach my dream career. I sincerely thank you with every piece of my heart.

I understand that my family and I are not living below the poverty line or fighting over bus fare, but this scholarship will still greatly benefit me. When my sister filed the FAFSA, she was not given an extraordinary amount of money. She had to take out loans to pay for her education. My family and I cannot afford to take out any more loans. In 2014, we lost our house due to foreclosure. For two years, every penny we earned went to our savings account to save up for a house. When I was fourteen years old, I had saved up five-thousand dollars for college. I decided to give the money to my parents in order to buy our house. I am a senior in high school, and I have not managed to recoup my money. Meanwhile, my parents are tied down to a thirty-year mortgage. In addition, my grandfather, who lives in Mexico, has been diagnosed with depression. My parents have been sending money over there in order to pay for his care and medicine. Trying to find the right treatment for him has made money a bit tight in my household.

I believe that I am a worthy candidate for this scholarship due to my recognition of the financial impact of college. Growing up in a single parent home has been a financially and emotionally difficult feat for my mother and myself. When I was seven years old, my father passed away from a blood clot. During his life, he served in Vietnam, where he was granted a Purple Heart after shattering his kneecap on a landmine. He was on disability, and my mother was employed as a rehabilitation nurse, the only source of income in our family. After his death, my mother and I both began to go to therapy for our grief over losing my father. Focusing on my mental health helped me accept the meaning of death, and struck my motivation to honor my father and ensure that he would be proud of me. When I grew up, we always relied on getting clothes from thrift stores to save money and cutting any unnecessary expenditures. My mother always worked to have enough money for food and comfort. I received monetary Survivor Benefits after his death until my high school graduation this past May. As mentioned before, my mother has Multiple Sclerosis, which is an unfortunately expensive illness. Shortly after her diagnosis, the rehabilitation unit of her work closed and she was left on unemployment right before my sophomore year of high school. I was not old enough to drive or work, so finances were incredibly strict. On my 16th birthday, I attended an orientation to work as a lifeguard at our local YMCA. The next day, I also got my license to eliminate transportation issues. My employment alleviated financial and emotional stress on my mother, as I was able to contribute to the bills and my personal expenses. Throughout my life, my mother has also been very dependent on alcohol to relieve stress. There were numerous times where I

I would use this scholarship to further my education and dream of becoming a surgeon. I have volunteered at St. Anthony Hospital since October 2016 in the PACU (Post Anesthesia Care Unit) and the OR (Operating Room). I have over 500+ hours volunteering and in conjunction with that I have done a 100-hour internship over the summer. In the PACU, I work with nurses and I get to observe patients waking up from surgery. I help the nurses with anything they need like monitoring a patient, getting family members, cleaning bays, and answering phones. I help out in the OR by cleaning and stocking. It is fulfilling not only because I help the nurses out a lot, but also because I have a passion for the medical field. I started volunteering because of my interest in the medical field

This scholarship would have a positive impact on my education and help my mom pay for college without taking student loans. My mom has been a single mom for eighteen years and has supported me, my brother, and grandparents. She does not receive child support on a regular basis and does everything on her own. Unfortunately, my younger brother is an accident-prone child and has racked up some high medical bills throughout the years. For countless years she has worked two jobs to support everyone and provide anything within reason. My mom is currently unemployed due to the downturn in the oil field in west Texas. Now she has taken on the challenge of remodeling and flipping houses.

Four years ago, I started high school and felt extremely lost. If someone asked me my first day of freshman year if I knew where I wanted to go to college or what I wanted to do there, I would have laughed and told them that I didn't even know what I wanted for dinner that night. At that time, all of those questions seemed so far away. Now, as I sit here writing this, I can't seem to go a day without thinking of those questions. Luckily, I have found some answers within the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

I grew up in a house with a nurse and a police officer. A home that encouraged my personal growth and achievement. I have watched my parents work tirelessly to give me and my three sisters the life we had growing up. I need this scholarship money to prove that their sacrifices paid off.

I deserve this scholarship because disregarding the seventeen ACT score I have or the 3.24 GPA I have, I have worked very hard to get to where I am now being my last year which is senior year. Around two years ago, I wasn’t who I am now. Freshman and sophomore year of High School all you saw was a girl who just let days passed by. I didn’t pay attention to my grades, or pay attention about college or anything. If I had a 70 in one of my classes I saw it as a pretty moderate grade, as long as I was passing my classes. However, little did I realize that the poor choices that I made would affect my last two years of High School.

I believe I should be considered for these scholarships as I’m hardworking, passionate, and altruistic. These scholarships will help in my endeavours of attending college debt-free, while learning skills to assist me afterwards.

I am interested in this scholarship for a variety of reasons both personally and financially. I currently live in a single parent home that won't be able to help me financially when I pursue my future career. The career I want to pursue in the future is in honor of my grandpa, Chuck Storing, who was never able to become the doctor he hoped to become due to financial and family issues that followed him after high school. I have worked two jobs simultaneously throughout high school to save up money for myself. Along with constantly putting school first no matter how hectic or busy my life got. My whole life I have always set goals for myself and never gave up on them until they were fully achieved. I strive each and everyday to make my family

I have always wanted to help relieve my parents from stress and work, provide for them without calling for financial help, and live with minimal troubles. As I grew older, I realized the only way that I could aid my parents: I need to go to school and do well. I worked as hard as I could in all my classes at school, pushing myself as much as I could to advance to the next year with my best. College is the next step, but how could I get through it without financial problems that could grow worse anytime? This question pestered me relentlessly everytime I think about attending college until I decided I need to apply for any scholarship that would help me reach my life goals.

Last year, I decided that I wanted to do something important for my community so I volunteered to be a basketball coach at my church's basketball league. For about 4 months, I got to coach a team of hyperactive 4th and 5th graders. On the first day of practice, I asked my players what they wanted to achieve by the end of the season. One of my players said that he wanted to be able to shoot a three pointer by the end of the season. From then on, I helped him to improve his shooting. He wasn't the greatest shooter, but he was determined to perfect his shooting skills and I was determined to do everything I could to help him. During practice, I would help him with his shooting form and even after practice I would give him tips on how to get

I wish to be considered for the scholarship as an undergraduate student in Cameron University, majoring in English Language.

For one of many reasons, I qualify for the Nina Mason Pulliam Legacy Scholarship program because as a juvenile I was in custody of the state and attended a group home named Penny Lane located in North Hills California. At the time when I resided there I was 16 years old. I’ am now twenty-six years old and I care for two dependents whom are my children. My children are now 7 and four years of age. At the age of seventeen I dropped out of high school and became pregnant the following year. The fact that I was soon becoming a mother, I wanted to go back to school but was discouraged and had no positive role models to look up to. When I finally gained the courage to attend school and obtain my G.E.D I was one step closer to starting my journey. The following year I enrolled to college and became the first person in my family to enroll in college. Enrolling in college was foreign to me and I felt alone because no one else in my family can relate.

This scholarship will be immensely useful to me and my family. The only income revived to aid my family is from my mother’s income because my father is incarcerated. I have eight other siblings and seven of them are younger than me. My only older sibling will also be beginning college this year. With my mother nurturing nine children she will not be able to help my sister and me with college finance.