My College Education

When I was a freshman in high school, my parents sat me down in the living room and told me that if I wanted to go to college, I’d have to pay for it myself. Our financial difficulties were large enough to merit the statement. My step-dad was hardly able to work anymore because of health problems from a career in manufacturing. My mom also suffered in the over-saturated market for dental hygienists in Mesa—she was recently fired from a corporate office for refusing to sell unnecessary treatments to patients, and could only find a job in an office run by an abusive dentist who screamed at his employees and who even threw a computer at an assistant at one point. My mom needed to leave the office, but nobody knew if she would find work anywhere

My Dad didn't go to college. He worked long hard hours at southwire and traveling. As I was growing up he told me to keep working harder, and not to give up in life and just work for things. He wants me to go to college or the Air Force that way. I have a better job and I don't want to start my life off struggling. Instead of struggling he wants me doing good. College is not worth the cost, because some people can not afford it. With college being expensive a lot of college kids having to work and study and go to class some kids just can't handle it.

I have come from a struggling background. My parents never attended college and my mother has been the sole provider for my family for many years. I have watched her struggle trying to provide for us and I determined long ago that I would strive to do more for my future family than what she was able to give us. My dreams required that I attend college. It is because of the financial hardship my family faces every day that the financial burden that comes from attending college rests solely on my shoulders. Although I am employed, I do not make enough money to pay for the cost of living and my school expenses. My goal is to become an attorney and I do everything in my power to attain that goal. I excel in all of my classes and have become a leader on my campus and in my community. I rely on scholarships like the Silas Purnell Scholarship to recognize these attributes in me and with the help of this award I will be able to take my last step in my path of earning my baccalaureate degree and making my goals my

My mother received a high school diploma and was not able to attend college due to the fact that my grandparents needed help financially. She had to take on various responsibilities at a young age and could not afford a college education. My mother then decided to go back to school years after she gave birth to me and enrolled in a medical program where she would later become a Certified Nursing Assistant. My mother’s strong motivation and determination enabled her to make something of herself. Her perseverance motivated me to aim high for my goals and succeed. Although she had obtained a job, she still does not have the financial means to send me to college. Therefore, receiving a scholarship or any type of grant whether it is twenty dollars

For others, college is needed for them to carry out their dreams. College should not be regarded as some sort of special club that only the “elite” are a part of. College should be looked at as a choice. A choice that absolutely anyone can make at any

When I think about college I think about our country being a land of opportunity. Having the opportunity to learn. Not many people realize but not going to college is a missed opportunity. Some may argue that college is just not meant for them, the reason they say this is because they are weak and don’t believe in themselves. College is a choice that we can choose to learn and test our skills or we can choose to not know what skills we have. In middle school there were kids who were excellent athletes, some great at math, and others great in other subjects. On the other hand I always wanted to find that great talent of mine, I was mediocre in most subjects. I kept trying new things to discover what I’m really good at. I realized that it’s not that I had to try new things but to find my passion and focus on it and build myself off of it. I gained passion in college it gave me hope that one day my hard work will pay off with the education that was gained. As I grow older I realize many of us are mediocre, College should be required because it will be a necessity to keep up with our fast paced, competitive, technological society.

Every since I was a child my parents always spoke about college.A dream of theirs has now become a huge goal for me, to be the first in my family to attend and graduate college. In the third grade, after getting a good grade on my tests their faces would light up and would tell me how proud they were of the intelligent young lady I was becoming and how they wanted me to make something great out of myself, but most importantly impact and change something in the community. As a little third grade girl I smiled and noded without fully grasping the meaning of what they were talking about. By the age of ten I knew what they meant and that’s how I knew that pursuing law school and becoming a lawyer is what I wanted to do with my life,

At times we were living paycheck to paycheck, and although I was too young to understand, it was a very stressful time for my parents. Neither of my parents received a college degree, but both agree they wished they had. Because of this, my parents encouraged strongly from the day I was born for me to go to college. Although, they wouldn't be able to help out or save enough to send my sister and I themselves, they still wanted better for both of us. The day that I selected the University of Northern Iowa for an education major was, most likely, one of the happiest days of their lives. I don't have much saved for college because making ends meet is and was much more important. Each paycheck that I have earned I used in some way to help my parents or myself for the week. Whether that's paying my own phone bill or filling up in my parents vehicle with gas, I wanted to help. Now, I use most of the savings I have to prepare for college life. My financial situation isn't as dire as my Peruvian students, but it still lack much of what my classmates and friends have. All my life, I've seen struggle with money, but now I want to be sure that I make my parents proud by leading a life they never

Growing up in a household sustained solely by one parent’s income was always challenging. My mother earned a decent wage, but my stepfather worked in an auto detailing shop, which was nowhere near lucrative in rainy Washington State. I only became cognizant of my family’s financial standing when it came to discuss financing college. Unlike most of my other friends, my parents didn’t have a college savings account waiting for me and they didn’t have the funds that would be needed to pay my quarterly tuition. This matter-of-fact conversation occurred in 2008, during my Junior Year of high school, and it was extremely disheartening. This issue was exacerbated by the fact that my parents’ joint annual income fell right above qualifying for Federal

From the time I was able to realize what College was, all I ever heard from my Mother was about how or why I should go to college. and to be honest, after hearing all that, it just made me not want to go to college, because I didn't feel like I was smart enough, I felt like I know I was going to let my Mother down after all the things that she does for our family, from raising seven children on her own to having to work day or night just so that we can have the opportunities that she never had. As I grew older college took on a greater meaning to me. Realized that by not going to college I was destroying everything that

I was in elementary school when I first started hearing the word “college”. My parents would always tell my aunts and uncles that I would go off to college and get a great career. At this point I wouldn’t think much of it. During my middle school years, I realized that I was good at math and science. That’s when I started thinking about college, but it wasn’t

The person that pushed me to go to college was my mother. In an informal interview I asked her what she thought on the purpose of college. She immediately told me that it was a vital element for me to have a successful future and life (Aguilar). In a poll performed by pewsocialtrends.com “Nearly every parent surveyed (94%) says they expect their child to attend college... ("Is College Worth It?")”

At fifteen years old I watched as my mother read through the pages of Hartman’s Nursing Assistant Care, preparing for the next day’s test. For a year I watched as my mother struggled to juggle three children, a full-time job and school. It was over this year that I realized just how important a post-secondary education was in today’s world. Overtime, I studied how my parents would live pay check-to-pay-check and made the conscious decision to kick-start my own future.

Going to a university means the world to me not only because no one in my family has ever attended college, but I am so thrilled at the thought of being able to pursue a career field that I am highly passionate about. However, whether or not I’ll be able to afford to go to college has certainly been a matter on my mind for a long time now. My family earns less than

Covering tuition and other eligible expenses with a student loan and making no payments while in school is an adequate, but a stressful alternative to achieve a college education. Personally coming from a Hispanic family, reaching college level education was not a priority. Going to college for a young Mexican individual who is born and raised in Santa Maria, California is a difficult objective to sustain. Personally, my parents never got the chance to finish their education. Both of my parents are very hard working individuals; who devoted their lives to work in the strawberry fields to provide a better life for their children. My parent’s dreams were simply to keep my siblings and me away from the strawberry fields. Sadly, my parents wanting me to obtain a higher education and them being able to actually provide it for me were two very different stories. My parents worked very hard to simply put food on the table. I knew my parents helping me to finance my college education was not going to happen. Especially, when I started working in the strawberry fields myself. I worked to simply provide for my own unnecessary experiences. During those times I saw higher education as a luxury due to the fact it was highly unlikable I would be able to afford it. One thing was certain, I knew that no matter what I did I wasn’t going to work in the strawberry fields for the rest of my life. I promised myself during senior year of high school, that I would do everything in my power to