Full-Ride Scholarship

Winston Churchill once said "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." When it comes to school, taking advantage of the best opportunities that come your way will benefit a student greatly. Scholarships are just one of the many examples of these opportunities. But when comparing certain scholarships, there are even better scholarship opportunities than others. One of the best opportunities, when it comes to scholarships, is a full-ride scholarship offered by a college or university. Receiving this kind of scholarship is an immense privilege, and very praiseworthy. One very high aspiring goal of mine is to acquire the honor of attaining a full-ride. There is a multitude of reasons why I would want to be awarded this kind of scholarship, and I believe there are many reasons why I should be invested in by the scholarship donors.

I want to receive a full-ride scholarship for many reasons. One would be because I would use the money that i would have spent on school for other important investments. Examples of these would be like keeping it in an account or saving up for a car or an apartment. Another thing that a full-ride scholarship does is the benefit of never having to pay back student loans after you graduate from college. This helps with preventing me from being in debt as soon as I get finished with college. It lets me focus on spending my money on more important things such as a house, clothes, food, etc. instead of having to spend a fortune on paying back my loans. Another reason I would aspire to have a full-ride is because it shows great qualities that I worked incredibly hard to achieve such an award, and would be a great accomplishment to be able to add to my resume. These are only a few of the reasons I would want to receive a full-ride scholarship.

Not only do I aspire to achieve this kind of academic honor, I believe the donors will be satisfied with investing in me for the scholarship. A great reason is because I will keep up my grades to ensure that I receive the full benefits of the scholarship. Th donors will know that they made the right choice in investing in me because I have great perseverance, I have high expectations that I set for myself in which I do achieve, I am actively involved in the environment and plan on getting involved in groups and clubs all throughout the college or university. This is how I will prove they made the right choice.

Not many students understand the immensity of recieving a full-ride scholarship, but I do. I will work as hard as I can in order to meet the qualifications to attain the scholarship because I greatly appreciate this kind of scholarship and understand its worth. Even though it will be difficult, the opportunity to be able to apply for this kind of scholarship is too great to pass up. That is why I will stay an optimist, and push through the difficulty to get to the opportunity.

My Hero

When you think of George Washington, you think of the man who stood up for our freedom as a country, and then was the first President of the United States. When you think f Mother Teresa, you think of a woman who spent her whole life dedicated to God and the well-being of others. But when you think of the people you see every day of your life, these wonderful and outstanding things that George Washington and Mother Teresa did aren't what come to mind. What comes to mind is the ordinary deeds that happen right under our noses that we fail to recognize as being heroic. Over the years, I have grown to realize the things that my sister does for me in order to keep me on the right path, and have just recently grasped that she has made the biggest impact on my life.

My sister, Nicole Elizabeth Ketchmark, most commonly known as Nikki, is someone I will forever look up to. Her personality has many different levels, depending on what kind of day you catch her on. Most of the time she is bubbly and constantly joking around. She never fails to have a great time, no matter the time or place, and always dances like nobody is watching, even when she is in public. The other fifteen percent of the time she can be in your face and aggressive, but she gets this from her constant contact with the sport of soccer. She is also the quickest girl I know when it comes to getting ready in the morning. It takes talent to look like she spent an hour and a half getting ready when she only took a half hour. This proves her time management skills she gains from juggling cheerleading, soccer, homework, school, social life, and family time. Nikki has also convinced many people that her maturity level is much higher than most her age. Even though she is three years younger, we get mistaken as either being twins, or her being older than me. What probably fed into this was the fact that we have been close all our lives. Due to this, she has been able to grow into the same world and social lifestyle I have, and at the same speed I have. Nikki is an all around amazing little sister and there is no way I would ever trade her for anyone or anything.

Nikki not only pushes herself to succeed, she also pushes me to be the best person I can be. In many situations, she has helped me through things that I wouldn't have been able to complete without her support. For instance, when it comes to advice, she tells me her honest opinion, instead of beating around the bush to preserve my feelings. Another example is that I can be very easily distracted, but Nikki will constantly be one me to stay on task. Over the years I have gradually gotten better at this because of her and know that I will be much more focused in college. Besides keeping me concentrated, she encourages me to keep persevering, even when I know that giving up would be so much easier. A time this happened was when was getting exhausted from trying to balance school, homework, and cheerleading, that my grades began to slip. What Nikki did was make me understand that I was strong for two and a half years, and giving up now would make the hard work I accomplished freshman and sophomore year, pointless. This helped me gain more self determination needed for college. Nikki has given me more than she will ever realize, and I hope she thinks the the same of me.

Nikki will never cease to be my best friend. Our bond has grown stronger over the years and I hope it continues to do so. Even though we will miss each other when I leave for college, I know that all her support will benefit me throughout my college life. I will no longer feel lost once I step foot on my college campus because she has guided me through thick and thin. All I want to say is thank you, Nikki, for being my George Washington and Mother Teresa, thank you for being MY hero.

My First Week as a College Student

The college experience is something that I never thought I would be exposed to until I was graduated from high school. The Summer Scholars Program has given me the opportunity to experience this before most even imagine what college life will be like. Going to class on a college campus is so much different than high school. The parking, the walking to class, the students, and the independence, are all things that change when transitioning from high school to college.

The past week of classes have been more stressful than I ever imagined. Long reading assignments that are hard to concentrate on due to the length and how late it may be. Another thing is that, taking a class during the summer makes it harder, I would think because most of your friends don't have homework like you. So balancing a social life with classes in summer is a part of being independent. Also, when taking a summer class that is condensed into around five to six weeks like ours is, it is really accelerated, which makes missing one day of class like missing around three to five of a normal school year class would be. Another thing that makes class so different in college is that the teacher makes it apparent that if a student needs help, they need to come find him or her, and that they won't go looking for the student if they are falling behind.

Another thing is that assignments aren't really anything you can turn in, such as worksheets. It is independent reading that is optional, but you have to realize there are consequences to that as well. These could be failing a pop quiz over the reading, not understanding parts of the test or the discussion the next day due to the laziness of the student.

Yet another thing that is different is that students have full responsibility when being late to a class. They drive themselves, park (possibly far away at times because their is not much parking), and then walking/running to class (depending on how much time they have until class starts). This brings up another point in particular that is unlike high school. Students walk across campus to different buildings in order to get to class, instead of all of their classes being in one building. This is much harder when trying to find your class on the first day of school, especially when you don't know your way around the campus.

The most challenging thing for me the past week was being motivated enough to get my homework done. All I wanted to do was relax and do something with my friends. I did most of my homework, and for the things I didn't read the night we were assigned, I went and read them for the test.

College life is very difficult at times, but is also very enjoyable. Experiencing this type of life so early really puts me ahead, and I greatly appreciate what the Summer Scholars Program at UNO does in order to make sure we get the full experience.

Residence Life with Summer Scholars

Finishing my junior year in high school put me one step closer to living on my own in college. College is a place that all responsibility is put on the student. Examples of these responsibilities are things such as making sure you eat, sleep, and do homework, while balancing a little bit of fun here and there. The Summer Scholars Program at UNO gave me the firsthand experience of these responsibilities while living on campus. We students had a busy week and had to balance our time between a variety of things; these include preparing for class the next morning, activities that the program offered throughout the day, and outside commitments - such as work.

This program showed us all what true campus life is like, and helped us to organize our priorities. Personally, I found that time management plays a big role in this, and realized I need to work on organizing my time better. It is always easier to slack off, not do assignments, and just have fun with friends, but sometimes the consequences become a rude awakening. We all had homework, optional activites, and other commitments during the residential week, just like real college life would. From these options, I learned that you have to discipline yourself to get the work done early so that you can play later. Another thing we all found out the hard way was that sometimes sleep is hard to come by in college, even if it is staying up late trying to finish assignments. By the end of the last day in the dorms, most of us were exhausted due to lack of sleep and the constant hustle and bustle of a day planned out by the program. On top of all this, some of the students had jobs as well as the daily assignments and activities, which would be even more difficult to manage time wisely. Balancing all of these things in one day makes it very challenging to stay focused on school.

By the end of the week in residence, some were happy to be able to go home to see family, and most were sad that they had to lave their new friends. We made it through the week and survived the challenges of time management. Being able to experience the college life beforehand was very beneficial to us all. If we had any, we made our mistakes early and were able to learn now, so that later, when we are actually in college, we know the rights from the wrongs.