Winning Scholarship Essays

Winning Scholarship Essays written by Rodolfo valadez, cohen foundation scholarship winner.

Going to Thomas Jefferson High School in Los Angeles, California, Rodolfo discovered his passion: filmmaking. While making movies including his critically acclaimed documentary “los angeles,” which was screened at the Sundance Film Festival, is his passion, Rodolfo’s inspiration is his mother. Rodolfo freely admits that his mother is “my support, my help, my guidance, my friend, my hero.” With this Winning Scholarship Essays, Rodolfo won a $6,000 scholarship from the Cohen Foundation and $7,000 scholarship from the Hispanic Heritage Youth Awards to attend the University of California at Los Angeles.

A Mother’s Sacrifce

My mother sat in between the dry grass growing out of the puddle of dirt water under a bridge in the hills separating Mexico from San Diego. In that exact moment I sat aboard a plane with strangers and in possession of a name other than mine in order to be granted admission into the United States. It has now been 14 years, and my mother still sacrifces her own comfort for mine. She works nine hours a day, six days a week in a machine-like position, humped over a sewing machine, altering clothes for strangers. At the same time I sit in class, socializing, enjoying a productive school day.

However, my mother is fulflled knowing that her children take advantage of the vast opportunities this country has to offer despite the hardships she has to endure for a weekly paycheck. A paycheck she has vowed to invest into my college education at UCLA, an institution requiring almost $16,000 a year. At her hourly salary and after taxes she would have to work 2,560 hours in order to pay a year’s tuition, which equals working 10,240 hours over the four years of college. If asked to, she would be more than willing to undergo the task of paying for my education knowing fully the standards and strife she would burden herself with.

In my sophomore year, I was among 24 honor students sequestered into a film course. I became one of the first students to attend the annual Telluride Film Festival in Colorado. In my second year in the course I attended the Sundance Film Festival where I was able to display my own work. Again, in my fnal year, we were invited to Sundance to show more films from our Academy of Film and Theatre Arts.

The film I showcased in the student forum was a documentary film commemorating my mother’s struggle and sacrifce ever since her departure from a small oasis named Los Angeles in Durango, Mexico, only to move into the cold, industrial city of Los Angeles, California. The film depicts her struggle and reason for doing so. It also illuminates the fact that more like her exist all around us.

The film course at my high school has been my passion. For three years the course taught me to acquire a more perceptive and critical view of the world. Throughout the course we studied Aristotle’s philosophies and the evolution of cinematography, and we analyzed films and wrote essays comparing the motifs they translate into a sequence of shots. I have become more creative and just recently started working on a new 16 mm film entitled “Love Story.” As clichéd as the title suggests, the story is a satire of what the title represents. Such projects motivate me to work even when class is over. In the last three years I have found myself in class Saturday mornings and afternoons, editing and brainstorming ideas with classmates.

I have my mother to thank for being able to pursue my passion in film making. I realize she gave up everything for me, and I will do what I can to make it well worth it.

See other Winning Scholarship Essays from this blog.

Incoming search terms:

• Award winning Scholarship essays
• hispanic scholarship essays examples
• winning scholarship essay
• award winning scholarship essay
• film scholarship essay
• winning hispanic scholarship essays
• winning-scholarship-essays examples in movie-making example
• hispanic scholarship fund award winning essays
• what are some award winning scholarship essays
• scholarship essay hispanic

Winning Scholarship Essays

Winning Scholarship Essays written by mark R. eadie, coca-cola scholars Regional winner.

When Mark visits his 90-year-old grandmother, the two turn the volume on the television up. Though they are separated by almost 70 years in age, they share a similar problem: hearing impairment, Mark’s grandmother because of age and Mark because of a childhood injury that left him partially deaf. This injury has not stopped Mark. If anything, it has sparked a passion to be a role model for others.

While a student at Columbia High School, Mark trained for hours as the lead of the school musical, perfecting his singing without the beneft of stereo hearing. The performance garnered rave reviews. From Rensselaer, New York, Mark received over $50,000 in scholarships to attend the University of Michigan, where he is a member of the national champion solar car team and is studying aerospace and mechanical engineering. He hopes that through his research in engineering he can develop solutions for others like him. Winning Scholarship Essays.

Invisible Handicap

Who would think a game of catch would change my life? At age 10 I lost hearing in one ear and had to struggle with the challenges resulting from this “invisible handicap.” Through this I have become more sensitive to people’s problems and handicaps, learned the value of my support community, refned career goals and challenged myself in new and diffcult situations to help others.

My catching skills were not what my older brother thought, and his fast ball missed my glove and hit my cheek bone. After a severe concussion and cochlear surgery, I was totally deaf in the right ear. I had lost all stereo-phonic hearing and musicality. My voice started to become monotone. I could not tell from where sounds were coming, hear notes I was singing or distinguish voices in a noisy room. The hardest part was exhaustion from having to focus on everything going on. School became far harder. Conventional hearing aids don’t work with total deafness, so I tried a microphone and receiver system in class. However, it was more frustrating than helpful. After that, my teachers were dazzled with my attentiveness, not realizing I was reading their lips. All this has been very tough emotionally.

With my parents’ help I learned not only to cope but to grow. Most people never know I have a severe hearing problem. I turn my head or move so they’re on my “good ear” side. I ask people to clarify when statements are unclear. I still play sports, especially lacrosse, though my coach nearly goes hoarse yelling to me.

I challenged myself, joining symphonic band and chamber singers and taking a lead in “The Fantasticks” musical. Enormous hours were spent pinging on the piano, trying to match my voice to notes. The support of friends and teachers was wonderful, and we received rave reviews for the performances. The struggle has brought me closer to my 90-year-old grandmother, who is losing her hearing. We visit daily and watch PBS together on weekends, the volume blasting. We empathize with each other, laughing and crying over the frustrations of deafness. When volunteering in the hospital cardiac care unit, I comfort older patients by comparing hearing aids. They laugh and do not feel quite so old.

Spring three years ago brought an incredible gift. A doctor developed a trans-cranial hearing aid. It transmits sounds powerfully from the deaf ear, through the skull, to the nerves in the “good” ear. Now, I hear some stereophonic sound and tonality. This cutting edge solution has helped me decide to study engineering, to help others as I have been helped. Engineering is a noble profession; its goal is to alleviate the human condition. I seek to examine and solve problems by creating new visions that combine innovation with technological development.

My invisible handicap makes communication diffcult, but I wanted to help other youth grow and develop life skills, faith and values. So, I pushed myself and took increased leadership in Boy Scouts and in my church. These positions require good communication, making me work extremely hard. But the results have been worth the effort. As the leader of the Presbyterian Youth Connection Council for the Synod of the Northeast, I have worked with youth and adults from eight states. We hold training events to improve youth leadership. I went to Colorado to help the Synod of the Rocky Mountains establish a youth council. Twice we have planned conferences for nearly 200 youth. I have learned to work until a task is completed.

Though unable to say I’m glad it happened, I have benefted from my hearing loss. I have learned to use my limitations to help others and to never give up. My no longer monotone voice now refects the non-monotone life I have developed.

See other Winning Scholarship Essays from this blog.

Incoming search terms:

• winning scholarship essays

CIA Undergraduate Scholarship

CIA Undergraduate Scholarship

CIA – Central Intelligence Agency
Office of Public Affairs
Washington, DC 20505
Phone: 703-482-0623
Fax: 703-482-1739

http://www.cia.gov

Purpose:  To encourage students to pursue careers with the CIA. CIA Undergraduate  Scholarship

Eligibility: Applicants must be high school students or college sophomores. High school students must have an SAT score of 1000 or higher or an ACT score of 21 or higher, while all applicants must have a GPA of at least 3.0. Applicants must demonstrate financial need, defined as a household income of less than $70,000 for a family of four or $80,000 for a family of five or more. They must meet all criteria for regular CIA employees, including security checks and medical examinations. Applicants must commit to a work experience each summer during college and agree to CIA employment for at least 1.5 times the length of their CIA sponsored scholarship or CIA Undergraduate Scholarship.

Amount: Annual salary including benefits and up to $18,000 for tuition.

Number of awards: Varies. Scholarship may be renewable.

Deadline: November 1.

How to apply: There is no application form; applicants may submit a resume online.

CIA Undergraduate Scholarship

Incoming search terms:

• cia undergraduate scholarship program
• cia scholarship
• central intelligence agency scholarships
• cia office of public affairs
• cia undergraduate scholarship program application
• cia scholarship high school
• cia undergraduate scholarship application
• cia undergraduate scholarship program how to
• annual income director of the central intelligence agency do
• cia undergraduate scholarship program resume

Emanuel Pleitez remembers falling asleep while writing his scholarship essays. In fact, he worked so late, that he went to the post offce at the Los Angeles International airport to mail his applications because that was the only post office open until midnight. Fortunately, he had a classmate who joined him on these late night drives.

“You have to surround yourself with friends who are motivated like you, who want to go to college and apply for scholarships,” he says. Emanuel and his friend developed an informal support network for each other when applying for awards. He used his friend’s computer because he didn’t have one and the two helped edit each other’s work. In fact, Emanuel encouraged his friend to apply for an award that he found. His friend ultimately won the award.

His classmate wasn’t the only person that Emanuel relied on for help. He received encouragement from his coach, who was also his senior class advisor and school’s dean. His counselor mentored him after Emanuel approached him during his freshman year of high school to explain his ambition to attend a selective college. He gained interviewing experience at a program he attended to prepare students for internships and essay writing help from the Quest summer school program he attended at Stanford. “I was really lucky to be surrounded by all these good people. At every stage there was always a couple of people who I could turn to for help,” Emanuel says.

winning scholarship essay barkeley

Winning Scholarship Essays written by Daniel Heras, scantron scholarship winner

Daniel dreams of becoming a teacher to inspire students to learn in the same way that he has been inspired by his teachers. In this Winning Scholarship Essays, he describes one of the most meaningful experiences he has had in high school through the Environmental Science Club, which took him to real life locales to learn about science not from textbooks but from seeing, touching and experiencing science frst hand. Student body president and captain of the baseball team at Woodrow Wilson High School in Los Angeles, Daniel won more than $17,000 in scholarships to attend U.C. Berkeley.

Inspired to Teach

In the ninth grade, I was introduced to the Environmental Science Club and to Mr. Quezada, my science teacher and advisor. Outside of the classroom and through the club, I saw an entirely different side to education. The science club took me to far and exotic destinations, such as the Islands of Hawaii, the underwater wonderlands of the Cayman Islands, the temperate climates of the Florida Everglades, the deep blue waters of the Mexican Riviera and the High Sierras of Northern California.

We learned that one cannot experience these things in class behind a small cramped desk made for 10-year-olds. I was able to hold, smell and sometimes taste, foreign artifacts. I have seen the migration patterns of the Humpback whale, have become a certifed scuba diver, learned to surf, rock climb, snowboard and trail the mountains of the world, all while learning about science. Our trips have also given me the life skills of communication, learning to intermingle with people of the world.

It only took a year to see that teaching was my future. Why would someone not want to get paid for helping his or her community, to enlighten the future generation and best of all, do the things that bring joy to one’s life all while on the job? I was given experiences I would not have received anywhere else, and I want to do the same for the next generation to come. There is a world that one can hold, smell and sometimes taste. I want to show people that there really is a world out there beyond the pictures in textbooks.

See other Winning Scholarship Essays from this blog.

Incoming search terms:

• scholarship essay examples
• I Need a Sample Essay to Win a Scholarship
• scholarship essay sample
• examples of scholarship essays
• examples of winning scholarship essays
• award winning scholarship essays examples
• winning scholarship essays examples
• scholarship essay example
• sample scholarship essay
• example scholarship essays

The first impression that the judges get is from the introduction. If it does not catch their attention and make them want to read further then you will lose even before you have had a chance. Here are some strategies for beginning any essay:

1. Create action or movement. Use an example or short story to create action right at the beginning. Have you noticed how most movies begin with a striking scene that quickly draws you in? Do the same with your introduction.
2. Pose a question. Questions draw attention as the readers think about their answers and are curious to see how you answer them in the essay. You can also use an interesting or surprising fact in place of a question.
3. Use descriptions. If you can create a vivid image for readers, they will be more likely to want to read on. Just be sure to do so succinctly since you don’t want the introduction to be filled with detail that does not move the plot forward.

Conclusions are just as important as introductions since they are the last impression you will leave with the reader (the scholarship judge). Here are a few tips for the closing remarks.

1. Be thoughtful. The conclusion should end with something insightful. You may even decide to withhold a thought from the essay so that you have something for the conclusion.
2. Don’t just summarize. Since the reader has just finished the essay, there is no need for a restatement of the points that you made. It’s okay to wrap up your thoughts in one sentence, but try to add to the conclusion as a whole by making an extra point.
3. Don’t be too quick to end. Too many students tack on a meaningless conclusion or even worse, don’t have one at all. Have a decent conclusion that connects with the rest of the essay and that doesn’t consist of two words, “The End.”

As you look at the essay ask yourself: Will they think about what I have said after they have fnished reading? If the answer is yes, then you have written a conclusion that you can be proud of.

Incoming search terms:

• how to write a great introduction
• writing a great introduction
• a gripping introduction for a scholarship essay
• how to write a conclusion for a scholarship
• how to write introduction of scholarship
• how to write killer introduction for scholarship essay
• how write a a great introduction
• introduction and conclusion tips
• introduction and conclusion to leaves
• sample introduction on education essay writing

http://www.collegeanswer.com

Purpose: To help students pay for college.

Eligibility: Applicants may be high school, undergraduate or graduate students and must register on the CollegeAnswer website. Each month one registered user is selected in a random drawing to receive the scholarship. When you are registered for the website or the Sallie Mae Scholarship Search, you are automatically entered into the  scholarship drawing.
Amount: $1,000.
Number of awards: 1 per month.
Deadline: Monthly.
How to apply: Enter the scholarship by registering on the website. If you have already registered on the website or have a screen name and password, you are already entered for the scholarship.

Incoming search terms:

• 1000 scholarship examples
• scholarshipsponsored com

http://www.genkellyscholarship.com

Purpose: Each year authors Gen and Kelly Tanabe use a portion of the proceeds from the sales of their books to award a scholarship to outstanding high school, college and graduate students.

Eligibility: Applicants must be 9th-12th grade high school students, college undergraduates or graduate students, be U.S. citizens or legal residents and may study any major and attend or plan to attend any accredited college or university in the U.S. Selection is based primarily on the brief 250-word essay.

Amount: $1,000.

Number of awards: Varies.

Deadline: July 31.

How to apply: Applications are only available online. Please do not call or write for an application.

Incoming search terms:

• 1 000 Gen and kelly tanabe student scholarship
• gen and kelly tanabe student scholarship
• how to write gen and kelly tanabe scholarship essay
• www genkellyscholarship com

Where Has Time Gone?

As I sit at the lunch table, it suddenly hits me. Where has all the time gone? I am a senior in high school who is about to graduate in a matter of months and I have just realized that I might never see my friends after we receive our diplomas.

Surely we’ll see each other at reunions, but what will become of the great moments that we have shared?

I will never forget when one of my friends and I were given the responsibility of putting together a class beach party. My friend wasn’t a very creative or outgoing person, however, he was nearly twice as strong as me. So we came up with a plan. I would do all of the promotion for the party as well as decide the theme and menu. He would be responsible for making sure all of the food, sound equipment and decorations were transported to the beach. It was the perfect plan. Most of our classmates told us afterward that it was the best activity that they’d ever been to.

I sometimes wish I could stay in my school forever. I have learned so much in the last four years. Before I came to high school I didn’t even know what I was capable of intellectually. My teachers have been some of the most inspirational people in my life.

I know that college will bring with it many new memories and experiences and I am looking forward to it. However, I will never forget the friends who stayed by my side and the teachers who cared throughout the good times and the bad.

Why This essay bombed
In this essay, the author simply has no meaning in his writing. The essay covers a range of feelings and experiences. By the end of the essay we wonder what we just read. Is the point that the author will miss his friends? Is it that he is able to solve the problem of working with a friend who is not creative or outgoing? Or is it that his teachers have been the most infuential people in his life? There is no connection between the disjointed ideas. We are left confused and unimpressed.

How to avoid This mistake
As you are writing, think about what you are trying to convey. Ask the question, “What’s the signifcance of this essay?” If you can’t answer this question in a single sentence, then it probably means you need to make your message stronger and more clearly defined. Since there is often limited space for the essay, it is better to stick to a single topic. Select one and develop it throughout the essay. Don’t confuse the scholarship committee by writing about a number of things that have little or no connection to each other.