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I work hard, I am committed and I am manifesting that I will be with BVU in January. This fall semester, I am dedicating myself to applying for as many scholarships as possible. I started this plan in mid-August when it was clear I wouldn’t be on campus this fall. Without a scholarship, I just can’t go to Buena Vista University, a college in northwest Iowa. I’m a college senior and want to spend the final year of my educational career with my fellow students on campus, not zooming in.
I come out of poverty. I live on food stamps and in social housing. Student loans are not an option as it takes 10 years to pay off a student loan and the monthly payments that come with it. I don’t want to put the burden on myself or my family of constantly paying monthly for loans when they have nothing to give anyway. College is expensive enough and I want to put myself in the best possible position NEVER take out a loan. I want to physically meet with my classmates, take part in extracurricular activities, and really experience campus life. BVU has a great digital media program where students can get hands-on experience in the field of being a producer, editor, writer, etc.
In addition, through my involvement in clubs and organizations, I made contact with people throughout the university. I am a member of The Tack Online, (BVU’s multimedia news organization), Black Student Union (BSU), Society for Collegiate Journalists (SCJ) and I am a student member of the National Association for Black Journalists (NABJ) and the National Association for Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ). The BVU has everything I want from a university to get involved and the supportive atmosphere.
I have applied for numerous scholarships like the Juju Smith Schuster Foundation Scholarship, Extra Space Scholarship, Amplify Digital Storytellers Scholarship, Juan Andrade Jr Scholarship for Young Hispanic Leaders Scholarship, Art of Giving Scholarship , the Anosh Ahmed Scholarship, and hundreds more. After submitting my applications, I would spend every other day wondering if I was selected as the winner. This went on for 3 months until the day before the winner was announced. Then I got the emails picking the winners and thanking everyone for their applications. The easy part of the application process was writing essays and proofreading them. The hard thing was waiting for the decision to be made whether I won or not. I’ve never doubted myself because I’m a positive person and I knew if I kept applying, I was guaranteed to win one or more. I surprised myself because with this scholarship application process with so many rejections, I could have stopped and broken up. But this is not who I am and my hard work has paid off so far. In the last 3 weeks I have won 2 scholarships one after the other. I won the Anosh Ahmed Scholarship, which honors students who have gone through difficulties and continued their education. I recently won the Art of Giving Scholarship on Bold.org which I didn’t think I would win as I applied for many scholarships on their website and I didn’t win until recently.
For students who are in the same position as me and are looking for websites to apply for scholarships, I highly recommend it Fett.org, Scholarful.com, Fastweb, Unigo.com, JLV college counseling, thescholarshipguru.com, finesseyoureducation.com, gabriellacarter.com, and thestipendiumplug.com. I won a scholarship on Bold.org and am a finalist for the Lindsey Vonn Scholarship on Scholarful.com so I am proof that these sites work.
This process built my character as I learned not to let rejection get in the way of your blessings. If you keep applying and believing in it, eventually good things will happen. I think college should be more affordable for everyone to make their dreams come true. Although it’s expensive, I’ve persevered and learned to overcome adversity.
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