Scholarship Essay

So, I had the opportunity to apply for a little scholarship for my study abroad stuff. All I had to do was write a two page essay about why I was studying abroad and what I hoped to gain from the study abraod experience. Well kids I got the scholarship (yay!) and am going to post the paper below. Hope you find it interesting :)

I have seen children playing in the street, artists tuning their instruments on the roadside, mothers carrying their children home from a long day out. New York, Cambodia, Paris, Bangkok, or Mexico—I have seen these simple moments of truth everywhere. They are the moments when, despite our differences, our humanity shows through. It is the humanity in our everyday lives that help us to begin to see that we are members of the same planet Earth and our cultural differences are not wedges that divide, but rather enhancers that enrich our lives. We are as unique as the colors of a rainbow whose endless shades are not dulled by their sharply contrasting hues, but only made more beautiful by their intensity. It is this feeling, this indescribable change in the way that we see the world that is why I am going to study abroad and why the travel experience will always be a part of my life.

I have not yet found a traveler who was able to truly describe the ways that they had changed, but I have yet to meet a person who has said that they weren’t powerfully and immovably altered by the travel experience. Often the only way we can cope with the unique moments that we’ve had is through stories that we’ve accumulated from them, as if in this way, by sharing them, we can describe the morsels of our experiences. And by sharing these tidbits with one another, we are able to paint the canvas of our experience for others into a vibrant landscape.

I have often felt that our purpose as members of the community and as people is to contribute to making others lives better through pursuing our own passions. In essence, we must do what we love to help change the world in a positive way. With this belief I have chosen to study Broadcast Journalism and French. Through these focuses, I hope to either pursue travel journalism, or to work in Higher Education Administration in the Study Abroad field. Either way, I hope that I can help strengthen the ties of cultural understanding that are so desperately needed in today’s world through telling the stories of others and helping them find their own niche in the world. It is with these goals that I continue to live by a mantra: the more I understand the world, the more I understand myself. The sooner I see the ways in which my own country faults, the sooner I can help change it. The better I know the scenery of the land, the better I can teach it to others and they can begin their journey of making the world a better place.

While studying abroad, I will continue to hone my French language skills that have left me impassioned to explore many other cultures through the study of language. It is my goal that French will be just the first in a long list of languages I hope to learn.
My study abroad experience is going to help me on the way to becoming the person that I seek to be. As I indulge in the study abroad experience for myself, one day I will be able to help others find their own study abroad experience. As I continue to study Broadcast Journalism, I will be able to help others try to tell their travel experiences. I will be able to incite in others an inkling of interest to go to uncharted territory; it is my hope that I can let others know the life-changing effects of traveling.

After I finish my study abroad program, I will continue to travel throughout Europe for two months with a good friend of mine who is also studying abroad. We are excited to see new places and accumulate new stories. We will backpack throughout Europe and visit places that are the roots of our heritage. As we set out to discover the distant lands that so many have traversed before us, we will write our own stories, from our own experiences; and the places that others have traveled before us will hold a new meaning because we will have seen them through new eyes.