When I was sixteen I moved on to a larger project: my clunker of a car.

Seeing how a single inch could disarrange the lining of gears not only taught me the importance of detail but also sparked my fascination with fixing things. Small adjustments in the brake and gears, plus a wash, could be the difference between a $50 piece of trash and a $200 steal. To additionally earn more money as a young teen, I began flipping bicycles for profit on craigslist. My low-income status was not a barrier but a launching pad to motivate and propel my success. I was still flourishing in school, leading faith-based activities and taking an active role in community service. Through the successes of my efforts, I also realized that poverty was just a societal limitation.

I’ve seen that even as a high school student, I have so much potential to impact my family and beyond - how one small act can go a long way. With the financial stability that my part-time jobs provided my mother could stay home to raise seven children, my learning-disabled older sister could attend college, my younger sister could go on a mission trip to Korea, and my twin siblings could compete in national math competitions. My sacrifice translated to a closer bond with my siblings and deeper conversations with my parents, helping me understand the true meaning of a unified family and the valuable part I play in that. Right then I made a commitment to my family to contribute financially in whatever way I could. With nowhere else to go, we moved into our church’s back room for three months, where I shamefully tried to hide our toothbrushes and extra shoes from other church members. Biking the thirty-five minutes each evening to the cafe and back to work a six-hour shift was exhausting, but my family’s encouragement and gratitude for the extra income was worth it.Ī few years earlier, my family of nine had been evicted from the home we had been living in for the past ten years.

Kang Foundation Scholarship ($1000), Kingdom Dreamer Scholarship Fund Scholarship through Sarang Church ($2000), and the national contest from the Lamber Goodnow legal team ($1000) by Peter Kang.įedora? Check. Whether it’s a scholarship essay about yourself, a creative writing scholarship, or an essay about why you deserve the scholarship, the sample scholarship essays below can help you better understand what can result from following a scholarship essay format or applying tips for how to write a scholarship essay.īut first! If you’re an international student (not from the United States) applying to scholarships, don’t forget to consider some common mistakes international students make when applying to college. In fact, we’ve written a guide to what colleges look for that can help you skillfully write vulnerable scholarship essays. In other words, they want to better understand how your values, qualities, and skills will flourish in college-and how good your writing skills are. Scholarship committees reading your responses will want to know who this money will benefit and why it’s important that you receive this money. Many of these essays also demonstrate vulnerability. The key to many of these essays is that they describe a story or an aspect of the student’s life in a way that is dynamic: It reflects many of their values, strengths, interests, volunteer work, and life experiences. These scholarship winners earned thousands in financial aid from writing these essays.

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