Being that I have the amount of credits as a sophomore, I was qualified to apply for the Stockton Foundation Scholarship. This application required that you get two letters of recommendation, one of which had to be from someone a part of the Stockton faculty. You also had to attach a copy of your unofficial transcript and you had to write a 250 word statement about yourself.

That seemed easy enough for me, so I decided to give it a shot. I had no problem getting the letters and my transcript. But once I hit the 250 word statement, I got stuck. Have you ever tried to write about yourself in 250 words? Not only are you writing about yourself, you are trying to convince a panel of faculty members that you deserve whatever amount of compensation that they are willing to give to you to repay you for your hard efforts. You think to yourself, 250 words is easy to write. I can do this. Until you sit down with your computer in your lap, and you realize that you have way more than 250 words about yourself that you would like to tell this panel. This was definitely a struggle for me, considering if I listed the amount of things I’m involved in or have been involved in, I would use up the 250 in an instant. I needed to figure out how to weigh what was important and was worth elaborating on briefly. I needed to try and figure out how to get into these people’s head, to try and figure out what they would consider worthy of receiving this scholarship.

I did my absolute best with the 250 word statement and I think that it summed up who I am and what I stand for very well. I have yet to hear back from the panel of reviewers but I am keeping my fingers crossed!