Life Changing Experiences and Influences Scholarship Essay Sample

What life experiences have shaped who you are today and what challenges have you overcome in achieving your education Scholarship Essay Example

After I graduated high school, I became certain that if I wanted to pursue a higher education I needed to be persistent and determined to achieve my career aspirations. However, I would not be at this level in my education without my mom's support. Without having my father's emotional and economical assistance, she has learned how to provide me with a decent quality of life. She works as a hair stylist in my hometown, but she knows the money she earns is not enough to pay for my medical career. As a result, I search for scholarships and job opportunities that could contribute to the achievement of my college education and help pay for basic needs in our home.

I also believe that being an immigrant made my decision of attending to college more challenging. I immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico when I was sixteen years old. Luckily I spoke English, but my mom and I did not really understand how the school system worked. Therefore, when senior year of high school arrived I did not really understand the process of attending college. I did not know that I had to talk to a school advisor about attaining a college education or find scholarships to pay for school. I had no knowledge of the types of tests that I had to take like the SATs, ACTs, or even college assessment exams. However, after researching this information online and meeting with college advisors, my mom and I have learned all of these strategies that help students accomplish a higher education.

One of the first things that I have done in order to overcome the challenge of being a low-income student has been looking for a job. As I mentioned before my mom works as a hair stylist, but in order for her to maintain our house and pay the bills, she also cleaned houses for elderly people in our community. Since she worked so much in both jobs, I thought that my mom was overwhelming herself, so I decided to help her run the cleaning business in June 2008. In order to help my mom focus on her hair-styling business, I later took over the cleaning business in November 2008, and still manage it today. Currently, I clean houses for various families and usually work between three to ten hours per week, which is a flexible schedule that allows me to be a full-time college student. In addition, I help cover my family’s basic expenses by babysitting and tutoring other college students in math or chemistry.

While I am constantly trying to find more work and searching for scholarships that will help me pay for my education, I remain grateful to find opportunities like the one your foundation is providing to students. It makes me feel that I am not alone on the journey of accomplishing my educational goals. 

Original Source: Scholarship AZ