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Sample Scholarship Essay
In the media, working class immigrant women are often depicted
uneducated, conniving and inarticulate. My life, however, as an SFSU
graduate student and as a working class immigrant Pilipina American who
has supported herself since age 18—speak of a different experience.
Watching both my parents slave over 12 hour working days, seven days a
week in menial labor jobs just to make rent for a one bedroom apartment
was my reality as a child. My parents’ work ethic and daily struggles
continue to serve as an inspiration for me to strive for a relevant and
meaningful education and profession—and to be the first in my family to
receive a graduate degree.
Thanks to my parents’ encouragement, I was able to graduate cum laude at
UCLA with a Psychology and Asian American Studies double major and an
Education minor. In my four years at UCLA, I was a five time recipient
of the Provost’s Honors List. My most rewarding experiences in college,
however, were outside of the classroom walls. As a graduating senior I
was also recognized with the UCLA Chancellor Service Award, the Pilipino
Graduation Enlightenment Award and A. Magazine’s Top 10 Student Leader
in the Nation for initiating my own community service tutorial project
in South Central, Los Angeles – a poor, urban and underserved community.
The project was called Project S.E.T. (South Central Evening Tutorial)
and we mentored and tutored the children of immigrant parents who were
attending evening adult school four nights a week.
My work with Project S.E.T. further catapulted me to work on issues of
student and community empowerment. After graduation I worked as a full
time director of a student retention project at UCLA’s Student Retention
Center (SRC). At the SRC we served over 5,000 “at risk” and
“historically under-served” students a year. We worked to retain
students on academic difficulty and to readmit dismissed students
through peer counseling, mentorship, academic workshops, and student
initiated seminars. Because of my work at the Student Retention Center
and the greater Los Angeles community, I was also invited to participate
in the Committee for Pilipino American Studies Conference at UC Berkeley
and the RAND Collaborative on Pilipino Health, Education and
Development.
Last August I moved from Southern California to San Francisco to pursue
a Master’s degree in Education in a concentration on Equity and Social
Justice. I hope to use this degree to prepare me for a Ph.D. program and
my professional goal of being a university professor in the field of
Education and Ethnic Studies - two fields which have direct impact and
relevancy to underserved, immigrant youth. Being a full time student and
simultaneously working 20 hours a week at the College of Education’s
Cahill Learning Resources and Media Lab (or Cahill) and has been both
challenging and rewarding.
At SFSU, I have been able to coordinate programming and curriculum
displays for the staff, students and faculty of the College of
Education. I am also a part of the committee for the Asian Diaspora
Pre-conference for the upcoming national Adult Education Research
Conference (AERC) at SFSU in early June. My work at Cahill and my
involvement in the College of Education serves to educate the SFSU
community about social issues usually neglected in the schools – issues
such as community and individual empowerment; community development;
race, class and gender identity; and immigrant/migrant labor.
My work on and off campus as a graduate student continues SFSU’s legacy
of having a community based education. This academic year, my work at
Cahill enabled me to coordinate multicultural education materials and
children’s activities for 100+ youth in the Pilipino Unity Day cultural
program in the South of Market area. I have also been invited to
facilitate workshops on multicultural education and community
development for a class in the College of Education and with a visiting
Pilipino student organization from Los Angeles. I have a social
responsibility to share with the community what SFSU has contributed to
my learning and my personal development.
Without any source of income for the academic year, however, will make
it difficult to continue my graduate work while being in great financial
difficulty. Receiving the scholarship will provide me with the peace of
mind and security to manage my rent, utilities, transportation and book
expenses. The scholarship will allow me the time to focus on maintaining
my 4.0 GPA, take up full load of classes while simultaneously preparing
for my research and my thesis – my culminating experience. My parents’
legacy and experiences continue to motivate me to persist and to use my
education to better the conditions within immigrant, working class
communities. I trust the scholarship selection committee will provide me
the support I need to continue my studies here at SFSU and to actualize
my professional goal to be an educator. |
