long term goals – HonorsGradU

A requirement on our scholarship application is to write out your goals for your project. The application states: “Your goal(s) should be specific and reasonable, considering both short-term and long-term. If you have multiple goals, type each one on a new bullet point.”

And when we say specific, we really do mean specific. This plays off of our post from last week about telling us your story. If you’re telling us about your specific goals, it’s telling us more about your overall project. Here are a few examples:

Short-term goal: Plant flowers in our city park. Long-term goal: Attract more bees

Revamped to more specific:

Short-term goals:
-Reach out to our town’s local nursery and ask them for locally grown wildflower donations.
-Raise money to purchase additional local wildflowers
-Plan a day to gather the community so that we can work together to plant the wildflowers

Long-term goals:
– Help upkeep the wildflowers by weeding and watering when needed
– Attract more bees, butterflies, and other insects to our area
– Help local gardens and farms benefit from the higher number of bees in the area with the addition of wildflower beds

Can you see how much more information these specific goals give us and how deeper of a picture it paints when they are written in detail instead of in a general sense?

Our email is also always open to any questions you may have or guidance needed during the process.

You can see more about the scholarship requirements by downloading our checklist here.

For more information on the scholarship, head here.

For our 2023 final submission link, head here.

In a rural California community, a teen has set out to help rid of an invasive species along the river that borders their town. She writes,

“A problem that I have recently observed is the massive amount of weeds there are in the river. Based on the stories that go around town, a certain woman thought they were pretty plants so she put some in the river. After some research, I have found that these invasive water plants are called water hyacinths.”

“These invasive water plants have small seeds that can easily spread, making the plant very invasive to bodies of water. In the river, the water hyacinths have spread across to where boats or kayaks may have a hard time crossing. Not only does this plant provide a danger to people, but also to the fish in the river. According to the Prarie Research Institute, when the fall arrives, the hyacinths will die, falling to the bottom of the river, taking the oxygen with them. This puts the river wildlife in danger as they do not have enough oxygen to survive. The environment is put in danger when the water hyacinths are free to spread. “

“These combined reasons are why I would like to do something about the situation. Seeing the river every time I passed over the bridge overhead, I would look at the damage that the weeds were inflicting. Every time I would pass over the bridge, it seemed as if the weeds had spread even farther. I felt pain for the environment every time I saw the weeds as I knew that nothing was being done to stop it. Prior attempts had only made the situation worse. I took it upon myself to see how I could present a project that would clean up my river. Protecting my town motivated me to start the project of removing the invasive weed of water hyacinth. “

“The long-term goal of this project hopes to create a better mindset for the people of my town. By bringing people together to help better the environment, their perspective can change the way they view the world. This goal intends to change the minds of individuals to start caring about the environment and to also have them realize that however small they may be, they can make a change.”

Her community outreach project is incredibly impressive and we are looking forward to seeing how it continues to unfold over the next few months.

Photo by Pixabay

Tag: long term goals

Scholarship Reminder: Specific Goals!

A California Teen Taking Care of the Town’s Invasive Species