Tag: scholarship applications

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Scholarship Interview: Alexis Brotherton

“This is part of a series of interviews with our scholarship recipients for our 2021 Build A Better Future scholarship sponsored by Honors Graduation. We hope you will find their stories as inspiring as we do! For information on our 2022 program, click here”

Our next scholarship recipient is Alexis Brotherton. Alexis created an Agriculture Field Day for members of her community to promote agriculture awareness. This project started a few years ago for her, but because of COVID, it continued to be put off. She was finally able to carry through with her full project recently and it started off great! 

Alexis has been involved with 4H for a lot of her life, so she knows the ins and outs of ag very well. She created surveys sent to peers, teachers, and community members to gauge where the lack of information was, as well as the most needed topics to cover. Once she received this information back, she created the content for the ag field day. 

Alexis was able to pull off this event with a lot of community volunteers at each station that helped teach the information they were presenting as well as manage any hands-on activities at the event. When the community members showed up at the event they were greeted by Alexis herself at the check-in table where they were told about each of the stations and sent on their way from there to learn more. 

This event was Alexis’s trial run for bigger, future events. Currently, her focus is on starting college and succeeding in that area, but once she has more time, she wants to focus on more events, around 1-2 times a year and changing up the topics each time for repeat patrons. 

Alexis is doing great work and is doing a great job promoting ag education and bringing clarification on the subject to the residents of her community. She is attending Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University for school. 

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Scholarship Interview: Swetha, Ben, and Johnathan

This is part of a series of interviews with our scholarship recipients for our 2021 Build A Better Future scholarship sponsored by Honors Graduation. We hope you will find their stories as inspiring as we do! For information on our 2022 program, click here”. 

Introducing our next scholarship winners: a group of three working together on the same project and splitting the scholarship winnings. Swetha Palakur, Johnathan Polucha, and Ben Kim. These three high school students worked together on a project for their engineering class, where they specifically needed to come up with a solution to a problem. 

They chose to create a keyboard specifically for persons with Parkinson’s Disease and other similar, neurodegenerative diseases. The reason for choosing this group of people specifically was for two different reasons, first that they realize what vital importance of using a computer is in this day and age and they recognized the struggles those with PD have using a typical keyboard. And second, they had close family members with Parkinson’s Disease, meaning this project hit close to home for them. 

After creating their first humble prototype made of cardboard, they were able to meet with the head neurologist at the University of California Irvine. She gave them great insight into how the minds and bodies of those with PD work, as well as some feedback on their prototype. One worry Ben, Swetha, and Johnathan had was that the keyboard would be too complicated to figure out, but she reassured them that it would be a great cognitive and problem-solving practice for the PD patients. 

After more teacher and peer feedback, more prototypes, and working out some wiring issues, they were able to create a functioning keyboard! Ben, Swetha, and Johnathon hope to someday patent their keyboards and spread them to Parkinson’s Disease patients all over. 

Ben is attending Princeton University, Swetha is attending the University of California, and Johnathan is attending Oregon State University. 

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Scholarship Interview: Our Top Winner- Kayla Klurman

This is part of a series of interviews with our scholarship recipients for our 2021 Build A Better Future scholarship sponsored by Honors Graduation. We hope you will find their stories as inspiring as we do! For information on our 2022 program, click here. 

Our top 2021 scholarship winner was Kayla Klurman, who also received a $5,000 grant for her project, Kayla’s Care Bags. She graduated from Miami Palmetto Senior High School in Miami, Florida. Kayla sat down next to a girl named Rosy during lunch at school and listened to her story about foster care and how hard it was for them to obtain the proper clothes, shoes, basic toiletries, and school supplies. This moment is what sparked Kayla’s interest in starting up Kayla’s Care Bags. 

These are care bags made specifically for foster kids in Kayla’s community. They are put together by donations from others in her community, picked up personally by her, and then placed in bags organized for specific ages and genders. Take a quick look at the process here: 

Kayla primarily used social media to spread the word on the needs of Kayla’s care bags and would drive to various places within her community to pick up supplies and put the bags together. One problem Kayla felt like she was running into and wanted to troubleshoot was that she was only able to know the ages and genders of those entering the foster care system so she could not put together personalized bags. In order to work through this, she’s brainstormed closets made specifically for foster kids to enter, shop around for what they need, and take free of charge. Kayla is also focusing on stocking the closets with maternity clothes and items for those in foster care that are pregnant. She would have to work hard to keep these closets stocked with items, but with help from the $5,000 grant, it will be possible. 

Kayla is an inspiration to us all! She heard a story from a friend that encouraged her to make a change in her community. She saw the problem and found a solution.

Kayla will be attending Davidson College in North Carolina studying political science. 

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Letters of Recommendation: Our Tips To You

As you students prepare for graduation, job interviews, college applications, and more, one common thing will come up that you will need- Letters of recommendation. 

What is a letter of recommendation? It’s when a teacher or mentor writes a letter to advocate for you as you apply for whatever it is you’re trying to get into. Obtaining these letters can be as easy as contacting trusted teachers and mentors asking for a letter. However, here are a few tips to keep in mind. 

  1. Consider what you need the letter for- is it to get into college? Is it for a scholarship? To get into a specific group, club, or program? 
  2. Utilize this in who you ask for a letter from. For example: If you’re applying for a business school at your University, talk to past teachers in subjects related to business. Economics, finance, business, etc. 

One of our past scholarship winners came to us asking for a letter of recommendation for a similar scholarship geared towards college students. Keep your letters similar to what you are needing them for. 

  1. Ask for letters from teachers and mentors that know you well and will have plenty of positive points to talk about for you. 
  2. Let them know what you need the letter for, giving them some background on what the letter is for/ who their audience is can help them in writing it.
  3. Give them plenty of time to get the letter to you, they may not have time the night before to get it done for you! 

Asking for letters of recommendation doesn’t have to be daunting and can help your application be taken to the next level. Good luck!