Nairdak

PROMPT: This scholarship is open to full-time students who demonstrate a capacity and desire for education as well as their need for financial assistance. The first day of junior high started at a middle school surrounded by rows of suburban houses sitting on smooth pavements and rich grass. Inside, one could find karate students, PSAT preparatory counselors, one crisp textbook in each student desk, and a library hiding a Japanese children’s book.  Naturally I felt confident in my academic future, assured that this school would make me a competitive candidate in college admissions. While I valued education in this way, my passion for education would deepen only after surpassing my most trying years in my academic journey. In just a year at my new school, I had taken my first practice PSA and developed a fascination with Japanese phonics that would stick with me in the future. With the number of schools a student could attend being ultimately limited by that student’s addres...

PROMPT: How will winning this scholarship help you attain your goals? Please answer in 250 words or less. During the upcoming spring semester, I will study at Sophia University in Tokyo. While in Japan, I want to strengthen my Japanese writing skills and understand Japanese economics. Most importantly, I plan to empower minority high-school and college students with interests in going abroad who, like me, come from financially challenged homes. Winning this scholarship would fully cover my airfare, which is fundamental in achieving these goals - their achievement requires my physical presence. Lack of immediate means to pay is a key reason students may decide to settle for lower cost study abroad programs that may not fully align with their goals and potential. In most cases, financial hardships lead students to completely opt out of studying abroad, seeing it as impossible. In my high-school, this was a common sentiment held by myself and other students. Realistically, afford...