Soley Seewald… below you’ll find excerpts from her winning essay for the Global Awareness portion of the 2021 Building A Better World Scholarship. Welcome to Soley Seewald.
Please go here to meet all three of our 2021 Scholarship Winners.
The Search Begins… “The first step of global awareness is the seeking of knowledge. This is something that is a lifelong commitment, since we live in an ever changing world. It all starts close to home, with curiosity about your own community. A person’s knowledge is like that of a tree, you must first have the roots, containing your understanding of yourself, and the trunk, containing your understanding of your community, before you can branch out to comprehend larger areas, such as the world.”
Out of the Bubble… “As someone who was born into a middle class family in a first world country, I carry a large amount of responsibility to use my resources to better the world around me. To enhance my global awareness, I am going out of my comfort zone to move to Ann Arbor to attend college. I intend to take this opportunity to meet people from all kinds of backgrounds, and to break out of the small bubble of a community that I have lived in for my entire life. This experience will be different than anything else I have ever done, which is why I am so excited to take every advantage of it.”
It takes a Village… “By connecting with other people who strive to be globally aware, you increase your own awareness. By making an effort to encourage more people to become globally aware, you benefit the awareness of the human population. As a globally aware person, you hold a responsibility to spread your knowledge, and to continue to be open minded towards others. This is how you improve the world, by uniting with others and attacking the challenges that life throws at you with intensity.”
I don’t operate this way… “I plan to continue to volunteer and help the people around me, as well as travel and learn as much as I can about individual cultures, which will enhance my sense of the world. Many people go through the motions of life, just going to school and going to work, and never intending to find a deeper meaning within themselves. I don’t operate this way, I want to take every ounce of knowledge and opportunity that the world has to offer, and then I want to turn around and use it to inspire others.”
Soley’s Plans… “This Fall I will be attending the University of Michigan and plan to study Psychology. I hope to use my college experience to get a sense of the world, and explore career paths within my field of study so I can figure out what I want to do after college. No matter what I end up doing, my main goal in life is to be able to help as many people as I can. I want to continue volunteering, and finding opportunities to make the world a better place.”
