Jacob Barnard – University of Michigan / Fall 2012
Jacob Barnard is enrolled as a 2012 freshman at University of Michigan in Political Science 
. After his undergraduate studies, he intends to pursue a JD law degree from University of Michigan Law School. He also is auditioning for the University Marching Band and plans to be on the football field at the Big House this Fall.
From Jacob’s winning scholarship essay...
“…if you’re not globally aware, you will be ignorant of the struggles that people are facing. Ignorance may be bliss for the ignorant, but ignorance of peoples’ troubles is definitely not bliss for them. However, you don’t need to know people on an individual level in order to care about things like starving children or human trafficking; you just need to know that it is happening and natural human compassion will make you care. Whether you care enough to act or not is a different matter. If you didn’t know those things were happening at all, however, how could you possibly be concerned about them or do anything to make things better?
…Global awareness, therefore, pushes us to care about and want to help people we may never meet, which is exactly why it helps build a better world. Also, in order to change the world for the better, we must be thinking about everybody, not just ourselves, because, despite what we often like to often think, we as individuals are not the world.”
