Building a Better World

Below are excerpts from Madison Dutton’s winning essay for the Global Awareness portion of the 2017 Building A Better World Scholarship.  Go here to find the 2017 BBW Winners.  

Global Awareness is key to understanding – “Global awareness is key to understanding the commonalities and differences among people. Too often we think there is only one way to do something.   But we don’t all dress the same, speak the same language, eat the same foods, or celebrate the same holidays. Being globally aware allows us to learn and appreciate a new perspective. When we learn about other cultures, we realize there is more than one approach to life. It has us move outside our comfort zone and find new ways of thinking.”

My foreign exchange sisters – “My family hosted exchange students my sophomore and junior year of high school and it was the best experience I was ever able to participate in. Not only did it bring me two lovely sisters, Klara and Stef, but it also taught me more about myself, people, cultures and the world in general. They brought new experiences to my life. Through their stories, we were able to learn about first hand encounters of issues from around the world.”

I am going to Ferris to become a Nurse – “In the fall, I will be attending Ferris State University to become a nurse. While attending college, I want to take my volunteerism global through the Study Abroad program Ferris offers. I plan to take any medical skills I will have learned and apply them in a third world country where they may have limited or no access to hospitals or doctor clinics.”

Once I graduate college – “Once I graduate college, I plan to continue my practices in third world countries. I want to partner with a medical program that spends time traveling to other countries and offers assistance. As I travel, I will document my experiences with pictures and information posted to some form of Social Media offering an insight to others of what is happening outside of our country. Upon return from my experiences it is my hope that my social media posts will have many people interested in my experiences; allowing me to share more and raise awareness of global issues.”

Thank you Madison – the world need’s nurses who are AWAKE!

When jumping on the web and looking for scholarships, you need to be discerning.  There’s a lot of junk out there. Don’t waste your valuable time on junky sights like Fast Web.  Find scholarships that fit your skills specifically …

Below are links to web based college scholarship sites that have been found to be useful.  Remember, always Local first. After that, get to the  Oakridge High School College Advisors Office and check with the Institution that you plan on attending.  Make sure that you apply for every available scholarship through the University Financial Aid office of your collegiate institution once you have been accepted.  Call them, set up an appointment, and go.  Make sure that you take note of the deadlines.  Colleges offer wide array of scholarships and grants to incoming freshman.

Then try these websites as well…

Scholarships.com – A very good website, scholarships.com provides all sorts of goodies.  It has a deep scholarship bank organized by state, sex, diversity, career choice – all sorts of criteria. But maybe the best option this site offers is a great comparison of the colleges and universities themselves.  The College Search tab allows you to pull up various schools and compare them on all sorts of criteria from size and price, to incoming diversity and ACT scores.  Many of the schools also feature 6:00 videos created by YOUniversityTV.   The videos are cool and get around to places you don’t normally see.  Take a look – you’ll get a good look at the school.

Michigan Only Scholarships – from Scholarships.com breaks their offerings down by state.  The Michigan list is a good one.  I’d recommend that you investigate the sight.

Salliemae.com – This is an excellent national scholarship sight that uses your personal information to link you to scholarships around the nation.  Unlike Fastweb (which I don’t recommend)  most all of the scholarships at Sallie mae are reliable.  By creating a personal profile the sight increases your opportunity for scholarships that fit YOU.  Just go to the link – START HERE – and create a profile.

Davidson Institute for Talent Development – This is a pretty eclectic site.  It will link you up with challenging scholarships, searching for young people who are truly trying to make a difference in the world.  You might find something unique to your talents here.

Scholarshiphelp.org – Seems to be a solid site at providing you advice in completing scholarship applications.  Their suggestions on essay writing and interviewing are useful.  They provide a list of links that take you to other websites that provide additional scholarship offerings. Scholarshiphelp.org is worth a good long look.

Whatever you do – make sure to check if you qualify for the  T.I.P. Scholarship.  

Below are excerpts from McKenna Whipple’s winning essay for the Independent Travel portion of the 2016 Building A Better World Scholarship. 2016 BBW Winners.  

McKenna’s journey will take she and her Aunt to the “Rift Children’s Village” in Tanzania in the summer of 2107. Please go here to watch the Sixty Minutes segment on the Village.  Please go here to find the website for the Village. 

Individual Travel is a Powerful Thing  – “Individual travel is such a powerful thing that causes a person to grow, but I think that this experience would provide even more than that for me.  I would be technically alone (unless another person from the area chose to volunteer with me) but would be with a group of people that I would stay with, connect with, grow with, and get close to.  It gives me an opportunity to reach out and affect people, but also be affected at the same time.  It gives me a chance to safely explore Africa and some of its culture.  I feel very confident in this program and that it would be life changing for me.  This is the next place that I want to go, and the next page that I want to read.”

My duties in the Village –  “ Volunteers stay in the village for 3-8 weeks at a time and help out as “moms” to the 94 children that live there.  I would be assigned to a household of 8-10 children with another volunteer and a Tanzanian “Momma” who stays there permanently to help.  I would be responsible to help wake the kids up, feed them breakfast, walk them to school, help teach class, play outside, and the many other tasks that a parent or teacher would do throughout the day. ..How amazing it would be to not only be opening myself up to this brand new culture, but also in turn helping other people learn as well..”

I have plans to become a Teacher  – “As of right now, I have plans to become a Teacher.  I have grown up with my mother, aunt, and uncle all being educators and have greatly admired them for it.  I was born with a passion for teaching that only flourished whenever I’ve had the chance to help student teach or tutor, and the thought of teaching in Africa is an opportunity to not pass up.  To have that experience under my belt .. I think that it will even provide me with further insight on the types of things I could do with teaching.”  

What if? –  “What if I eventually joined the Tanzanian Children’s Fund on staff someday?”