Scholarship Review

Mia Como

Thomas Jefferson High School
Senior? Yes
Elite top 100? Yes
Letters of recommendation: Letter of Recommendation 1, Letter of Recommendation 2

Essay

For some high school students, volunteerism is seen as a requirement that needs to be completed. However, over the past few years at Thomas Jefferson High School, I have learned to cherish the time that I have spent in trying to make my community and school a better place. At my high school, I am a member of our interact club. We connect globally and locally to send support or volunteer our time to better the community around us. We participate in Shelterbox, an organization that sends essential supplies to people in desperate need: tents, clothing, food, and flashlights. We also spent a few hours after school to make para cord bracelets to send to active soldiers in Afghanistan. I never realized how my time and efforts can help someone’s life across the globe. On a more local scale, I recently partnered with our interact club and created a service project for our National Honor Society. The students and myself donated items for the Foster Love Project. The Foster Love Project provides placement bags to be given to kids at time of a placement, so they have their own belongings to take with them. I directly contributed to better the lives of these children that are enduring struggles that I will never have to face. I hope that I was able to make their difficult situation a little more bearable through our donations.
I find this community service to be so rewarding, not only for the recipients, but also for the volunteers themselves. Volunteerism has opened my eyes to the rest of the world and those who are truly in need. I find community service is valuable in a person’s life. I have learned how to help out people and volunteer my time to those who are less fortunate than I.
Going forward, I would like to find other organizations that I can participate in to continue helping the community. Even the smallest amount of time and effort can contribute to a profound change in someone’s life. Service pushes the world into a better, brighter future. I want to contribute to this future and push society to better itself for future generations. I know my small contributions may not change the world anytime soon, but I am determined to create even the smallest changes within society to improve the world around us.