Scholarship Essay Entry – Katherine M.

As the economy has been slipping and technology has been growing the homeless rate has been increasing in the past couple years. People are being laid off of work due to lack of work and the increased amount of machinery replacing the need of actual workers. While this has been going on, I was involved in the leadership program at school which helped better the community in many ways. I believe that the work I have done within my community has enabled me to reach out to people who were not able to reach the minimum standard of living.

Every Thursday morning we would go in before school to make sandwiches and assemble lunches to deliver to our local soup kitchen. Sometimes we would have the opportunity to actually hand out the food to the homeless at the soup kitchen and realize the need. This helped to better my community because I was a part of providing the homeless with a basic necessity of life.  We also ran events such as clothing drives, toy drives and gift wrapping for the Christmas bureau.

Within this same class we were paired up with a grade one student at a nearby school to visit twice a week.  Our objectives included planning activities that incorporate reading, writing, spelling, math and instil overall enthusiasm in attending school. With us reading to them and them reading to us they were able to better improve their reading skills and feel confident in school while having fun with a peer student. In the long run we believe this will help them complete their education and be successful in their life.

From a young age, I have been working many hockey schools in my community and for kids who are less fortunate than me. My role was to help them with the skills I have acquired in my time of playing and instil the fun of the sport. I also had the privilege to volunteer at a sledge hockey camp this summer.

In the fall I will be attending the University of Lethbridge to obtain my degree in Education. At the same time I will be playing on the women's hockey team. As a teacher, I plan to give back to the community by teaching kids in the manner I was taught and to organize the same kind of leadership program I was so fortunate to have been a part of when I was in school. My dream of becoming a teacher comes from the wonderful teachers I had over the years and the desire to help students learn and succeed in school and life.