Scholarship Essay Entry – Samantha H.

Since I can remember I was going to be a Dental Surgeon. There was no question of what school I would attend or what classes I would take. I would drive the expensive car and live in the enormous house. Those were my goals and what I would achieve. However, just ten short months ago, one Social 30 teacher changed my life with one question: "If I am given all the tools to succeed, and someone else is given nothing, can't I afford to give them a hammer?" This question opened my eyes to something I had selfishly never even considered; all the people in the world who couldn't be a Dental Surgeon.

The people who were suddenly a constant part of my thoughts were not the people who simply did not have the grades or drive to consider such a prestigious profession, but the people who did embody all the right skills, but none of the right circumstance. The people who I could no longer ignore were those whose goals were not university, but providing food for their children, amazing people whose lives had been chosen for them.

I realized after watching numerous movies regarding the poverty of the world that I knew absolutely nothing about the terrible lives people were forced to live. I had been given so much while others had nothing. How could I use my education and blessings to only further improve my own good fortune and ignore the devastation of so many others?

My goals in life have taken a 180 degree turn. Next year at the University of Alberta I will be majoring not in Biology and Chemistry as I once thought, but in Political Sciences and Universal Conflicts. I want to know everything about the situations in which impoverished civilizations live, all the horrible details. I believe it is necessary for me to fill myself with knowledge to do everything in my power to improve their situations. My goal is now to work in the United Nations. I want to be at ground zero of making sure that, one person at a time, all these people are helped. I am only one person, but if everyone believes they can do nothing because they are only one, then nothing will ever be done.

I have absolutely no interest in going into politics and taking over the world. My goals are much smaller: I just want to help as many people in the world as possible have their deserved opportunities. My realization is that we are given gifts not to be everything we can be, but to do everything we can do. This is what I can do, I am built with characteristics to spread the knowledge of the poverty of the world and then to be a small but important part of changing it. My goal is no longer to live in the enormous home, but to make sure everyone has a home to live in.