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Content provided by EssayEdge's Harvard Editors.
This section contains three scholarship essays:
- Scholarship Essay One -
Crabiel
- Scholarship Essay Two
- National Merit Scholar
- Scholarship Essay Three
- Fulbright
Scholarship
Essay One
CRABIEL SCHOLARSHIP WINNER - won $3,000 scholarship
Like Mr. Crabiel, I literally work tirelessly in many
academic and leadership roles. I sleep no more than six hours a night because of
my desire to expertly meet my many commitments. Throughout my life, I have
worked as long and as hard as I possibly can to effect beneficial changes in
both school and society.
During the summer of tenth grade, I took a number theory
course at Johns Hopkins University with students from Alaska, California, and
Bogota, Colombia. Similarly, during the summer following eleventh grade, I was
one of ninety students from New Jersey selected to attend the Governor's School
in the Sciences at Drew University. At Drew, I took courses in molecular orbital
theory, special relativity, cognitive psychology, and I participated in an
astrophysics research project. For my independent research project, I used a
telescope to find the angular velocity of Pluto. With the angular velocity
determined, I used Einstein's field equations and Kepler's laws to place an
upper bound on the magnitude of the cosmological constant, which describes the
curvature of space and the rate of the universe's expansion.
In addition to learning science, I recently lectured
physics classes on special relativity at the request of my physics teacher.
After lecturing one class for 45 minutes, one student bought many books on both
general and special relativity to read during his study hall. Inspiring other
students to search for knowledge kindles my own quest to understand the world
and the people around me.
As president of the National Honor Society, I tutor
students with difficulties in various subject areas. In addition, I am ranked
number one in my class with an SAT score of 1580 and SATII scores of 750 in
math, 760 in writing, and 800 in physics. In school, I take the hardest possible
courses including every AP course offered at the high school. I am the leading
member of the Math Team, the Academic Team, and the Model Congress Team. In the
area of leadership, I have recently received the Rotary Youth Leadership Award
from a local rotary club, have been asked to attend the National Youth
Leadership Forum on Law and the Constitution in Washington D.C., and wrote the
winning essay on patriotism for South Plainfield's VFW chapter. Currently
enrolled in Spanish 6,I am a member of both the Spanish Club and the Spanish
Honor Society. In addition, I recently was named a National Merit Scholar.
Besides involvementin academic and leadership positions,
I am active inathletics. For instance, I lift weights regularly. In addition, I
am the captain of my school's varsity tennis team. So far this year, my
individual record on the team is 3-0.
Working vigorously upon being elected Student Council
President, I have begun a biweekly publication of student council activities and
opinions. Also, the executive board under my direction has opened the school
store for the first time in nearly a decade. With paint and wood, we turned a
janitor's closet into a fantastic store. I also direct many fund raisers and
charity drives. For instance, I recently organized a charity drive that netted
about $1,500 for the family of Alicia Lehman, a local girl who received a heart
transplant.
As Student Liaison to the South Plainfield Board of
Education, I am working to introduce more advanced-placement courses, more
reading of philosophy, and more math and science electives into the curriculum.
At curriculum committee meetings, I have been effective in making Board members
aware of the need for these courses. In addition, my speeches at public Board
meetings often draw widespread support, which further helps to advance my plans
for enhancing the curriculum.
I have also been effective as a Sunday school teacher. By
helping elementary school students formulate principles and morals, I make a
difference in their lives every week. The value system that I hope to instill in
them will last them their entire lives. I find teaching first-graders about
Christ extremely rewarding.
Clearly, I have devoted my life both to working to better
myself and to improving civilization as a whole. Throughout the rest of my life,
I hope to continue in this same manner of unselfish work. Just as freeholder
Crabiel dedicates his life to public service, I commit my life to helping others
and to advancing society's level of understanding.
Scholarship
Essay Two
WINNING NATIONAL MERIT SCHOLAR ESSAY
Nothing in all the world is comparable to reading
Ayn Rand beneath New York's skyline or to studying Nietzsche atop a mountain
summit.
Since childhood, the studies of philosophy and
science have interested me profoundly. Having read many books on relativity,
quantum mechanics, existentialism, religion, capitalism, democracy and
post-Aristotelian philosophy, my quest for knowledge has only intensified.
Certainly, the purpose of my life is to discover a greater understanding of the
universe and its people. Specifically, I plan to better grasp the
interrelationship among forces, matter, space, and time. In addition, I hope to
find a unified field theory and a convincing explanation for the birth of the
universe.
During the summer of tenth grade, I took a number
theory course at Johns Hopkins University with students from Alaska, California,
and Bogota, Colombia. My attendance of the New Jersey Governor's School in the
Sciences is another accomplishment that exemplifies my dedication to knowledge.
During the summer following eleventh grade, I took courses in molecular orbital
theory, special relativity, cognitive psychology, and I participated in an
astrophysics research project. For my independent research project, I used a
telescope to find the angular velocity of Pluto. With the angular velocity
determined, I used Einstein's field equations and Kepler's laws to place an
upper bound on the magnitude of thecosmological constant, which describes the
curvature of space and the rate of the universe's expansion.
In addition to learning science, I recently
lectured physics classes on special relativity at the request of my physics
teacher. After lecturing one class for 45 minutes, one student bought many books
on both general and special relativity to read during his study hall. Inspiring
other students to search for knowledge kindles my own quest to understand the
world and the people around me.
Also, as president of the National Honor Society,
I tutor students with difficulties in various subject areas. Moreover, I am
ranked number one in my class, and I am the leading member of the Math Team, the
Academic Team, and the Model Congress Team. In the area of leadership, I have
recently received the Rotary Youth Leadership Award from a local rotary club and
have been asked to attend the National Youth Leadership Forum on Law and the
Constitution in Washington D.C. Currently enrolled in Spanish 6,I am a member of
both the Spanish Club and the Spanish Honor Society.
As student council president, I have begun a
biweekly publication of student council activities and opinions. Also, the
executive board under my direction has opened the school store for the first
time in nearly a decade and is finding speakers to speak at a series of
colloquia on topics ranging from physics to politics. Directing fund raisers and
charity drives also consumes much of my time. For instance, I recently organized
a charity drive that netted about $1,500 for the family of a local girl in need
of a heart transplant.
Consistent with my love of freedom and my belief
in democracy, which is best summarized by Hayek's Road to Serfdom, I have
recently initiated an application to become the liaison to the local board of
education. Also, in keeping with my belief that individuals develop strong
principles and ideology, I teach Sunday school three months a year and have
chaperoned for a local Christian school.
Outside pure academics and leadership roles, I
lift weights five times a week for an hour each day. In addition, I play singles
for my school's varsity tennis team. Because I find extraordinary satisfaction
in nature and have dedicated my life to its understanding, I enjoy mountain
climbing. Among the notable peaks I have reached are Mt. Washington, Mt
Jefferson, Mt. Madison, Mt. Marcy and Mt. Katahdin. Unquestionably, my life's
aim is to dramatically raise the height of the mountain of knowledge so that my
successors may have a more accurate view of the universe around them.
Scholarship
Essay Three
Fulbright Application Essay
On one hot late-summer day when I was in high
school, my parents came back from a shopping trip with a surprise present for
me: the legendary board game, Diplomacy. At first I scoffed at such an
old-fashioned game. Who would want to waste glorious sunny days moving armies
around a map of pre-World War I Europe, pretending to be Bismarck or Disraeli?
But after playing the game once, I became absolutely riveted by the nuances of
statecraft, and soon began losing sleep as I tried to craft clever diplomatic
gambits, hatch devious schemes, and better understand the game's ever-changing
dynamics. As my friends and I spent the second half of the summer absorbed by
the game, my parents grinned knowingly. How could I resist being fascinated with
Diplomacy, they asked me, when I incessantly read about international affairs,
and liked nothing more than debating politics over dinner? How could I resist
being fascinated, when I had spent most of my summers in Greece (and, much more
briefly, France and England), witnessing first-hand the ways in which countries
differ socially, culturally, and politically?
Though my passion for foreign policy and
international affairs undoubtedly dates back to high school, I never had the
chance to fully develop this interest before college. Once I arrived at Harvard,
however, I discovered that I could learn about international relations through
both my academics and my extracurricular activities. Academically, I decided to
concentrate in Government, and, within Government, to take classes that
elucidated the forces underlying the relations of states on the world stage.
Some of the most memorable of these classes included Human Rights, in which we
discussed what role humanitarian concerns ought to play in international
relations; Politics of Western Europe, in which I learned about the social,
economic, and political development of five major European countries; and Causes
and Prevention of War, which focused on unearthing the roots of conflict and
finding out how bloodshed could have been avoided. Currently, for my senior
thesis, I am investigating the strange pattern of American human rights-based
intervention in the post-Cold War era, and trying to determine which explanatory
variables are best able to account for it.
Interestingly, I think that I have learned at
least as much about international relations through my extracurriculars in
college as I have through my classes. For the past three years, for instance, I
have helped run Harvard’ s three Model United Nations conferences. As a
committee director at these conferences, I researched topics of global
importance (e.g. the violent disintegration of states, weapons of mass
destruction in the Middle East), wrote detailed study guides discussing these
subjects, and then moderated hundreds of students as they debated the topics and
strove to resolve them. Even more enriching for me than directing these
committees was taking part in them myself. As a delegate at other schools’
conferences, I would be assigned to represent a particular country on a
particular UN committee (e.g. France on the Security Council). I would then need
to research my country’ s position on the topics to be discussed, articulate
my view in front of others in my committee, and convince my fellow delegates to
support my position. Trying to peg down a country’ s elusive ‘ national
interest, ’ clashing over thorny practical and philosophical issues, making
and breaking alliances — - Model UN was basically a simulation of how
diplomacy really works.
Thankfully, I have also found time over the past
few years to cultivate interests and skills unrelated to Model UN and foreign
policy. One of the most important of these has been community service. As a
volunteer for Evening With Champions, an annual ice-skating exhibition held to
raise money for children with cancer, and as a teacher of a weekly high school
class on current events and international affairs, I have, whenever possible,
used my time and talents to benefit my community. Another more recent interest
of mine is the fascinating realm of business. Two years ago, my father’ s
Christmas present to me was a challenge rather than a gift: he gave me $500,but
told me that I could keep it only if I invested it in the stock market — - and
earned a higher rate of return than he did with another $500. Since then, I have
avidly followed the stock market, and become very interested in how businesses
interact and respond to strategic threats (perhaps because of the similarities
between business competition and the equally cutthroat world of diplomatic
realpolitik). A final passion of mine is writing. As the writer of a biweekly
column in the Independent, one of Harvard’ s student newspapers, I find very
little as satisfying as filling a blank page with words -— creating from
nothing an elegant opinion piece that illuminates some quirk of college life, or
induces my readers to consider an issue or position that they had ignored until
then.
Because of my wide range of interests, I have not
yet decided what career path to follow into the future. In the short run, I hope
to study abroad for a year, in the process immersing myself in another culture,
and deepening my personal and academic understanding of international affairs.
After studying abroad, my options would include working for a nonprofit
organization, entering the corporate world, and attending law school. In the
long run, I envision for myself a career straddling the highest levels of
international relations, politics, and business. I could achieve this admittedly
ambitious goal by advancing within a nonprofit group, think tank, or major
international company. Perhaps most appealingly, I could also achieve this goal
by entering public service and obtaining some degree of influence over actual
foreign policy decisions -— that is, becoming a player myself in the real-life
game of Diplomacy.
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