Scholarship Winner: Xin Wang, Columbia University
Scholarship Essay Excerpt
....At
Columbia, I participated in the Columbia Community Outreach
program at RedHook Farm in Brooklyn. Together with many
other volunteers, I helped clean and cultivate a once abandoned
land. We picked up every piece of garbage on the land, and
planted new trees, flowers, and vegetables in and aroud
the farm. As an artist, I\'ve participated in multiple art
shows in my community where I deplay my latest artwork and
teach children simple art projects such as drawing, painting,
sculpting, and origami. During high school, I was a puppeteer
for CANDLE--Community Awareness Network for a Drugfree Life
and Enviornment. I was trained with other high school students
from schools around the county, and every year we go to
our local elementary schools to deliver messeges about peer
presure, bullying, and family troubles through the lovable
faces of Sesame Street style puppets. My main community
activity for the past five years has been tutoring. I\'ve
tutored students of all ages in the subjects of mathematics,
and science. I enjoy spending my afternoons and weekends
teaching, because although learning is fundamental, not
all students learn at the same level and pace. By working
one-on-one with individuals, I am able to cater to their
specific needs, may it be passing an exam, getting into
an honor class, acing the AP, or winning a competition.
For
the past four years, I have assisted the late Dr. Gerard
Bond with his research, in the Core Lab, at the Lamont Doherty
Earth Observatory of Columbia University. Lamont has the
largest core collection in the world, ranging from deep
ocean cores to ones taken from the neighboring Hudson River.
Every summer I helped Dr. Bond prepare and analyze samples
of the earth\'s core taken from the Noth Atlantic ocean
floor in order to further understand the history of Earth\'s
climate during the Holocene. It is truely amazing how the
thousands, if not millions, of microscopic, single-cellular
fossles that I have hand picked one by one from the little
black trays of what appears to be no more than mud to the
naked eye, is able to paint such detailed pictures of abrupt
climate changes thousands of years ago. Each individual
core acts as a different narrator of the past, and I\'m
very honored to have had the chance to see the long forgotten
story of Earth\'s waters unfold in front of my very own
eyes, as I examine centimeter by centimeter, from the surface
down to where it all began, once upon a time...
Congratulations
again to scholarship recipient Xin Wang! Will you be the
next winner?
Apply online right now and give it your best shot. Good
luck!
Didn't
Win? More Tips for Saving Money in College
- Be
prepared. Most experts recommend you get an emergency credit card.
for when unexpected expenses pop up -- and eventually,
they will.
- Textbooks
are too expensive, and
you don't have to buy them from your college bookstore!
We recommend Half.com
-- they've got thousands of new
and used textbooks that ship in 24 hours, cheaper than
your bookstore.
- Want
More Financial Aid Information? Most
college students miss out on money they could've received
from the government by messing up their applications.
Avoid this mistake and learn from the experts: Visit a
new community
that will guide you through the financial aid maze. Visit
FAFSAForum.com today!
