Against by Andrea

Against by Andrea - July 2019 Scholarship Essay

Although I am pleased to have attended Paramount High School (PHS), it has resulted in me experiencing a variety of significant educational disadvantages. First and foremost, PHS is one of the most populous schools in the state and has a population that almost exceeds five thousand students. Overpopulation is an onerous issue because it exacerbates other problems currently present. There is a significant lack of resources that must be divvied amongst the students and I can see why US News ranked PHS 547th in the state. From the get go, my peers and I have been working from a deficit. The first day of my freshman year was shocking but unbeknownst to me that would be my new norm over the next four years. I grew accustomed to sitting on broken chairs, using splintered graffiti riddled desks, inoperative computers, and textbooks that were deteriorating before my eyes. Through all of these educational barriers, I have strived to overcome them. As a result, I have grown accustomed to doing more with less. I learned how to use enormous class sizes to my advantage by creating study groups to learn the material because my teachers were inundated with tutoring requests. I learned how to efficiently maximize the few instances in which I had access to legible books and a working computer even though it meant sharing these resources with multiple students at a time. Another barrier I felt I encountered was the lack of academically challenging coursework. There were not a plethora of advanced placement (AP) courses so in instances which they presented themselves I leaped at the opportunity. I knew these courses would prove challenging but ultimately they would allow me to remain competitive in my pursuit of higher education. I successfully organized a college night in order to help my peers and myself become better acclimated with the college application process as we only have two counselors who are expected to assist over nine hundred prospective graduates. Overall, these obstacles did not impede my development, contrarily they fostered growth that would not have been capable without adversity. Therefore my passion for higher education grows through the concrete of the community I grew up in and circumstances I have overcome.