Foundations by Ashley

Foundations by Ashley - June 2013 Scholarship Essay

Education is very important to my family, not because they all received their degrees, because they never had the opportunity to complete their education. My Tata never made it past the 8th grade because he had to work and my Nana never made it past high school for the same reason. Also, my cousins never had a chance to complete their degrees because they had to work. However, my mother found a way to complete her bachelor’s degree. She is who I have always strived to be and once I completed my bachelor’s degree last year she encouraged me to go further. In exactly one month, I will begin my master’s degree in Library Sciences.  
I know the members in my family are all very hard workers and I believe that my Nana and Tata made it possible for my mother to complete her degree. They placed a solid foundation for her to attend school and instilled a work ethic that she was able to apply to school. My grandparents always placed a high importance on education and by working hard to support their family they wanted their children to have opportunities that they did not have. For me, attending college would mean that I did not waste the opportunities they gave me.
In high school I was really involved in extracurricular activities and my mother drove me to school every morning and picked me up every night. She drove me to all of my school events and she continued to do so in college. The nights where I struggled with an assignment she would stay up with me to make edits in my work and to inspire ideas. I had surgery one year and was rendered unable to drive so once again she drove 45 minutes out of the way from her work to get to my college classes and she came to pick me up when I was done and continued to do so until I was able to drive again. Like my grandparents, my mother did whatever she could for me to be that foundation that pushed me through getting a higher education.
I never thought I would even be able to attend graduate school but once the opportunity presented itself to me I had to go for it. It would be a travesty to let all the hard work my family did for me go to waste.