Mr. White's Life Lesson by Gianna

Mr. White's Life Lesson by Gianna - July 2016 Scholarship Essay

I am "scientific and math minded". I think very logically and I am at my best when I am knee-deep in numbers and formulas. I have never felt like a strong speaker or that I related well in group discussions. I know what I am good at and where I am most comfortable. At least I thought I did.

This past spring, I was pulled out of class to be told that I had been nominated for something called Girls State. The counselor explained to a group of us, that the American Legion Auxiliary hosts an annual event each summer called Girls State. One 11th grade girl from each high school in the state is selected to be a Delegate and attend a week-long leadership development conference. At this conference, the attendees form their own local and state government, holding elections, making speeches, and debating legislation. She also told us that 20 of us were nominated by teachers. We had to submit an application, then the Auxiliary would select 5 nominees for interviews. From that pool, one girl would be selected as the school's Delegate. I looked around the group and saw our future valedictorian, girls from ASB, and standouts from the Academic Decathlon team. I am a good student and an athlete, but I felt very out of place with this group. But I also felt very excited. This sounded like an amazing opportunity.

As I filled out the application and wrote my essay, I wondered who had nominated me. The counselor would not reveal who our nominators were, so I went through the list of possibilities in my head. I have had some amazing teachers in high school, but I thought I could guess who it was. The chemistry teacher I had the previous year, for whom I was now TA’ing. Mr. White is approachable, genuine, smart and funny, all reasons why I wanted to TA for him. I did some investigating the next day and came to find out it was Mr. White. I thanked him for the nomination and asked him how he came up with my name, out of the hundreds of other girls in our class. “You’re a natural leader Gianna.” That is what he told me. I was stunned. I had never thought of myself in that way. I must have stared at him a little too long, because he chuckled and said, “You can enjoy science and also be a leader.”

As you can guess, I made it to the interview round and was ultimately selected as the Delegate for our school. In June, I spent a week at Claremont McKenna College with 521 other amazing young women and had a life-changing experience. I wrote and delivered 6 speeches, ran for elected office, discovered that I love the “behind the scenes” side of government, debated legislation and social policy long into the night, and met dozens of young women that are a reflection of me, something I have never truly found at my school.

What I learned from Mr. White is that sometimes others see qualities in us that we do not know are there. We can go about our day, being ourselves, and impact and affect others in ways we never could have imagined. We are powerful and influential. I absolutely love my science classes, but life lessons are my favorite.