Texas by Hadley

Texas by Hadley - August 2016 Scholarship Essay

This year has been full of new experiences that enabled introspection and have allowed me to test my leadership skills, dedication to organizations, and performance aspects of each activity by executing fundraisers or traveling to Thailand and giving hands-on service. These organizations have helped me find myself along with aiding those in the community and the world around me. Service is truly the best way to make a difference.
I was able to travel to Thailand on a service trip for the Burmese minority from Myanmar. This program meant the world to me because I was able to personally see how I was helping the Burmese children and how much it meant to them. Honestly, it would have been a whole lot easier to just donate the money for the plane tickets and called it, but you cannot buy the joy that we gave those students. I taught chemistry and general science during that week, which helped me find my love to teach again. This may sound cliché, but I mean it when I say that those kids changed me. I noticed that the students became much closer to us and more interactive as the week progressed. In Thailand, working to help your family to put food on the table or a roof over your head is the first priority. All the students were grateful for school with much more gratitude than I ever had because it gave them the opportunity to have a future. I have also learned that we are all very similar to each other and that everyone has a lifetime of different difficulties, but they are all for the same purpose, to help us grow and develop as people. Our hands-on experience transcended the language and the poverty barrier, and we all forgot about our differences. I was not only able to see how these people lived, but how happy, loving, and hospitable they were. After the first hour in Thailand at their school, I knew that I had found a way for me to serve directly in our community.

A similar need for aid would be with the La Cour family and their daughter Filippa. I was able to find this family and am currently working with Filippa, a five-year-old girl with Phelan-McDermid Syndrome. This syndrome is caused by the deletion of the SHANK3 gene, which leads to a case associated with autism. Filippa, at age five, had the mental capacity of a toddler due to her affected brain development. Every week, I assisted her with oxygen treatments and gymnastics exercises to stimulate mental and physical growth. I also helped with patterning exercises that simulated crawling, which allowed her mid-brain to create synaptic connections. We were not able to communicate with her and her disability made it difficult for us to interact. Despite difficulties we experienced with her, I love her with all my heart. I was able to exhibit dedication throughout my service to these children. It was extremely worth it to help these kids because they have the most compassion and empathy of anyone that I know. They helped me realize that I could follow their examples easily, especially because my difficulties are minuscule in proportion.
In addition, I learned exactly what I wanted to do later on in my life as well as what I want to get out of my job and efforts. For these reasons, I have aspirations that involve teaching students with special needs through a college degree to support, educate, and love my students to the best of my ability. I want to teach special and a scholarship will only aid me in my goal to give back and be the change that I want to see in the future.
As I struggled to identify my purpose and true joy this year, I found that “the best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others,” (Mahatma Gandhi, 1869). I served in Thailand, with a disabled girl in Wassenaar, and at our school to aid African children, as well as finding a love for teaching children. Furthermore, I have been dedicated to my organizations, led in leadership positions, and performed fundraising events in the community. The work is only beginning now, but I believe that our generation is the way to make a true difference in the world.