Becoming the Better Student I Didn't Know I Was by Jack

Becoming the Better Student I Didn't Know I Was by Jack - May 2026 Scholarship Essay

One challenge for me that once felt incredibly intimidating and scary was doing well in my classes and earning good grades. In high school, I often noticed many of my friends and peers would brag about earning excellent grades regularly, including in subjects I found very challenging. I wondered what their secret sauce for success must be and what I could do differently. In the last year, I have found out that there is not any one solution or perfect fix to earning good grades. Instead, I have learned that by believing in myself and making a solid plan for success with accountability, I could earn good grades while gaining crucial knowledge that will help me for decades to come. For me, this meant by changing my mindset from focusing on how others were doing to asking what I needed to make myself successful. This included starting to schedule time to complete homework, study, and master the knowledge my teachers taught me. This was not easy and there were many, many frustrating moments where I still felt like I couldn’t do it. This is where I counted on my belief in myself that I knew I was smart and could achieve anything I put my mind to. I am proud to say this success led me to earning straight As last semester for the first time ever. This included many difficult subjects for me, such as science which required me to be diligent in studying and learning the content. I also learned the importance of understanding that education is truly not something any one person can accomplish by themselves. My road to academic success was paved with the help of my incredible teachers, classmates, and family each of which provided me with tips and insights to help me succeed. While I utilized this strategy for academics, I feel that this can be applied to anything I set my mind to. By believing in myself, establishing clear goals, and ensuring I utilized helpful resources such as my teachers, I was able to manage a difficult challenge for me and grow to become a better, more thoughtful student.