Passing on the Torch by Joshua

Passing on the Torch by Joshua - April 2015 Scholarship Essay

The prime purpose of an education for me is to utilize the myriad opportunities at my disposal to learn as much about the world and myself as possible. By striving to increase my knowledge, I hope to become a productive contributor to society who can help improve the prospects for the next generation of students. Pursuant to this goal, I have joined multiple campus organizations to facilitate my becoming an active and involved student leader. For instance, Upon enrolling at UCLA I joined the Bruin Advertising and Marketing team in order to gain insights into the profession. For me, advertising was an alluring and dynamic field in which I felt I could excel. I relished the opportunity to engage in creative brainstorming sessions while collaborating with a team that was both supportive and challenging.

My burgeoning passion for my team and our work prompted me to serve in a leadership capacity as copy manager. Fulfilling this commitment, which was compounded by my demanding coursework, became a process that was both harrowing and gratifying. I emerged from this experience a more resilient, adaptive, and team-oriented leader. Furthermore, I am active in a Christian group at UCLA called Cru, through which I am involved in charitable activities such as homeless outreach. Both of these organization have helped me to learn the purpose of an education.

Perhaps the organization that has most shaped my conception of education is the Phi Theta Kappa honor society. I remember the day I was inducted. I can still feel the torrent of emotions that overtook me: honor, pride, and eagerness for the future. One of my proudest accomplishments occurred less than a year later, when I was elected to serve on my chapter's executive board as public relations secretary. Merely being accepted into such a distinguished honor society was an intensely validating experience. Being elevated to a position of leadership within this organization, however, conferred a sensation of fulfillment far more powerful. In addition to fostering an environment that encourages resolute intellectual curiosity and academic excellence, Phi Theta Kappa instilled in me a yearning to support and improve my school and its surrounding community through public outreach. I feel that through my work with Phi Theta Kappa I have helped to affect an improvement within my community.

These experiences helped to illuminate the true purpose of an education. Not only have the Bruin Ad Team, Cru, and Phi Theta Kappa molded me into an effective leader and disciplined student, but they have incorporated me into a network of dedicated students with whom I have developed close personal friendships. The rapport I have established with my colleagues is one rooted in a mutual resolve to fulfill our utmost potentials as both devoted students and proactive constituents of our society. This communal determination has driven us together as friends. The people I have met throughout my education have become trusted confidants upon whom I can rely for support in both matters of my coursework and those of my personal life.

Education is cyclical. Those who learn are empowered to pass their knowledge on to the next group of people. It is this idea of reciprocity that makes education such a powerful tool. I felt this honor personally when it came my turn to pass on the torch to the new Phi Theta Kappa inductees. When I attended my second induction ceremony the experience was drastically more emotional for me, as I was one of the officers conducting the service. I had the privilege of reciting the names of each inductee and providing them with a certificate. As I shook their hands and offered them congratulations, I could detect the budding sense of triumph brimming in their eyes, and I recalled the emotions I felt a year earlier when I was inducted. My years in college have numbered among the most assiduous and fulfilling in my life. More so than any other experience, my education has driven me towards introspection and self-improvement, as I have embraced my role as a student leader on my campus. My experience in College has been structured around broadening the scope of my knowledge in order to better comprehend the workings of human society. My experiences at UCLA have irrevocably altered my perception of the world and my place in it. My education has enabled be to acquire the necessary tools to contribute to my school and my community to the utmost of my ability.