The Language of Smiles by Justen

The Language of Smiles by Justen - January 2024 Scholarship Essay

Life is better with a smile. To protect those smiles became my commitment.

Junior year, I was faced with a challenge. The leadership for service challenge by the NJ Hugh O’Brian Youth Foundation to volunteer over 100 hours in a year.

Playing the saxophone began as a hobby, but as I saw how happy it made my family as I played, it became a passion. My grandfather always comes to mind when I play. He loved hearing me perform, and I loved connecting with him through music. The John Walter Cape Community band was a place where I could express my passion and spread the joys of music. Invited by a previous member, I became the first musical excellence student in only 5th grade to begin performing with the band. Other members were much more experienced than I was, but learning from them allowed me to improve rapidly. Here, I bridged the gap of generations, connecting the band to schools around my community and bringing smiles at every concert.

At the Cape May One Love Tennis Association, kids run around in circles with smiles on their faces as they play tennis. That is what I live for. The joy sparks in kids as I foster their passion and teach them as a volunteer. Balancing the aspects of fun and learning is the job of a teacher, and I certainly connected with the kids. To stimulate the future of tennis and spark passions allows me to motivate the next generation.

Being a part of various volunteer clubs and organizations allows passions to circulate and create improvements in the community. I am proud to be part of the volunteering community in all various organizations. Uniting generations through service echoes Ezra Cornell's vision of inclusive education for all passions. By intertwining my community and creating a connection between school and community, I learned that time flows the same for all individuals and that life is continuous learning for everyone. Completing the L4S challenge, I received a President’s Volunteer Service award. Smiling is a contagious universal language that belongs to everyone.