Children in India by Kaitlyn

Children in India by Kaitlyn - March 2014 Scholarship Essay

One of my greatest academic achievements was when I received the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship. This scholarship was one of my greatest academic achievements because it allowed me to have the opportunity to study abroad in Hyderabad, India for one semester. I am aware that studying abroad is one of the greatest experiences a student can pursue. The impact of studying abroad in Hyderabad, India was so extensive, that it has solidified my desire to work abroad in the future. I intend to work with victims of international human trafficking, and being exposed to a developing country, and the needs that it has was inspiring. Without receiving the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship, my study abroad experience in India would have been impossible.

The Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship is a highly competitive scholarship that receives nearly 2,800 applications for over 800 awards and I was fortunate enough to be one of its recipients. With the funds I received from this scholarship, I was able to study at the University of Hyderabad in India. I took several cultural classes including Basic Hindi. It was through this teacher, that I had the opportunity to interact with slum children. My teacher encouraged my classmates and me to promote school access to these children by picking them up for school in the morning and walking them to the school gates. This may seem like a minute contribution to promoting school access to the children, however, we came to find that on days where we were not able to walk these children to school, they simply would not go. As a result, my peers and I understood how important it was to encourage the children to go to school and to be consistent about our promotion.

I am aware that my presence in the lives of these slum children was significant in terms of furthering their education, but what they are not aware of is how impactful it was for me to interact with them. I had never seen the extent of poverty that these children were living in until I reached their village on the first day of this service. My eyes were opened to how important it is for people to help those who are less fortunate. As a result of interacting with these children, I have solidified in my mind that I want to work with children who are in unfortunate situations. These children are in bondage to poverty and even though my only contribution was walking the children to school, I knew that I wanted to do more to help. I would like to counsel victims of international human trafficking. The correlation between the group of children that I served and the children I hope to work with is that both groups of children are in bondage to some form of oppression, weather that be poverty or slavery. As a result, I now have an even greater passion to help those who struggle under oppression.

This experience would not have been possible, had I not received the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship because it allowed me to study abroad in India. Therefore, this scholarship was my greatest academic achievement for the reason that it solidified in my mind that in the future, I would like to help victims of oppression, specifically victims of international human trafficking.