Where There’s a Will, There’s an A by Kendall

Where There’s a Will, There’s an A by Kendall - April 2019 Scholarship Essay

The summer of my junior year in high school, I decided to take two college courses with my local community college in order to make extra space in my schedule for my senior year. Both courses, economics and U.S. government, were six weeks long and required class attendance four days a week for a total of five hours a day. The courses were more rigorous than the other sessions because they were condensed from a full semester to only six weeks. I knew that trying to take both courses at the same time would be difficult, but I was up for the challenge. I found that my government course came naturally, and the homework load was manageable. However, my economics course was a completely different story.

At first, the content was easy to grasp, but as the course progressed, it became exponentially harder. After what felt like only a few classes, it was time to take my first test. In my previous experience with college level AP classes, I studied for my tests, but I found that I never spent a large amount of time doing so. Following this habit, I had been successful in these AP classes and usually received A’s. Unfortunately, I learned the hard way that I could not do this in my economics class when my professor handed back our tests and mine had a bright red C on it. As a student that generally set high standards for myself, I was devastated. The final grade for the course was composed of a few tests and one research paper, meaning that 25% of my final grade was going to be a C. If I wanted to earn an A, I was going to be fighting an uphill battle.

After I got over the initial shock and disappointment in myself, I felt a new sense of determination. I immediately reached out to my friends and professor for help. I made a study group with my friends in the class that met up regularly. I studied on my own and reviewed content from the previous class before learning new material next class. I took advantage of my professor’s office hours, attending as often as I could to study and ask questions. When it was time to take the next test, I felt much more prepared. I was able to improve my grade to a high B. I worked hard on my research paper and earned an A. On the last day of class when my professor handed back my final, I was elated to find that I had received an A. I managed to pull my final course grade up from a C to an A+. To this day, I can say that flipping my test over to find that my hard work had been validated was one of my proudest moments.