Education is Key by lacey

Education is Key by lacey - September 2013 Scholarship Essay

I’ve always known that I wanted to go to college. As a kindergartner I knew I would attend a University once I graduated from High School, it was a never a question. Neither one of my parents graduated from college but instilled in me at a very early age how important education was. I loved school, I loved learning, I loved being challenged. Perhaps, at first, this was because I was intelligent and did well in school. But as I got older and the work got harder, I still had a love of learning and I knew my future was bright. I was the first person in my immediate family to graduate from college and am now in a wonderful nursing program at Utah Valley University. I have worked so hard to be here. It was worth every hour of studying to get high enough grades, all the stress and worry during the application period and all of the WAITING.
Education is POWER. Knowledge is POWER. To quote Oprah Winfrey, “Education is the key to unlocking the world, a passport to freedom.”
I was born the year that Oprah Winfrey launched her historic, ground breaking, life changing talk show. I watched her show my entire life, until it came to an end in 2011. She did every topic under the sun, several times over. But there was one thing she chose to magnify: education.
Her school in Africa has allowed hundreds of wonderful, beautiful children to gain an education they would’ve never had the opportunity to obtain. Her Angel Network built 55 schools in 12 countries. On numerous occasions, she encouraged, praised and rewarded those who sought education above all.
As a teenager, I remember watching her show one day and thinking “This mega successful woman, with more money than she could ever spend in her lifetime, never graduated from college and never needed a degree to succeed. And yet, she still holds education so dear.”
So there you have it, my most inspirational academic role model. Someone who came from the poorest of poor and down trodden conditions, rose above it, became one of the most well-known and successful people in the world and still knows the importance and value of education.