The Problem is Money by Mara

The Problem is Money by Mara - March 2016 Scholarship Essay

What if I told you that you could study abroad and see the world for free? Would you say yes? I know I would. Who doesn’t want to see the world? There are so many places to explore and things to learn about. But, there’s bad news. It’s not free or even close to cheap. What if I told you that it was actually a couple thousand dollars to go learn? Would you still want to go? But, you said that you want to see the world and learn? Money shuts people down, that’s sad and disappointing. Studying abroad should be an option for ALL students. There are some reasons as to why some people shouldn’t go, but there are a lot more positives that come out of studying abroad. Traveling the world is an amazing experience and money shouldn’t be the only thing holding people back from learning and having the experience of a lifetime.
Education is such a simple thing to some people. In America, most kids wake up and go to school every morning, some kids even complain about going to learn. It’s a social norm for them. They don’t know how grateful they should be to be living in such a free country. There are kids in Africa that will never get the chance to even go to school, no matter how much they want to. It’s so special to have people that want to go help people in other countries. So why should we not let them go to further educate themselves and help the world while doing it?
It seems like such a silly idea to let money hold people back. Some people don’t have the resources or ability to earn money. College is already extremely expensive, for reasons I am yet to know, so why make students pay more to continue to learn in a different country? Colleges are already at an average price of anywhere from $10,000-$25,000 depending on if you’re in-state, or out of state. What’s the deal with that? Why do we have to pay that much to learn? It doesn’t make any sense at all. Everybody has the right to learn… but why at that price? Some things, will always be hard to understand.
Discovering your interests, furthering your education, and finding out who you are are all positives from studying abroad. Studying abroad, shouldn’t be something that only the “rich” kids get to do. We live in a world of diversity. We should accept that, and give everyone a chance to live life and educate themselves. Every single person should have the right to educate themselves about who they are and the world around them.