My Grandma, My Hero by Matthew

My Grandma, My Hero by Matthew - March 2021 Scholarship Essay

My academic role model is my maternal grandmother. While she passed away when I was young, the memories that I have of her are a leading contributor to where I am today in terms of academics. To give you a little background on her, my mother’s mother was not able to go to college after high school because World War Two had broken out and as the men were off at war, women were needed in the factories. Even though she was a star student in her high school class, the college was completely off the table for her. Instead of being angry and discouraged, she worked diligently at a factory in Connecticut throughout the war to aid in the war efforts from the home front.

After the war, she married my grandfather who had fought over in Europe to liberate France from the Nazis. With my grandfather, the two had four children: my mother, my aunt, and my two uncles. No longer was it the war that was keeping her away from furthering her education, now it was the responsibility of being a mother. Because money was extremely tight for them, my grandfather had to work three jobs just to cover living expenses for their family. Once again, my grandmother refused to be discouraged and rolled with the tide of motherhood.

Finally, when my grandmother’s youngest child, my aunt, entered middle school, money had become so tight that my grandmother needed to get a job. That was when the opportunity of her lifetime appeared in front of her. With the help of a very generous scholarship that she obtained through an essay writing scholarship, my grandmother was able to enter nursing school at the age of 44. Most people by age 44, especially back then, were well-engrained in a position whether that was a job or a caretaking role over the children. However, my grandmother was not like most people. She walked proudly into class on her first day and sat in a lecture amongst a group of mostly 20-year-old students. Then, on the second day of class, my grandmother vividly recalled miserably failing an oral exam on anatomy. At this point, she seriously considered dropping out. She was already in her mid-40s amongst a group of much younger students and now she was already failing class on the second day. However, thanks to her unbreakable determination she rallied and ended up graduating nursing school with honors and worked as a nurse for over twenty years.

In the years following her nursing career, she managed to overcome a series of other obstacles. These included: my grandfather passing away, battling breast cancer twice, and her two sons walking out of her life for good. With every punch that my grandmother was thrown by the world, she got back up stronger than ever. When she ultimately passed away after one of the most incredible academic feats, I was devastated. However, by remembering the strong will that she instilled in me, I continued to move forward.

I am forever grateful for her, because following the death of my dad the night before I began classes as a Junior at UConn, I seriously considered dropping out. Nonetheless, I persevered and went to class that very next day. In addition, I was able to end that semester with a 3.90 GPA and a 4.0 GPA the very next semester. I owe an innumerable debt of gratitude to my grandmother for giving me the strength that I needed to overcome the obstacles so far. In addition to merely being my greatest academic role model, she remains my greatest life role model. While she is no longer physically with me, when I am entrenched in my studies, I know she is right by my side cheering me on.