Casting Stones by Melina

Casting Stones by Melina - November 2019 Scholarship Essay

Mother Theresa was once quoted as saying, “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.” There are innumerable ways a person can choose to impact their world. Mine was through my acts of service to my school, its student body and its surrounding community; acts which I hope created a ripple effect, one life at a time.

Service has been and will always be an integral part of my life. My high school experience was vastly different from that of many of the other high school students with whom I graduated. While kids were spending breaks on vacation, my family was taking missions trips to the Dominican Republic. And my senior year when others were planning to head off to college, I was preparing to spend a year volunteering as an elementary English teacher in a small rural village in the Dominican Republic. Serving others has been so representative of who I am that my senior class of 220 students voted me as “Most Likely to Move to a Third World Country”. I believe my classmates looked at me as someone who is capable and willing to put the needs of others before my own, no matter the cost. From my soccer team to my classmates and teachers, I was known as the girl with the heart for doing things for others. I think the way I choose to live my life reflects my values and priorities and often inspires others around me.

My commitment to service through outreach activities and organizations is evident in the way that I choose to spend my free time. Throughout my high school experience, I participated in numerous clubs, from Key Club and Spanish club to varsity soccer and National Honors Society. I also volunteered as a tutor at an after-school program for low-income children, as a weekly childcare worker, and in a student-led band at my church. As a member of NHS and Key Club, I took part in service projects that not only positively affected the school, but the community as well by doing things like cleaning up the school stadium after football games, decorating the school halls for events, or helping other students with homework and tests. I have consistently worked rigorously in the classroom, (graduating with a 4.6 weighted G.P.A) which was noticed by my teachers and created an opportunity for me to invest in lives of others through tutoring. In addition to helping friends and others when needed, I also spent two years tutoring kids within my school district. Each kid I tutored ended the year with much better grades, a better attitude, and more confidence.

Through these diverse acts of service, which were an outward representation of who I am and was created to be, I was able to positively impact the environment in which I lived for four years. My hope is that these actions, these stones that I have cast, have created ripples in the lives of those in my life; an effect that I wish to continue by pursuing a career in college that will enable me to better the lives of those in my future.