The Meaning of Attending College by Natasha

The Meaning of Attending College by Natasha - June 2013 Scholarship Essay

     Oi! That is "Hi" in Portuguese; well as you may have guessed, I am not an American. In fact, I come from São Paulo, Brazil. My name is Natasha dos Santos Sanchez. I arrived to this country at the age of 7 with parents from both Brazil and Chile and a sister named Brandy. I am an 18 year old girl who dreams to be the first of my family to attend college in The United States of America! Attending college would mean to me that I will go beyond the expectations of my family, I will have an outstanding knowledge of universal topics and issues, and I will be in an improved economic status.     Beginning school in a foreign country wasn't the easiest thing to do. At first, I had to build a lot of courage to try something new in my life. It was hard to communicate and much less, develop friendships. However, I was lucky enough to be put in a classroom where my teacher had a tremendous amount of patience to teach me English. As I kept going to school and reaching higher grades, I began to want to do better in school and in life. The importance of my future increased once I reached High School; at that point, I didn't want to settle for less. Yes, receiving a High School diploma was a huge accomplishment, but think about how greater of an accomplishment it will be to receive a bachelor's or Master's degree? That will bring great honor to God and my family. I don't want to clean houses nor do maintenance work for a living. I choose to go beyond the expectations of my family.     The meaning of attending college is to expand a person's knowledge about whichever career that person chooses to pursue. In my case, I want to develop my understanding on International political and cultural issues. My dream is to study Communications and major in International Relations. Since I already speak Portuguese, Spanish and English, learning more languages and studying Global topics is of interest to me. After college, I would love to do Foreign Service and work for the government.     Although attending college is very meaningful to me, my family does not have the conditions to pay for college because their economic statuses are not sufficiently good. It will be very helpful to me if I won this scholarship. By winning this scholarship, I will have more hopes of attending college without debts and it will help me reach my goals and have a better economic status after I graduate from college.     To be sincere, Attending College has a greater meaning to me than the ones that I just expressed. I can go hours and hours talking about my personal goals and why attending college will be a life changing experience for me. Even though I am not American, I can still live the American dream by attending college. I hope you have enjoyed reading my expressed thoughts and views. Thank you for your time!