My Parents: Role Models in Academics and Life by Reagan

My Parents: Role Models in Academics and Life by Reagan - March 2021 Scholarship Essay

My family packed up and moved to a different state when I was seven years old. My parents were going to get their undergraduate degrees from a university, my father in Electrical Engineering and my mother in English. Four years later, they attended a law school in the same city.

Thanks to this decision, I grew up in a college town and became familiar with and accustomed to campus life, but also became more exposed to the world beyond where I’d grown up. The contrast between this bustling college town and my home was stark. My parents’ classmates, varying in every way, from gender to religion to age, were very different from the people in our circles back home. I partially credit my parents' non-judgmental attitude toward the people we met with my interest in language and culture, which has led me to pursue a German degree today.

My parents taught me the value of perseverance and hard work, even when the gratification wasn’t immediate. Raising my siblings and me while they went through undergraduate and law school (right up until we moved my freshman year of high school) was no easy task, and the fact they managed academic excellence while creating a stable and happy home life for us is something I’m forever grateful for, especially after witnessing just how hard it was first-hand. I have memories of waking up for school to my parents coming home after a night of studying. I wondered when they were sleeping.

They’ve also taught me to take the way I present myself to my siblings very seriously. My role as the oldest is an important one; even on my bad days, I try to hold myself in a way that lets them know I am reliable. It is important that they can come to me for help or advice, or look to me as an example, even in hard times, just as my parents were there for me when I was their age. I carry this value over to every leadership position I have held, and it has not failed me yet.

The experiences and lessons I was taught by my parents during their time studying are ones I’ll be treasuring for the rest of my life, and most certainly during my own time in college.