Culmination of K-12 by Sophya

Culmination of K-12 by Sophya - April 2020 Scholarship Essay

The culmination of the K-12 program ultimately begs the question regarding attendance of college and if so, what college? Community? Reach? The often-overwhelming amount of decisions during the end of an individual’s high school career starts with the question: Should I attend college?

It’s hard for there to be any guidelines. However, I believe that college is important and that attending college is the first step in the future. Even though senior year marks the resolution to the Common Core Curriculum and a set, defined path in education, the decision to go to college was ultimately a practical one.

Often in the decision that determines the outcome of their future, people can experience the decision-oriented outside world and bring themselves to terms with their hopes and dreams for the future. Thus, not having even stepped foot in college, they have already had the chance to better comprehend themselves and solidify their ambitions for the future through the decision to attend college.

In college, people take their first steps outside of their comfort zone in education; they leave the comfort of having their education decided for them. They force, perhaps for the first time, themselves to take the initiative of their learning and to be proactive in seeking opportunities for growth. In a practical sense, college is defined as another stepping point. Another chapter to a person’s life story. They learn through the experiences they have in college and through the people they meet – both peers and professors. Recently, I was familiarized with a concept in a class that emphasized this growth process through which people’s political standings, which are influenced by a wide variety of factors, stabilize throughout their lifetimes. Any political relations aside, this “funnel of causality”, as it’s termed, begins with the flow of information from both the individual’s environment and the people with whom he or she associates. Linked with the idea of political socialization, their lives at home, both physically and figuratively (as some people consider college as their home), impact their future beliefs and decisions. Because of the nature of college as an environment through which individuals learn to survive on their own in society, I think that, much like the idea of the metaphorical funnel, college expands people’s understanding of the world and thus, creates the opening with which they can shape their future ambitions.

Personal growth aside, the college experience offers opportunities that are difficult to find elsewhere. The mass incorporation of study abroad provides other learning environments that can be vastly beneficial to expanding an individual’s personal desire to travel the world and learn new languages. Visits to concerts and options to meet governmental figures, shown in the class that met Ruth Bader Ginsburg, allow people to hold meaningful conversations to better understand society’s issues and the lives other people lead. Any personal passions can be pursued through classes and the lesson that college introduces about the importance of initiative is beyond essential to an individual’s growth. These opportunities could certainly happen outside of college; however, I believe that college introduces these opportunities to its students.

Through the conception that college encourages personal growth and provides a myriad of opportunities, I solidify my belief in the power of college. Attending college has presented more personal importance, albeit its initial appeal towards furthering my studies. Without the surface layer of a college student’s life and the sensationalized “college experience”, the bulk of the iceberg reveals itself to be an introspective and far-reaching opportunity.