A School Activity Transfers to Real Life by Zachary

A School Activity Transfers to Real Life by Zachary - December 2013 Scholarship Essay

National Honor Society and travel abroad are extra curricular activities that have had a profound influence on making me who I am today. One of the four traits inherent in a member of NHS is service. Service has become a huge part of my life; so much so that I was recently named the recipient of the Mayor’s Community Service Award in my community. I plan to be involved in community service for life.

I have traveled abroad three times during the last three years. As a freshman, I visited London and Paris as a People to People student ambassador. As a sophomore, I went on a mission trip to Toronto, Canada. As a junior, I toured in Spain and France with a group of upper level language students from my school. These travels have offered me experiences that combined my enjoyment of service, my interest in history, my plans to study abroad during college, and my desire to study architecture. Perhaps more importantly, they have cultivated in me an appreciation of the diversity of the world.

The combination of what I learned while in NHS and while traveling abroad has led to my involvement in a local service project in my home town that has become very special to me. With the current poor state of the economy, many people are finding themselves below the poverty line and in need of assistance. One form of assistance is to utilize the local food pantry. For the past two years, I have volunteered for at least four hours per week at the food pantry in my community. During the course of my work there, I have met an increasingly diverse population in need of help. It is up to me and my fellow volunteers to offer this help in a caring and compassionate manner. I believe that my interaction with the less fortunate in my community has been uplifting for them and for me. In addition, this work has certainly provided me with a valuable learning experience. If not for the influence of my extracurricular activities as a member of National Honor Society, a member of the Wauconda High School Foreign Travel Group, a member of People to People Student Ambassadors, and a participant in my church youth group mission trips, I would not have been impacted with my rewarding service work.