If you are seeking a scholarship to study in the best schools abroad, then you need to write a scholarship essay. This essay shows your level of experience and the level of interest you have.
In this article, I will show you how to write a scholarship essay with samples.
SAMPLE QUESTION 1: Give an example of your career goals and explain how obtaining this scholarship or certificate will help you reach them.
My name is John Mandia. As a healthcare student at the College of Lagos, I intend to transfer to a four-year university overseas. My academic goals include earning a bachelor’s degree in biological or health sciences, which will help me in my pursuit of a job as a doctor. However, my professional goal is to eventually offer low-cost healthcare to underserved populations in Africa, particularly in rural and impoverished areas. But I’m positive that I won’t be able to fulfil my professional ambitions if I don’t finish my college degree.
Since helping people and enhancing their quality of life has always been my passion, I made the decision to pursue a career as a doctor. I therefore think that choosing such a career will provide me the chance to better understand the medical needs of the community and contribute to improving its health conditions. After earning my medical degree, I hope to focus on nephrology, the study of the kidney, and use what I learn to help with kidney research and kidney disease treatment in Africa, where access to specialised care is still scarce.
In addition, I wish to support marginalised communities in Nigeria and other African nations that face everyday challenges in providing for their families and have little access to high-quality medical treatment. Establishing a free community clinic that offers reasonably priced medical help to patients from all backgrounds and financial situations is the first health project I intend to complete in my medical career. In order to avoid diseases like diabetes and heart disease, the clinic will provide free consultations, free or inexpensive medicines, and nutrition instruction. Additionally, I plan to establish a medical aid fund to help patients who cannot afford surgery or urgent care, as well as provide translators for patients who speak local languages.
The establishment of a non-profit organisation that arranges medical internships for African medical students, enabling them to visit isolated areas throughout the continent to offer free healthcare services, is my second main career objective. I also plan to increase nutrition education and preventive medicine to reduce malnutrition among children, especially in rural and indigenous communities. Young people’s physical development will be enhanced, and long-term solutions to health issues will be offered.
I am aware that without earning my medical degree, all of my aspirations will remain just that—dreams. I am therefore determined to put in a lot of effort in my studies and look for chances, like this scholarship, that will enable me to achieve my objectives.
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SAMPLE QUESTION 2: What do you find to be the most difficult part of going to college? What steps have you taken to get past that obstacle?
After I finished secondary school, I was convinced that I would need to be tenacious and committed to achieving my career goals if I wanted to pursue further education. But without the assistance of my extended family, I would not be at this stage of my studies. They have contributed to giving me a respectable standard of living, together with my parents’ assistance. My mother is a petty merchant and my father is a carpenter in my hometown, but their income is insufficient to support my medical education. I therefore look for jobs and scholarships that will assist me in finishing my college education and cover our household expenses.
As a result, when my senior year of high school rolled around, I was not really ready for college. I didn’t know that I needed to talk to a school advisor about attending college or look for scholarships to pay for my education. I was not familiar with the tests I had to take, including the SATs, ACTs, and even college assessment exams. However, after researching this information online and talking to college advisors, I have learnt about all of these strategies that help students finish their higher education.
Searching for a job was one of the first things I did to get past the difficulties of being a low-income student. As I previously stated, my parents are low-income earners who had to take on additional tasks, such as small-scale farming, to keep up with the bills and maintain our home. In order to operate a printing and photocopying business in our town, I used my funds to purchase a laptop and a printing machine, which I continue to run to this day. I am able to attend college full-time because of the flexible schedule this firm provides. In addition, I tutor other college students in chemistry or maths to help pay for my family’s necessities.
Even though I’m always looking for more employment and scholarships to help pay for my education, I’m thankful to find chances like the one your foundation offers kids. It gives me the impression that I’m not travelling alone to achieve my academic objectives.
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SAMPLE QUESTION 3: What makes you deserving of receiving a scholarship? Please list any leadership qualities, community service projects, academic accomplishments, or other personal traits that demonstrate your merit for this scholarship.
I think I should be chosen for one of your foundation’s scholarships because, as a diligent student, I promise to make the most of the opportunity the scholarships will present. In addition, I am a student who consistently strives to enhance the quality of life in my community through volunteer work in addition to my diligent academic pursuits.
I attempt to combine my love of learning with my drive to serve others because I think that education is the path to success. I therefore made the decision to assist in the founding of AfterSchoolAfrica, a non-profit organisation that offers higher education resources to parents, teachers, and students of all immigration statuses. In order to create a more informed community about the measures required to obtain a higher education, we, along with other college and university students and advisers, made the decision to band together and form such an organisation.
My duties as a member of the organisation include organising and facilitating educational talks, researching scholarships for students from all backgrounds, maintaining a scholarship list on the AfterSchoolAfrica website, and translating any AfterSchoolAfrica materials, such as a 60-page student resource guide. Education should be a right, not a privilege, in my opinion; thus, I feel compelled to act when I witness people being denied the opportunity to pursue higher education. I therefore choose to be an active member of AfterSchoolAfrica mostly for this reason.
Furthermore, I have also held various leadership positions in community organisations. I worked as a programming intern for the university’s leadership programme from 2009 to 2010, where I organised and coordinated social activities for the students that took part. In addition, I directed group talks about social justice as a project facilitator for an anti-discrimination club and arranged social, cultural, and community service events for the school while serving as the vice president of the student government at my community college. Before this, I was in charge of planning campus community service events, like blood drives and a monthly street cleanup in the local area, as the Student Government’s Community Service Chairperson.
Finding possibilities like the one your organisation offers to students like me who are always battling for the right to an education makes me happy. I’m tenacious and will keep putting in a lot of effort till I accomplish my professional objectives. In order to continue on my journey to becoming a doctor, I hope to be awarded a scholarship from your foundation.