By Emily Zeitman
We’re excited to announce the winner of the Shout It Out Scholarship. The question was, “If you could say one thing to the entire world at once, what would it be and why?” Check out the winning essay, followed by scholarship tips from our winner.
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“Can I help you with that?” It could be a heavy box, an over‐sized sundae, or an overwhelming sense of fear. Lifting, sharing, reaching out a hand ‐ it’s what makes the human race, well, human. It could be your neighbor, your‐girlfriend‐you‐might‐be‐falling‐in‐love‐with or that disheveled guy standing on the corner who just made eye contact. By speaking the simple phrase, “Can I help you with that?” a burden becomes a bond, a dessert becomes a life‐changing memory or a stranger becomes a savior.
Too often today, we worry about everyone’s space. We don’t want to push, we aren’t implying they can’t do it on their own, we aren’t running around trying to save the world. So, we do nothing. We watch, we wonder and we let our own fears keep us distant from the very people and experiences that could make us become something more. When we dare to be aware of the people around us and the real individuals on the other side of our planet, we create our own place in this world. We define and shape and color our own piece to fit into this massive jigsaw of human existence.
What if we all looked around, moment to moment, person to person, nation to nation and said, “Can I help you with that?” Refugees become family, neighbors become friends and we each become something more.
—Braden H.
Scholarship tips from our winner
How to create a winning scholarship essay
“The key to writing an effective scholarship essay is to never fall in love with just one idea. We all tend to draw boxes around a process or idea, and it ends up severely limiting our creativity. Don’t fully write the first great idea you have; it’s important to explore your options to land on the perfect topic, not just a great one.”
How to find scholarships
“When it comes to finding scholarships, look everywhere! You can draw a perfect circle? Congrats, there’s probably a scholarship for that. You have red hair and your name is Eobard? Boom, money. However, instead of searching for each individual scholarship, using a scholarship match site like Unigo allows you to speed up the process exponentially and match yourself with scholarships based on a large array of criteria. That leaves you time to go care for your hair, Eobard. Or, you can focus a few more minutes on broadening your ideas for those essays.”
Take Braden’s advice and be a scholarship winner yourself. Use our Scholarship Match to get personalized matching from millions of scholarships. If scholarship money just isn’t enough, try our LoanFinder.