How An EnACT Alumnus Won The Highly Selective National Air Force Scholarship |  |
When I first decided to apply for the Air Force National Scholarship I had no hope of getting it. Being put against students from universities like UCLA, MIT, and other prestigious universities I thought to myself "what chance do I honestly have?". Besides the initial self-doubt, I looked at the statistics and found that Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) majors are in demand and liberal arts simply were not. I did not think I stood out from the crowd in any way. I am not an athlete. I don't have any outstanding artistic abilities. I haven't done anything in my life that was worth any kind of notable mention. I am just a kid from the Metro-Detroit area who was going to a small military school in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. Despite the statistics that said my major wasn't important enough and the little voice inside my head that told me it would never happen. In March 2017, I was awarded a National Air Force Scholarship.
It all started when I found out that my out of state tuition would cost $60,000 a year. I knew that I wouldn't be able to graduate and afford $240,000 in college debt. I did what any 18-year kid does when the over whelming weight of college tuition finally hits. I panicked. I began frantically looking for scholarship opportunities. I knew that I wanted to pursue a career in the military, so looking for a military scholarship was my first move. My priorities didn't lie on my physical capabilities; however, I was a strong reader and I had just recently refined my test taking skills. I decided my best bet was to go into the Navy or the Air Force. After narrowing it down to those two branches it came down to a simple choice between the two. However, after a quick google search, the choice was not so simple. Both of these branches had a very solid, and quickly growing, emphasis on STEM majors. Unfortunately for me, my skill set was based on filling journals up about my thoughts on the universe and reading about philosophers, not computing digits and analyzing scientific journals. In the end, I went with my gut and chose the Air Force. I quickly found out that picking which branch I was interested in was only a small part of the battle.
In order to get selected as a recipient of an Air Force Scholarship there were three main components: the fitness test, the interview, and the GPA. Luckily for me, even though I don’t have the skills that would take me pro, I can run pretty fast and I would like to think that my people skills are above average. Regardless of my personal beliefs, my fitness test and my interview both went very well. All that stood in my way at this point was getting a good GPA. Well unluckily for me, the college I was attending had an average freshmen GPA of 2.5. This did not help my confidence about the situation at all. It was one of the most brutal semesters I have ever faced, but in the end of the semester, I got what I needed. I ended the semester with a 4.0. Two weeks later, I was officially awarded my Air Force Scholarship. If there was one take away from this event it would be this: No matter what the odds seem like never give up before you even start
It all started when I found out that my out of state tuition would cost $60,000 a year. I knew that I wouldn't be able to graduate and afford $240,000 in college debt. I did what any 18-year kid does when the over whelming weight of college tuition finally hits. I panicked. I began frantically looking for scholarship opportunities. I knew that I wanted to pursue a career in the military, so looking for a military scholarship was my first move. My priorities didn't lie on my physical capabilities; however, I was a strong reader and I had just recently refined my test taking skills. I decided my best bet was to go into the Navy or the Air Force. After narrowing it down to those two branches it came down to a simple choice between the two. However, after a quick google search, the choice was not so simple. Both of these branches had a very solid, and quickly growing, emphasis on STEM majors. Unfortunately for me, my skill set was based on filling journals up about my thoughts on the universe and reading about philosophers, not computing digits and analyzing scientific journals. In the end, I went with my gut and chose the Air Force. I quickly found out that picking which branch I was interested in was only a small part of the battle.
In order to get selected as a recipient of an Air Force Scholarship there were three main components: the fitness test, the interview, and the GPA. Luckily for me, even though I don’t have the skills that would take me pro, I can run pretty fast and I would like to think that my people skills are above average. Regardless of my personal beliefs, my fitness test and my interview both went very well. All that stood in my way at this point was getting a good GPA. Well unluckily for me, the college I was attending had an average freshmen GPA of 2.5. This did not help my confidence about the situation at all. It was one of the most brutal semesters I have ever faced, but in the end of the semester, I got what I needed. I ended the semester with a 4.0. Two weeks later, I was officially awarded my Air Force Scholarship. If there was one take away from this event it would be this: No matter what the odds seem like never give up before you even start