Scholarships

Scholarships seem to be a thread in my thoughts today. Let me share why.

My youngest sister, May, won first-place last night in Spokane's Executive Women International Scholarship Program (EWISP), a local scholarship awarded to an outstanding high school junior. I woke up this morning to find a little note from her in my email telling me the good news. I couldn't have been prouder!

In spring of 2004, right before my family relocated from Portland to Spokane, a high school junior—from the high school from which I would eventually graduate—won first-place in the EWISP that year. When I eventually started at Mead HS that fall, I became friends with him and was determined to follow his act in winning first-place for our school for the second year running. There is a special plaque with the first-place winner's name engraved on it, and it was sitting in my school's career center, so seeing it often was a sort of motivation for me too.

Lo and behold, I ended up winning first-place in 2005 as a high school junior. Our school was proud to have the plaque back for a second straight year. Well, in 2006, another high school junior from our school brought home the plaque with a third straight year. People were starting to marvel a bit at our school's ability to churn out so many first-place winners in a row.

It didn't stop there though. In 2007, another high school junior from Mead won first-place in the EWISP—my younger sister, Joanna. I'm bummed I missed the scholarship dinner as I had been able to attend the year before. Nevertheless, it was great to know the plaque would remain at Mead for a fourth straight year.

As far as I know, the first-place winning streak for our high school ended the following year. However, with May's win last night, perhaps it's time for a new streak to start. :) In any case, I couldn't be prouder.

A second reason I had scholarships on my mind tonight though is because I was able to meet up with an old pal of mine from the Horatio Alger National Scholars Conference in Washington, D.C. in April 2006. From this picture taken at the conference of the 106 National Scholars, I'm in the front row; my friend, Elijah, is in the middle of the last row.

He's also a fellow Husky from UW, and he's currently studying abroad in Prague. But his program took a few days to visit Berlin, so he sent me a note to see about meeting up. So meet up we did. We went to my favorite schwarma shop in Kreuzberg (I seem to take all my friends/guests there). But not before we grabbed a few beers and chilled in Görlitzer Park. The weather turned nice again today. It's going to be in the 70s all week and should hit 80 degrees this weekend.

We had a great time catching up, and within minutes of talking with Elijah, you immediately get the sense that he's a man of deep thought. All Horatio Alger National Scholars have some sort of crazy personal adversity story and Elijah's no different. But as a result of his life experiences, he's that much more of a real down-to-Earth person. I couldn't be prouder to be friends with him, and I'm thrilled to know he will be teaching English literature for two years in New Haven, CT, as a Teach For America Corps Member starting next year.

Finally, the third reason I was thinking about scholarships today is because it's the day of the UW Dream Project's Live the Dream Scholarship Reception. A year ago, I was in the midst of the event planning and eventually gave a sort of farewell speech (a valedictory speech, if you will), and I remember stressing about it because I couldn't strike the right tone I wanted. In the end, per the advice of my mentor, Stan, I gave my speech extemporaneously and spoke from the heart. While I spoke longer than I had hoped to, all the stress I had had up to that point went away, and the words just came out.

I had the chance to catch up with my good friend and mentor, Alula, on the phone today as well. He's doing amazing work as usual (currently in Haiti). But it'd been a few months since we caught up, so it was great to chat. Looking forward to catching up in person for sure.

The Dream Project event starts in a little more than an hour, but I must go to bed now as I have a school visit early tomorrow morning. The research continues. :) But it's been nice to relax and work from home the last two days after a busy week of traveling.

Till next time,

Sam