Amanda Alarcon

Nichols College
Criminal Justice Management Senior
September 21st, 2017

Academic Incentive Merit Scholarship Application 2017-2018

A great transition took place within my educational career and goals over the past four
years spent as a Nichols College student. This transition, though great in size, was long-lived,
character-testing, and psychologically constructive. As a new high school graduate opening the
doors to my next phase as a Nichols College freshman, I prided myself in all I had
accomplished. Not only would I be the first in my family to attend a four-year college, but also
graduated high school at the top of my class with great school involvement and dedication
outside of the classroom through Student Council, National Honor Society, and other extra-
curricular activities. At this point I found all of my worth and all of my pride in that of those I
loved. My good grades were a tribute to my mother and her hard-work to provide for our family.
Every homework assignment, after school event, and stress session would be worth the look of
pride in my mothers eyes at the end of the day when I would be able to tell her all that I had
accomplish.

Many people in our community at Nichols are aware that in the middle of my collegiate
career, this pinnacle of pride and encouragement lost her life to cancer in the winter of 2015.
Within an instant, it would no longer be sufficient to get a good grade for my mother, work-hard
for an income so she would not have to, or even practice my hobbies with whom I had no one to
share them. At this point in my grief, none of it mattered; classes, homework, clubs, work, all
seemed so miniscule in the grand-scheme-of-things. As days passed after the loss of my mom,
time slowly began to move again as I watched everyone around me move on with their daily
lives. In disbelief, I met with my mothers best friend one night, this is when she found it
appropriate to give me something which my mother had asked her to type and hold onto. No
matter what happens, you need to finish school. It has been too important for us to throw away.
My final wish would be for you to graduate college and know I am with you, always. A note
from my mother to me before her passing. Words from my mother heard in her absence. She will
not be here, she will not push me, help me, guide me, but this is her wish, and her wish it will be.

Today, almost two years later, I carry myself up Center Road every day to the classes I
chose, to study for the degree I chose, in a career field in which I have found passion. Once
more, I am involved, engaged, and dedicated to my school in and outside the classroom as
Meditation Club Co-president, a Peer Mentor, an Admissions Tele-Counselor and a member of
the Honor Society. Over the past two years, I have learned to find pride in life for myself, by
myself. I study what I do because I am more than aware of all that I do not know in this world
and I admire my professors so, for all of their immense intelligence and experience. I value, once
more, the place in which I find myself and where my life is headed. Pablo Picasso once said,
The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away. My mother
ultimately managed this prior to her passing and it is this great goal of life that promotes me
every day. For the love of my mother but also for the love of myself and the world in which I
live, I strive for greatness and accept nothing but progress.