Legacy High School Rotaract Club prepares lunch at the Ronald McDonald House:
Attached are pictures today from the Ronald McDonald House where our Legacy High School Interact club prepared and served lunch. Rotarian advisor Joel Azrikan stopped chopping onions long enough to pose with the Interact president Victor Davis, who is ranked #1 in his senior class.
Recently the Interact faculty advisor noted several of their seniors are college material but need financial/scholarship support.
I requested Ms. Arnold provide more information on them as soon as possible and she forwarded the following essay from Victor yesterday. When asked today about what universities he was looking at, he named UT Austin, Rice, UTSA, and a couple of others--but acknowledged affordability was a big factor. Please let me know if you have resources that may help--possibly a relationship with a scholarship fund/source, experience with college scholarships, etc.
~~ President Jerry Hardy
Request:
Include who you are, what you've done in Interact, what you're interested in (both career-wise and volunteer/service work-wise), your plans for college, what events you've participated in/organized, and why you need this money.
Essay:
Hello, my name is Victor Davis and I'm a senior at Legacy High School and the President of our school's Interact club. I originally joined this club because I wanted to help others, meet people, and work with the Earth. Since then this club has taken me on a rollercoaster of fun times and experiences that have really helped me grow in ways I didn't even know I could have before.
Through the Interact events that I've participated in like RYLA, care package making and donation collecting, or the events I've organized/am organizing such as school movie nights, gardening days, RYLA, Ronald McDonald House trips, elementary and educational outreach projects, park cleanup days, fundraisers, and even my school's past homecoming dance, I feel that I've really been able to grow as a friend and as a leader. Along with all of this giving me a chance to leave a positive mark on my local community, Interact has also helped me realize that helping people is all that I really want to do in the future.
It's always been a dream of mine to pursue higher education in science and chemistry (specifically to pursue a graduate degree - ideally a PhD - in chemistry, organic chemistry, or pharmacology and toxicology), and though I didn't have an initial life goal or purpose when I entered high school, meeting Ms. Arnold and becoming a part of Interact changed that. I realized that besides taking care of my family and pursuing higher education,
for the rest of my life, all that I want to do is help people.
It may seem like a big leap for me to say that I've already found a purpose at such a young age, but this epiphany was confirmed and realized through months of deliberation and reflection, and I would argue that it's not uncommon for people to realize what they love when they're young and for them to follow this dream successfully. Also, as an afterthought, I would argue that choosing which college to go to and deciding on what major I want to pursue is equally as important as though it will only be for a relatively small portion of my life, it will largely decide the kinds of jobs and opportunities that I am able to pursue for likely the rest of my life.
While I can achieve these dreams of helping people and pursuing higher education with or without aid, I likely won't be able to achieve it on the scale I hope to. I do admit that as I stand right now I have a pretty good shot of getting into a good college and being awarded merit aid, but I have very low chances of actually being able to fully pay for college (without taking loans out from the bank and going into debt) on the timeframe that I want to unless I get the scholarships and grants that I'm applying for along with doing a work-study program, as my family won't be able to contribute to my college tuition at all.
No matter what happens though, I know I will achieve my dreams of higher education and helping my family and other families. With your help though, I would be able to pursue these dreams sooner and to a greater degree than I could by myself, and this is all I'm asking you to do, if you feel I've earned it, to give me a chance to pursue my dreams to make my community and the world a better place.
