Assignment #14: The personal Essay
Many Scholarships, bursaries, grants and university applications request a personal essay, as a way of getting to know you.
A Personal Essay is a short work of autobiography, written in an intimate, conversational tone. It can be a personal statement about a defining incident, through which you learned one of life's lessons. Examples might be times when you were forced to face your worst fear, to make a difficult choice, to resolve a conflict, or to overcome a major obstacle. It might be an experience or a relationship that greatly challenged your values or positively influenced your future career choice. It could be a current event or an environmental hazard that has aroused you passion.
A personal essay requires an opening sentence or paragraph that sets the tone and "hooks" or engages the reader, two or three paragraphs that support your thesis and maintain the reader's interest, and a conclusion that comes full circle and shows that you have learned, gained, or grown in some way through the experience that you have described.
Please write a Personal Essay of 4 or 5 paragraphs. (Maybe you can incorporate some of what you learned about yourself through assignments #11 and #12.) Due January 18,2019
REMEMBER:
Many of the External Awards listed on the EMCS Awards database require essays. It would be to your advantage to use the essay criteria for a scholarship or bursary that is on your "Must Apply" list, or to submit for evaluation one that you have already written.
An example of a scholarship that requires an essay is the Michael Potter/Rotary Club of Victoria Harbourside Bursary. It is awarded to a student who has overcome significant obstacles in his or her pursuit of future opportunities. (They want an essay describing this journey.)
The Michael Potter award has been won by an EMCS student 3 out of the last 4 years.
A description of the Michael Potter Award is attached - Assignment #14
If you believe that you qualify for the Michael Potter Bursary, and wish to be our school nominee, please let me know.
If you require assistance please make an appointment.