The Presidential Scholarship is a full tuition and room and board scholarship. What makes you more deserving of this award than students of the same academic caliber? For the majority of my life, I did not have adequate “room and board”, even within my own home. When I was born, my family was financially insecure and when my parents divorced, my mother raised me in a state of poverty. I remember being in third grade and doing my homework sitting on the floor because we lacked furniture, and I slept on the same sordid floor in a tiny room shared by three other people. The internet was a rare asset I was only able to access at school or in a public library. Food was hard to come by, and when we did have food, it was cheap and highly processed. When I was in fourth grade, my head sprouted grey hairs as a result of either malnutrition or stress, or both. I grew up poor but still excelled in school because I told getting good grades and being a good student would eventually make my life better. Knowing that I was able to improve my life was …show more content…
My family is still not financially secure and never saved any money to put towards my college education. Neither my mother, father, or stepmother are willing, nor able, to contribute to my college education at all. Unfortunately, I will be paying for college by myself. However, I am very grateful that the University of Tulsa has generously awarded enough money in scholarships to cover my tuition, but I am lacking funds to cover room and board. I am working hard to achieve my goal of moving out of my household to be in a stress-free environment for my four years of college. Ever since I had a job, I’ve been putting half of my earnings from every paycheck towards my college savings; the other half goes towards making sure me and my brother have adequate food, clothing, and whatever else we need that my parents can’t