More Than a Test Score

Congratulations to Makaiwa Tong the Weekly “Three Sentence Essay” Scholarship winner for this week! There’s an old saying that everyone has a novel inside them, so we wanted to know if you had the chance to write a book on any subject, what would it be? While some folks optioned to discuss their college experience or the life of a loved one, it was Makaiwa’s unique take what many consider an “island getaway” that had us pining for the next chapter.

Here is her winning essay:
The local community that I live in, here in Hawaii, is most definitely not what you can depict from tourist brochures. Where I live, there is a high percentage of domestic violence and drug abuse. If I could write a book on any subject, I would write about growing up in Hawaii.

Here is a little more about our winner:
Aloha, my name is Makaiwa Tong and I was born and raised in Hawaii. I am a descendent of Hawaiian ancestry, and I am rooted in my Hawaiian culture and also my Christian religion. I am bilingual and speak both Hawaiian and English. I will be graduating soon from Kamehameha Schools Hawaii Campus, and will be attending Mill College in Oakland, California this fall.

Speaking of books, have you heard about Zinch’s latest foray into the literary world? This spring we’ll be releasing Getting In: The Zinch Guide to College Admissions and Financial Aid in the Digital Age. Getting In is your college admissions how-to guide, written by experts with insider guidance on everything you need to know to get into the college of your dreams; to order your copy click here!

Congratulations to Maria Vazquez, our Weekly “Three Sentence Essay” Scholarship winner for this week! Mankind has made some incredible strides in the last century, but we wanted to know what you considered to be mankind’s greatest achievement. While many cited triumphs like the Egyptian pyramids or traveling to the moon, Maria’s response gave us a “bigger picture” perspective that holds true for all time.

Here is her winning essay:
Mankind’s greatest achievement has been progress. The ability to learn from previous mistakes, the hunger to improve, the thirst to create ways to make the world better, even if seemingly for selfish reasons. Without this ability to grow and develop, we would be lost.

Here is a little bit more about our winner:
I’m a senior at Quincy High School. I’m an “academic enigma” according to my teachers. I am going to BOSTON COLLEGE! Go Eagles! Looking for lots of money to pay for school!

What could be one of your greatest achievements? Winning an awesome scholarship on Zinch of course. Be sure to apply for our next Weekly “Three Sentence Essay” Scholarship, it could be the easiest $1,000 you’ve ever made.

Back in the day all a student needed for class was their texts, notepad, and a pencil. The most technologically advanced piece of hardware they’d carry was a calculator (battery-powered at that), and a “facebook” was something you ordered during your last semester of college.

Suffice to say, things have changed.

Students today are in the digital age, a time when they can manage their music, games, and even social life within the palm of their hand. Multi-volume encyclopedia sets can now fit on a single disk, class registration is a paperless process, and wi-fi has become general necessity—shouldn’t the tools students’ use reflect all this? The answer is YES.

So if you’re still carrying around a backpack full of binders or rifling through the card catalog listen up, cause these are the newest set of tech resources every student needs to utilize.

Dropbox – Have you ever had a file you wanted to share with a friend but was too big to email? What about that presentation you left on your flashdrive sitting in your dorm room? Dropbox solves both those problems by allowing users to store and share files through their cloud-computing system. All you have to do is download the program, sync it up with the people you’re working with, and start sharing. It’s an easy-to-use no frills application, so those of you with “tech-impaired” friends need not worry about confusing your buddies on how to use it.

Quora – Recently launched last summer, this site is one of the big players in the current “interest graphing” market happening online. What Quora allows you to do is post a question and have other users directly reply to the query. At first glance it sounds pretty basic but there’s a lot more to it; you can also search for other questions, keywords, and interests, or even “follow” them to keep-up-to-date on each response. The topics discussed on Quora are endless and can range from the casual (Best pizza in town?) to the academic (How do I write a bibliography?) to the technical (Any easy ways to create CSS sprites?), so sign up and take a look around, your question might have already been answered.

Google Docs – Everyone under the sun has heard of Google and used their search engine, but how familiar are you with these features? In Google Docs you can create a word document, spreadsheet, or presentation completely online, and share it with other users to edit and revise all in real-time. This is definitely a cheap (i/e free) alternative for those of you unable to shell out the money for a word processing program or complete home-office software, but don’t be fooled by its simplicity, you can do some pretty amazing stuff with these basic tools.

Quizlet – This website was made for students by students—literally! Founded in 2005 by (then) 15 year-old high schooler Andrew Sutherland, Quizlet enables students to create their own sets of digital flashcards for those hard-to-remember facts you need to memorize. Even better, you can search the site for flashcard sets created by other users, or share your own with classmates. Once you’ve got all your key points memorized you can put them to work with the site’s testing features, including true/false and multiple-choice quizzes, or something a bit more entertaining like their Scatter and Space Race games.

5min – Think Youtube but without all the lolcats and annoying video blogs. What 5min is looking to offer is a “videopedia”—a comprehensive source of instructional and educational videos, all of which are offered free of charge. Looking for a quick video on global warming? Curious about how the body processes proteins? Want to cook up some black bean chili? All these videos and much much more are available on the site, and are perfect resources to supplement that in-class presentation or a do-it-yourself activity at home.

That wraps up the first half of our look at the top tools for the tech-savvy student. Be sure to check back soon for Part II where we’ll be looking at some more of the best sites, software, and systems that can help you reach the top of the class.

A recent article from klout.com listed what they consider to be the most influential colleges on Twitter. Just who made the cut? Below are the top 10 listed on the site, based on timeliness, post relevance, and interaction with fellow tweeters.

Stanford University - @Stanford

Syracuse University – @SyracuseU

Harvard University – @Harvard

The University of Wisconsin-Madison – @UWMadison

University of California Berkeley - @Cal

Butler University - @ButlerBlue2

Tufts University – @TuftsUniversity

Temple University – @TempleUniv

University of Minnesota – @UMNews

The University of Texas at Austin – @UTAustin

So did your alma mater show up, or does it look your university could use a little tweeting-tutorial? Either way, you can read the full article here and see what other readers had to say about the rankings.

With the demand for admissions into higher education on the rises here in the States, First Lady Michelle Obama is urging young Americans to set their sights on the importance of US-China relations. In a press release from the White House’s official website, Mrs. Obama recently spoke to over a thousand students in Washington, DC in support of the 100,000 Strong Initiative, a plan first introduced in 2009 by President Obama in hopes of placing more American students in study abroad programs to China.

With the Middle Kingdom being labeled as a major emerging economy and political powerhouse in the next few years, it’s easy to understand why so much emphasis is being placed on creating goodwill between them and the US. What better way then to show good old fashion American ingenuity then by sending over some of our country’s best and brightest?

“Studying in countries like China isn’t only about your prospects in the global marketplace. It’s not just about whether you can compete with your peers in other countries to make America stronger,” says our First Lady. “It’s also about whether you can come together, and work together with them to make our world stronger. It’s about the friendships you make, the bonds of trust you establish, and the image of America that you project to the rest of the world.”

Along the way Mrs. Obama also discusses a few more efforts in place to help bridge the gap between the two countries, including the Center for Global Education and Leadership (CGEL) creating up to 1,000 new study abroad opportunities, $1 million pledges by both Caterpillar Inc. and Citigroup, and of course, Zinch’s very own endeavors overseas, especially highlighting our online database for American students to find study abroad opportunities in China.

For more information on the 100,000 Strong Initiative and to read the entire press statement click here.