More Than a Test Score

Congratulations to Austin Carroll, our latest Weekly “Three Sentence Essay” Scholarship winner!

It’s that time of year we all love, the holidays! And while we all may recognize a different reason for the season, there’s one thing we can all enjoy—the celebration! That’s why we asked if you could create your own national holiday, what would it be and how would you celebrate it? Austin’s essay was chosen for prompting everyone to take stride in their creativity and share it with those around them.

Here’s her winning essay:
International Creation Day: a day set aside to work on the creative projects people always put off with the excuse they don’t have time. A website will be set up for people around the world to upload their creations. The day will end with local sharing events, like mic nights.

Here’s a bit more about our winner:
I love to write anything; poetry, screenplays, plays, songs, even novels. I also enjoy playing volleyball and am quite skilled at archery and bowling. I love acting in theatrical pieces at my school, local children’s theatre, and theatrical competitions. I have a strong passion for the arts and love to read Shakespeare and practice photography. I also have a good grasp on the Italian language after spending my 10th grade year abroad in Sardinia, Italy. Next year, I will be studying Screenwriting with an emphasis on Television.

Here’s a few of our favorite runner’s up:

Thanh G. – I’d create a Neighboring Day on the second Sunday of January. On this day, each and every single neighbor will have a chance to visit and get to know their neighbor more by BBQ-ing together or have a group activity such as decorating the street.

Arwen C. – Mad Scientist Day! It would be a day where everyone learned something new about science – there would be public demonstrations of all sorts of scientific principles (thermodynamics, rock formation) and people would learn about scientists and big discoveries throughout history.

Anne H. – Imagine a “Shop Local Day.” People from all over the country would rush to stores to buy locally produced goods. It would be like Black Friday, except helping out the little guy. Now if only we could convince everyone to bike or carpool to these stores…

Our choice for a new holiday? “Apply For Scholarships Day” of course! Thankfully you don’t need to wait for a special day to apply for our Weekly “Three Sentence Essay” Scholarship, cause it’s available 24/7. There’s a new prompt every Monday, so get to it!

Sayonara 2011, it’s time to usher in the new year with a bang! For whatever historical reasons, we like to think of the new year as the Apple + R (or F5 for you PCers) on taking charge and bettering our lives.

Sounds awesome, right? But New Year’s resolutions rarely go that smoothly. We’re motivated to meet this goal for the first few weeks, and then something happens that curtails our drive. It could be the goal, it could be the execution. Whatever the reason, you don’t want it to happen again!

Here are a few SIMPLE steps to make resolution planning a little easier>>>

This last year the college admissions world reached record numbers. More students than ever were sending applications to colleges across the nation, all in hopes of being admitted to their dream school. The bottom line being, competition to get in is thick, and only students on top of their game have a real shot. That’s why we’re introducing My College List, a new feature that will help you research, choose, and apply to the schools you’d be a fit for.

To start, login to your Zinch account and click on the Schools link at the top of your toolbar, this will take you directly to the My College List feature.

The first section of the My College List feature, Suggested Colleges, is a selection of schools that have been recommended to you based on the information in your profile. The schools listed here either have programs that fit your interests, meet the criteria of colleges you are looking to attend, or are actively looking to recruit students like you.

In addition, any schools you have marked as a “Like” through our school search will appear in the “Liked Colleges” tab.

If you would like to learn more about a suggested college, simply click on the “I’m Interested” button. Once chosen the selected school will be moved to the Interested section of the feature.

Once a college has been placed in the Interested section you can click its icon to learn more information about the school, like their tuition costs, admission rates, and current undergraduate class size. By placing a school in this section you will also receive information directly from that school’s admissions office to your Zinch account’s inbox.

If the chosen college is a school you are applying to (or intend to apply to), click the corresponding button to have it moved to the Applying section.

If you are admitted to your chosen school you can add it to your Accepted section by clicking the “I’m Accepted!” button.

Finally, if you’d like to run a search for a school not listed on the page there is a search tool located on the right. Below it is a collection of messages sent to you from prospective schools. These messages are also located in your inbox, so feel free to respond!

With My College List we’ve made it easier than ever to organize your journey into higher education and connect with the colleges interested in you.

You’ve seen how it works, now give it a try>>>

Earlier this month we announced Michael Reasoner as the grand prize winner of our 2010-2011 Sweet Diggity Dawg scholarship competition, and least to say, he was thrilled! We wanted to know a little bit more about Michael and how this scholarship will aid him on his higher education journey, and here’s what he had to share.

How did you feel when you found out you won the competition?

Excited, dumfounded, shocked, surprised, speechless; those are the words that can describe how I felt when I received the call yesterday. I thought that my profile was pretty good and I felt I had a serious chance at winning, but actually hearing the news is something totally different and is hard to imagine. It was totally cool, and telling my friends about it was awesome as well.

What impact does winning this money make on your future plans?

This made sound cliché, but winning this scholarship has a huge impact on my future plans because it makes my education more affordable. Consequently, I will also have more time to dedicate to my volunteer and community service career and pursue other philanthropy endeavors, since I will not need to work every single hour of my spare time to earn the money to pay for college.

Where do you plan on going to school?

I am planning on going to Bowling Green State University (BGSU) to study 3D computer animation. I chose BGSU because it is one of two state universities in Ohio that offers this program and it is well recognized nationwide for it. When I went to visit, I felt right at home and the director of admissions for the college of art took special care of me and my mom and took us to a private tour of the facilities.

What kind of career path would you like to follow after school?

I am planning on pursuing a career in animation. I would like to explore entertainment animation, especially games and movies. 3D video games and 3D animated movies have captured the younger generations through the years, but what if they could reach the older generations too?

I would also like to explore the possibilities of animation for education. After college I would like to continue contributing to science education in my own way. I have fond memories of Bill Nye the Science Guy and the Magic School Bus. I would like to take those concepts to a higher level by reinventing them through new media.

What inspired you to get started in community service?

My sister’s friend Amanda Breitfeller used to volunteer at the Center of Science and Industry (COSI). I have always been interested in science so when I was old enough to volunteer, she asked me if I would like to volunteer there. I thought that spending your time doing science experiments would be the coolest thing to do ever, so I said yes. I had to go through an interview process where I had to perform an experiment in front of the admissions committee. I was only twelve and I still remember being very nervous while teaching the audience how vinegar and baking soda created oxygen that filled up a balloon I had attached to the mouth of a bottle filled with vinegar. I was accepted and my dream of roaming the halls of my favorite museum had come true and my friend Amanda got 8 hours of volunteering just by signing me in.

The more I’ve tried different volunteer opportunities, the more I realize that being involved in a wide variety of volunteer opportunities is very important. For me it is like having a “balanced financial portfolio”; you should have a variety of bonds, stocks and mutual funds. Only then can you reach a diverse population, and only then can you experience the full range of “satisfaction” that volunteering can bring to you. The more dimensions you add to your portfolio of community services, the greater the satisfaction you will experience.

How are you more than a test score?

I am more than a test score because of the multiple dimensions that define me.

Volunteering, fund raising, helping others; this is who I am. I volunteer at church, school, Nationwide Children’s Hospital Invitational, Clintonville Resource Center, Center of Science and Industry, and Gracehaven—organization that provides a safe home for girls who have been forced into commercial sexual exploitation.

Rhythm and blues, magic, lower octaves of techno music; this is who I am. I’m a member of marching band, pep band, concert band, pit orchestra and jazz band. I play the alto sax and the baritone sax. I learned to love this instrument’s low tones and so I developed a special connection with it.

Imagination, creativity, spatial intelligence; this is who I am. I can see in space; I can visualize how things work; I can take things apart and improve them when reassembling them. When it comes to computers my brain is my secret weapon. As a junior, I built my own desktop from scratch. In computer class, I gravitate towards animation programs. In simple words, I am a computer geek.

Michael may have landed a $20,000 scholarship, but he isn’t the only one scoring some dough through Zinch. Make sure to visit our scholarship search, where you’ll find nearly $2 billion in financial aid listed online. The best part? We match you with the scholarship you’re a perfect fit for!