Funding your Future - The importance of Scholarships

As a student, I always seek new opportunities to gain tangible real-life skills and knowledge I

can’t gain in a classroom setting. Illuminate’s Associate National Lead programs gives me the

opportunity to do just that while also gaining invaluable skills in the process. This Saturday, I got to attend Tomiwa Ademidun’s Think Tank on “How to get Scholarships ” as a part of the Associate National Lead program and was exposed to a number of new viewpoints and perspectives.

Today post-secondary education is incredibly important for students to further their careers in their respective fields. However, education is expensive and students may not have enough funding to support their decisions. Tomiwa’s presentation offered many insightful points into the world of scholarships and the application process.

Personally, I have never taken scholarships into serious consideration. I thought that they were time consuming when I needed to juggle other necessary commitments. Tomiwa demonstrated that it is all about conducting effective research and applying to as many scholarships as you can. A lot of scholarships have similar structures and applicants can reuse ideas from previous applications to conserve time.

Thanks to Tomiwa’s presentation, I plan to apply for more scholarships in the second semester. The application process will also serve to hone key skills such as writing and communication that are readily transferable to the real world. Overall, scholarships are an important resource for high school students to fund their academic career. Following Tomiwa’s advice, I feel a lot more confident and I encourage everyone to seize the opportunity.