BJB Scholarship

From my perspective, one definition of a community is simply a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common. This is what we most commonly think of as a community -- people who live together in a neighborhood, work together at the same company or go to school together. A second, and maybe more interesting, definition of a community is a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals. A ‘feeling of fellowship’ seems to be an idea more fitting for 2020. Even if I can’t physically be with my community, I can adapt and recreate the feeling of fellowship in different ways. Whenever I can, one of the most effective ways of giving back is volunteering my time at places like my local non-profit, school, homeless shelter, animal shelter, etc. My time is valuable and gifting it can make a world of difference in the lives of many people. The importance of giving back to society can’t be understated. When I give back, I can better the lives of the people around me – my loved ones, the people in my community, or the lives of people somewhere else in the world. And finding meaning by giving back to the community doesn’t just benefit others – it benefits me in the process. There’s no better way to adopt an attitude of gratitude than by asking myself how to give back to the community. Helping others can make me realize how much I have to be grateful for. I am currently a junior at George Mason University with a major in History. I have graduated high school in 2020, but I hope to break barriers and obtain my bachelor's degree in History by fall 2022. Then, I'll start a master's program in the teaching of secondary education in spring 2023. I hope to get that degree by the end of Fall 2023, and even though it may be a bit unusual, I'm pursuing this path, so I can have more time in my life to do good things and give back to the community. I plan to become a middle school teacher, and even though my first choice is to teach social studies, I am also open to teaching other subjects and electives, including science, language arts, math, health & physical education, and family & consumer sciences, as well as oversee community-based extracurriculars, such as student government and general volunteering at different events. My vision for the future is that more people will volunteer for different organizations, especially those organizations that are working for a good cause, such as stopping climate change and feeding the world population, since at this point of world history are such problems beginning to trigger the alarm on the world citizens. As the saying goes, "the smallest things can make the biggest differences", and I envision that everyone will do their part to solve global & local issues.