Joe Gilroy "Plan Your Work, Work Your Plan" Scholarship

When I was sixteen, I realized I wanted to run a movie studio in Hollywood. I was obsessed with Walt Disney, then Sherry Lansing, then Bob Iger. They were entertainment titans, and I wanted to stand up there on that Mount Olympus. There was just one problem: ENTERTAINMENT MOGUL is not a college major. So I started reverse-engineering the people who had already made the climb. I started with Bob Iger, but not the Bob Iger who ran Disney. I went backward until I found him at eighteen, studying television and radio at Ithaca College, then traced his path through ABC, production, management, and increasingly larger responsibilities. Sherry Lansing's roadmap was different. She studied English and mathematics, taught high school, acted, became a script reader, and worked through development and production until she became the first woman to head a major Hollywood studio. The job titles changed, but certain skills kept appearing: storytelling, production, money, leadership, and understanding how an idea gets to an audience. Iger broke open the machine and showed me the guts. Lansing proved there is no single starting point. So I’m digging deep into the creative side first, then I’ll add production, business, and leadership experience. This fall, I begin Oberlin College's five-year BA/BFA Integrated Arts program. During my first two years, I will strengthen my writing, acting, film, and production skills. This semester, I plan to write a screenplay and apply to Oberlin's Columbia Pictures-sponsored Screenwriters Intensive, where students develop scripts with professional writers and mentors. Years two through four, I plan to use Oberlin's Obiewood Entertainment Network to pursue internships in development and production and build relationships with industry alumni and mentors. I want to learn how scripts are evaluated, projects financed, productions budgeted, and work distributed. I will produce my own projects, where I’ll have to manage the money, the people, the schedule, and the creative decisions myself. Before I ask someone to trust me with millions of dollars and hundreds of employees, I should prove I can be responsible for hundreds of dollars and a handful of people. In my final year in Cleveland, I will use Park Arts' 24-hour studio and production facilities, an internship, and my public-facing capstone to take a project from concept through execution while managing collaborators, deadlines, and resources. Money is another part of my plan. My first year at Oberlin costs $92,162. Oberlin grants and scholarships reduce that by $59,358, including a $24,000 annual merit scholarship renewable throughout my five-year program. I have earned another $1,250 in outside scholarships, leaving $31,554 to fund. My family will contribute as much as circumstances allow, but I don't want to assume they can carry that burden for five years. I plan to get a campus job and continue pursuing outside scholarships before borrowing whatever remains. Each semester, I will recalculate the gap and borrow only what is uncovered. My goal is to graduate owing as little as possible. Every dollar I don't have to repay is a dollar I can invest in my future: moving for the right opportunity, creating work, saving, or eventually building a company. After graduation, I will look for the job that teaches me the most in development, production, or as an assistant. If a studio path does not open immediately, I can build the same skills through independent film, theatre, or projects I produce myself while pursuing studio work. I cannot predict which path up the mountain will be mine. But I can reverse-engineer what I need for the climb, plan my work, and work my plan.

My guidance counselor gave me a packet of summer programs for the summer of 2021. I had two requirements for a summer program. I wanted to stay in-person on a college campus, and I wanted the program to be about the medical field. Many of the programs were either virtual or canceled, which helped me narrow down which one I wanted to go to. I found a program at the University of Findlay about pharmacy, which I attended. The camp introduced me to the pharmacy field, which I hadn’t known much about beforehand. I learned about what pharmacists do and what education they receive. I enjoyed the session about hospital pharmacy, where I learned about what pharmacists do in a hospital setting. After the camp, I was seriously considering studying pharmacy in college and having a career in the pharmacy field, so I began doing research about the pharmacy field. I went to a talk by a pharmacy student to learn about their experiences. I went on video calls to learn about pharmacy programs. I learned about the 0+6 pharmacy program, which is offered by the University of Findlay. This program lasts six years and condenses the traditional four years of undergraduate studies and the four years of pharmacy school into six years, which is why I applied there. I liked that it was shorter than the traditional 8-year path, meaning that I could start my career sooner. I also do not have to reapply to pharmacy school during my academic career. I am currently in my second year of this program. According to my latest financial reports from my college, my estimated college costs for this year are $55,320 for the 2024-25 school year. I have $27,500 in grants and scholarships this year. Of those, I have an annual $21,000 scholarship that I should get for the next three years. My calculations assume tuition will remain constant for the next 5 years. I know it will not, but this is a rough estimate for the purpose of forming a budget. I need a total of $276,600 to earn my PharmD degree in the next five years. It is $249,100 when you subtract my financial aid for this year. I will also get $21,000 for my junior year and my senior year, meaning I still need to find $207,100. I have about $70,000 in my college fund, leaving $137,100 unaccounted for. My parents will also pay $10,000 each year for the next 5 years, for a total of $50,000. This means I will need to earn $87,100 through scholarships, financial aid, and working a part-time job to avoid taking out student loans. My goal is to graduate with my PharmD in 2029 and specialize in nuclear pharmacy. This will require extensive training, which could take a long time. It involves getting 4000 hours of practice in a nuclear pharmacy and taking classes relating to safety. If a typical work week is 40 hours, that would mean 100 weeks, or roughly equivalent to two years of experience. In order to do this, I will obviously need scholarships, but I will also need immaterial things, such as experience in the pharmacy field, experience with activities outside the pharmacy field to develop soft skills, networking skills, and the support and guidance of my family, friends and mentors. I believe that if I follow my plans, I can achieve my goals.