Patriot Metals Future Builders Scholarship

I love telling people about what I’m going to school for. Not to toot my own horn, but I’m not exactly the target demographic of the work field I’ve chosen. Coming from a small town in the armpit of South Carolina, I was raised in a tight-knit environment that left little room for growth. Growing up with four parents and six older sisters made home life a little chaotic, and oftentimes I’d be put on the back burner or somewhere in the background. In my junior and senior years of high school I attended a program school as an engineering major. Being there made me realize my options weren’t as limited as I thought. In my junior year I took a tour of Charleston Southern University’s campus and fell in love with the idea of attending their mechanical engineering program. I worked my butt off my whole school career to keep straight A’s but never got any third-party scholarships or grants. Going into my senior year of high school, I realized I needed to take an alternate route if I wanted to further my education. I tried to get my foot in the door with different companies looking for trainees in mechanical fields through friends of friends, but that path did not prove fruitful. I despised the idea of having to take out a loan that would put me in crushing debt for the next thirty years just to go to school, but the likelihood that I’d have to increased by the day. February came and I still had nothing. I was losing hope and felt completely discouraged. One day, I came into class and got to sit through a presentation about a trade school. This wasn’t out of the ordinary. We had done the same thing with a few different companies, so I wasn’t that invested at first. The longer the lady talked, the more I realized this school had the qualities I had been looking for. Needless to say, I applied and got into the Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics. Because the program is only sixteen months, I wouldn’t get the South Carolina L.I.F.E scholarship I had worked so hard for, and since the school originated in Pennsylvania, I couldn’t get the South Carolina Workforce grants either. Unfortunately, federal loans only pay about half of my tuition. About two months before I was originally supposed to start school, my dad approached me with the idea of putting it off for another semester. This way, I could save up enough money to pay tuition out of pocket with the help of federal aid. Thankfully, everything transferred easily. After those four excruciating months, I got to start school, and I love it. I’ve been challenged and have learned so much. Getting to work on different projects like disassembling generators or wiring landing gear makes me so excited to join the workforce. Recently, my dad passed away from lung cancer. He was always my biggest supporter and the person I went to with any question. One of the biggest things he wanted me to know is how important it is to finish what I start. He encouraged me that even though we were going through a tough season, it would pass, and life would move on. I'm determined to finish school as strong as I can. God has had his hand on my life throughout this whole process. I'm ready to go wherever He calls me. To God be the glory.