My name is Michaella Achille, and I am a Junior majoring in Accounting at Florida Gulf Coast University. I am a recent transfer student from Florida SouthWestern State College (FSW) with my Associate's degree with High Honors and a 4.0 overall GPA. Prior to coming to the United States from the beautiful by nature Turks and Caicos Islands, I graduated from my high school, Clement Howell High School, as the valedictorian of the Class of 2021. During my time at FSW, I was involved in various student leader positions. I became one of the first certified Leadership Coach with their Student Leadership Academy, served as a Peer Mentor for first-year students, and also was the Student Government Association President for the 2023-2024 Academic year. I also had the opportunity to serve at the state level as the Florida College System Student Government Association (FCSSGA) Region 4 Coordinator. In my role as Region 4 Coordinator, I oversaw the Student Government Associations of Miami Dade College, Broward College, Palm Beach State College, College of the Florida Keys, and my alma mater, Florida SouthWestern State College, and served as a liaison between them and the State Executive Board of FCSSGA. I also served as a student representative on the Budget Committee at FSW, which decided how the Student Activities Fees would be used for the upcoming years. Another committee I served on was the Student Governance Committee, which was an opportunity for students, faculty, and staff to come together and brainstorm ideas and plans to benefit the student population. I was also a part of the Honors Scholars Program at FSW and the Phi Theta Kappa Honors Society. During my time at FSW, I also had the opportunity to participate in research both as a Research Assistant and as a researcher. I researched and presented under the topic "Fostering Continuity During Transitions of Leadership of Registered Student Organizations at Florida SouthWestern State College’s Main Campus," for which I won a first-place award in the Education category for my college's Honor Program. I also presented at a FCSSGA leadership conference under the topic "Leaving A Legacy: Effective Transitional Leadership Practices." Throughout my journey, I was also recognized with various awards, including the FCSSGA Region 4 Leadership Award, the FSW President Leadership Excellence Award, and the FSW SGA Senator of the Year Award. I also remained on the dean's list for all four semesters at FSW. Recently, I transferred to FGCU, which is a four-year university. Although it is a state university, it is more expensive than when I attended FSW. This has put a significant financial strain on both me and my parents. The most significant cost has been paying for transportation to get to and from school. Because of this, I have to find work on campus since I am an international student, which is a struggle since there are only a few positions available. Receiving this scholarship will help me to alleviate the financial burden on my family and me and will give me more time to pursue leadership opportunities. Thank you in advance for your consideration and reach out to me if there are any questions.

Malcolm X once said, " Education is the passport to the future, for the future belongs to those who prepare for it today." Coincidently enough, this happened to be the caption that I used for my first day of senior high school pictures when I posted them on Facebook in 2019. That was the year that truly changed my perspective on education. My name is Michaella Achille, and I am a Junior majoring in Accounting at Florida Gulf Coast University. I was born in Haiti and grew up in the beautiful by nature Turks and Caicos Islands before moving to the United States to pursue my post-secondary education. I am a dedicated student leader who is determined to use my education to impact the different communities that I am a part of. Throughout this essay, I will be giving you some insight into three different eras of my educational journey: senior high school, community college, and university. During most of my high school journey, I was considered the smart kid who did everything. I would participate in academic competitions and debates, assist teachers with special projects, and all while maintaining excellent grades. I would get ridiculed and was often asked, "What is the point of doing all of this?" I lived on a small island where your success was measured by who you know or who your family is, which put me at the bottom of the list as the child of immigrants. And honestly speaking, at that time, even I didn't understand how important education was at that moment. Nonetheless, looking back now, I know that each experience I signed up for gave me skills and knowledge that will make me an unshakeable force in the working world. Debate improved my communication and critical thinking skills, special projects assigned by teachers helped me gain problem-solving and teamwork skills, and an internship with the Police Force showed me that a high school diploma would not be enough for me to accomplish what I wanted to do with my life. Community college was probably the most intense two years of my life. I had to adapt to a new culture and a new education system and find opportunities that made me stand out as an international student, all while maintaining the same level of academic excellence I was used to. My drive to succeed pushed me to make my mark by serving as a Peer Mentor for first-year students as well as participating in the Student Government Association and eventually becoming Student Government President for my institution and serving the community college students at the state level as the Region 4 Coordinator for the Florida College System Student Government Association (See LinkedIn for more details) to name a few. All of which wouldn't be possible without my high school education. Although I have only just started my journey at my new university, I can proudly say that I have learned a lot. I have learned the importance of having a degree in this economy as more and more jobs are now requiring it. I am also learning about all of the different ways I can be successful and positively impact my community with my accounting degree. Throughout all of these different journeys, I have learned that education is all about growth. It is about learning new things and becoming a better person with each passing day. I am excited to see all the places that my hard-earned education will take me.

One of the biggest problems I have overcome is getting to college. Neither of my parents nor anyone else ever went to college so I didn't have anyone to ask questions or to get advice from. I had to spend some time researching different schools as well as different majors to figure out which ones fit me best. I had to consider how much would my parents be able to afford, how far away from home it was, and where I would live as I completed my degree. At first glance, I know these things seem normal and easy to figure out but keep in mind I had to think about all of that and more while simultaneously figuring out my immigration requirements as an international student. After some stress, tears, and informative TikTok videos, I was able to get through it successfully and now I can proudly say that I am only 2 years away from graduation. In the end, I chose to move to Fort Myers, Florida, and live. with my aunt as I completed my studies. I know, however, that many students even domestic ones, don't have the luxury of a family member living near a college or university. If I win this scholarship, it would take a financial burden off of me which means I don't have to work as much and I can use my free time to volunteer and serve my community by mentoring the youth. I want to become the person I wish I had when I was applying to college and figuring out college life. I plan to participate in my school's alternative break program where students have the opportunity to serve other communities during their winter or spring break. One of this year's focuses is Education and Youth Development which allows me to gain important skills to serve my community in the way I know best. If I had the opportunity to promote Philately to young people, I would market the postage stamps as collector items. By using similar concepts to a popular game, Pokemon Go, students will be motivated to collect rare postage stamps. If they want to collect the postage card, they would have to learn about the different stamps and their history. If you needed to reach another audience, I would suggest finding an incentive, like bragging rights when it comes to Pokemon Go or money, etc. to encourage students to participate.

The United States is a world-renowned educational destination and is appealing to many prospective international students because of its diverse degree offerings and the wide range of institutions to choose from. Students like me travel near and far to at least get a taste of American college life, and in many countries, you are more likely to get higher-paying jobs if you study in the US. However, with every advantageous opportunity comes disadvantages. I have found myself struggling to pay for college, and even struggling to meet everyone else’s expectations of me. However, scholarships like this one, lift at least some of the burden off my shoulder and make it easier for me to focus on my studies. Coming to the U.S, I knew my education would be expensive. However, I didn’t know it would be this hard to find ways to pay for college. My college does not offer financial aid for international students, including scholarships. However, I was lucky enough to be selected to be an Honor student, so I get a little bit of money off of my tuition each semester. Regardless, out-of-state tuition is significantly expensive, and it often feels like every scholarship I find is only open to US citizens and residents. have my back 100% and will make the necessary sacrifices to ensure I get a college education. Money aside, I also struggle with trying to meet everyone else’s expectations. Being the one who “got out” has its implications. You are expected to be the most perfect person on earth, and these expectations can get so annoying, especially when you start having them for yourself. If you ask any Caribbean parent, specifically a Haitian parent, what they want their kids to become when they grow up, you’ll probably hear things such as a doctor, engineer, or lawyer. If it’s not clear by now, I don’t plan to be any of those. I want to work in the Finance field, and because I didn’t succumb to my parent's wishes, coupled with the fact that I am the first child, I am expected to be the person people write business news articles about, the one my university boasts about and the one with over a million job offers upon the completion of my degree. Normally others’ expectations of me don’t really phase me, but when it comes to my future, I already have the highest expectations of myself, and the ones others have about me only make it worse. Thus, there is no doubt that things such as figuring out what school I want to transfer to, what I have to do to be able to get internships in my field, the whole process of getting OPT, an H1B visa, and maintaining my current visa status stress me out more than anyone can imagine. Nonetheless, scholarships like this one, are always a light in a dark tunnel for international students like me. It gives me ease of mind knowing that there is one less thing to worry about. If I were to win this scholarship, it would give me time to actually enjoy college and create meaningful relationships with others that may help me in the future. It will give me an opportunity to focus more on my studies and give me a fighting chance to maintain my 4.0 G.P.A so that I can be eligible for opportunities when I transfer to a 4-year institution. Thank you for taking the time to read my essay, and I hope that this essay convinced you to choose me as the recipient of your scholarship.

I grew up in the Turks and Caicos Islands but was born in Haiti. Although this is not where I was born, I consider T.C.I my home country. I am an aspiring Financial Analyst, and I am currently pursuing an Associate in Arts degree in General Studies at Florida Southwestern State College with hopes of transferring to a four-year institution in Florida to pursue a Bachelor's degree in Finance. My community is not as financially literate as it should be. Unless the person went to college for finance or accounting or worked at or with a financial institution, it was rare that they had adequate information about the financial world. I rarely met anyone who had important information about how money worked. There are barely any initiatives that teach kids or teenagers about being financially responsible. I plan to change that. When I am done with my Bachelor's degree and have a stable job, I plan to do several things. I want to create Finance Clubs in all of the public schools. I also want to host and fund competitions that will allow students to test their financial literacy. For the adults, I want to host conferences and a radio show to educate the broader community about what they are doing wrong financially and how they can fix it. I would start by first establishing finance clubs in the public schools. I never had an opportunity to join a finance club in high school, and I believe that if there were one, it would have been easier for me to figure out I had an interest in finance. I will start with my alma mater Clement Howell High School, and then branch out to the other public schools, and eventually, when they are stable, I will try to expand into the private schools. The finance clubs that I aspire to establish will host weekly meetings where we will participate in activities that will teach the students financial principles that will help them to remain financially stable when they are older. The next initiative will be the competitions, which will be a continuation of the clubs. I hope to host this initiative yearly, and it will test the understanding of the financial principles taught to the students. It will consist of questions about financial principles followed by various simulated situations where the students will have to provide a solution to the financial crisis they get. This will help them put what they learned into practice while providing an opportunity for all of the finance clubs to socialize. This initiative is one that I plan to hopefully fund myself with the help of sponsors within the community. This final initiative will be the conferences and radio shows. I will invite finance professionals to talk to the people of my community and answer their finance-related questions. This will allow the community to access financial information from the experts they wouldn't otherwise have access to. This will give them the necessary information to make wiser financial decisions. All of these things will help me to make a positive impact on my home country. If all goes well, I can expand these initiatives into my birth country, Haiti. If won, this scholarship will aid me in completing my education and start the journey to fulfill my plans.

I would use it to save the world but not in the way that you think. I would use it to lift the weight of tuition off of my parents. While you may have gotten this response about 1753 times already this is the truth. My parents have sacrificed everything for me to be able to get a good education. Lifting this burden even just a little off their shoulders is the least I can do. Since I was three years old my parents have been working non-stop to pay for my private school in the early years of my life, buy books, pay for transportation, and much more. Anything that I needed or wanted I would receive. Whether it was a 50 cent pencil or my tuition of 1,500 US dollars for that semester. The also encouraged me to do my best in the many extracurricular activities I participated in. I could always count on my parents no matter what. They were my superheroes. After many sleepless nights and stress filled mind I was able to become the first person in my family to attend college. $1000 would greatly help because it would play a part in ensuring that my younger siblings would be able to attend college as well. I aspire to become a Financial Analyst and hope that someday I can finally repay my parents for all of their hard work. My family is truly my world and saving them the best I can is my goal.

My name is Michaella Achille. I am a 17 years old first-generation college student and I aspire to be a Financial Analyst. I plan to attend Florida Southwestern State College in May 2022 (Summer Term) as an International Student to obtain my Associate’s Degree in General Studies/Liberal Arts and then transfer my credits to Florida International University where I complete my Bachelor’s Degree in Finance. I plan to graduate college as Valedictorian of my class or at least within the top 5% with Honors. As the dedicated student that I am, I will also aim to receive an above-average score on the C.P.A exam along with the C.F.A exam. I have always been interested in numbers and had always hoped to find my passion in a career field where I could deal with numbers. I graduated top of my class as Valedictorian of the Clement Howell High School in 2021 with Distinction and I obtained the overall highest score in Mathematics and Principles of Accounts at the school. My love for Mathematics and numbers first appeared when I got the highest Mathematics score in my country of residence (Turks and Caicos Islands) for the Grade Six Achievement Test which is the high school entrance test. I then began to grow a love for Accounting when I was introduced to it in high school. Although I found accounting a bit more difficult than Math I managed to push through and get the highest score in this subject as well. When my friends, family, and teachers noticed my level of skill and love for these subjects they recommended me to research jobs in Finance, Accounting, and Math. However, there are not many jobs available for students who pursue a degree in Mathematics so I focused on the other two. Then my love for jobs in finance began. Through research and asking questions, I began to understand and grow an appreciation for Finance. Although Finance isn't usually seen as a field that helps others but rather is seen as a field that exploits people I believe that it can indeed make a positive impact on the world. My family and community by extension are not as financially literate as they should be and I believe that pursuing a degree in Finance would not only land me an amazing job in a field I love but also provide me with mental resources as well as financial resources that will help me to teach the current and future generations in my community through seminars, radio shows, brochures, clubs in schools and many other ways. I will also try my best to fully fund these initiatives myself. I believe by doing this and broadcasting it on various social media sites, I will be able to inspire other to do the same. That little unusual act of kindness can make the world a more survivable place. If awarded this scholarship it would greatly help to reduce the financial strain on my parents who are committed to ensuring that I and my siblings have a good education no matter the cost.

"The world is your oyster". Hearing this phrase from my parents as a child gave me a lot of misconceptions about the world. This lead me to think that the world was just as small as an oyster although it wasn't the intended meaning. I believed that the world only consisted of my birth country Haiti and my country of residence the Turks and Caicos Islands. Who could blame me? At the age of 3 that was all I knew. It was also at this age I was entered into the education system. From the very first day, my eyes lit up with excitement as I embarked on this new adventure. Eager to absorb everything that was presented to me I began to learn about letters and how they came together to create words. Not to mention when numbers came into play. You can imagine how astonished I was when at the age of 7 I learned that 11 was a number. You see I was only taught how to count up to 10 at that point and I figured that 10 was the highest number. I even had this idea that ages stopped at 10 and after 10 you turned into a young adult and then when you got a bit older you'd be an adult. If you think that was surprising just imagine my dumbfounded expression in 6th grade when I learned that not only was there more than one country but 195 of them. My jaw dropped right on the ground when my teacher at the time dropped this bomb of a fact on me. After reading to this point you may think that I was a little slow as a child, however, this was not the case. I always excelled academically and even graduated as valedictorian twice. The reason why these little undeniably obvious things were so unreal to me was that thanks to the educational system, my intellectual state was constantly progressing. It was through this educational system that I learned about different cultures and backgrounds, about different ethnicities, about different conditions of living, and how not everyone was like me. English taught me that there were different tones of speaking which help to give other people an idea of what you mean or how you are feeling when you say different things. Mathematics taught me that with everything you learn there is always a step further or a more advanced concept based on the basic understanding that you have. History taught me that everything happens for a reason and that you should always learn about what happened before so that you don't end up making the same mistakes your ancestors made. Geography and Social Studies taught me about the different continents, regions, countries, and islands that make up the world along with all of the natural resources this world is consisted of. Spanish and French taught me that not everyone speaks English and we should learn other languages so that it is easier to communicate with other people. I can go on and on but I do have a word limit to work with. Education is a tool that is beneficial to all and that should be available to all. No matter who you are, education gives us insight into how to understand each other and the world at large. For a long time, I thought that the world revolved around me and only consisted of what I knew at the time. However, through education, I now see that the world is much bigger than me and I have a lot more to learn.

The short answer is I don't. I am barely sure about what I want to do with my life. I am burdened by the pressure of trying to be the best at everything when in reality l'm not. I don't work to the best of my ability and I only do the bare minimum. I may be a smart person but to what avail. I don't know my purpose, Actually I have both. Academically I just want to do good. I am a perfectionist however so not really sure how that would work. Career-wise, I just want to be rich. I want to be able to buy whatever it is that l want but with little to no work involved. Winning the lottery would be nice I guess. I also struggle with commitment so a stable job wouldn't be optimal. My room was ridiculously dirty. I don't even think you could imagine how bad it was. Guess what I did? I fixed my bed and pushed everything else into the closet for me to deal with later. I felt so accomplished afterward. At that moment it felt like the best thing I could have ever done.

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