The Shortest Application with the Greatest Reward

Recently I had the opportunity to attend my fourth College of Agricultural Sciences Scholarship Banquet. Like in the past, this year’s banquet was held at the Penn Stater in a huge banquet hall filled with scholarship donors and recipients.

By my fourth year at the event, I was used to the routine. After a meet-and-greet reception, we sat down at tables with our donors for a delicious meal. I told my donor about my school work, college activities and future plans. My donor usually tells me about his or her family, experiences at Penn State, current career or other hobbies. We sit and listen to each of the deans, a student and a donor. Finally, we part our ways after one more Thank You!

I have always been tremendously grateful for the scholarships I received, but this year it struck me a little harder. Just by chance, I was given a scholarship by the same company I interned with this summer, AgChoice Farm Credit. This company also gave me a scholarship my freshman year. At this year’s scholarship banquet, I sat with my donor, a former-co-worker and friend, and we fell into easy conversation.

One question from that conversation is still stuck in my mind. He asked me, “Sarah, what percentage would you say of your tuition was covered by scholarships?” That night I told him I wasn’t sure, maybe 10 or 15%. But today, I sat down and figured it out.

Over the past four years, scholarships have covered nearly one-third of my tuition costs for my college education! This fact is completely surprised me. These scholarship donors have invested in my education, most of them without knowing anything about me.

In fact, for almost all of the scholarships I received, I didn’t know anything about them either. The College of Agricultural Sciences Scholarship Application is one of the easiest applications I’ve ever filled out. We simply plug in our GPA, major, minor, activities and awards and they match us up to the scholarships we are qualified to receive.

Those scholarships gave me more than tuition help. They gave me a great education, endless opportunities to build leadership skills in clubs and organizations, the possibility to travel abroad, several chances to network with agricultural professionals and a foot in the door in almost any agribusiness.

Now it’s time for me to make sure they spent their money wisely.