One of a Kind Program by Lindsey

One of a Kind Program by Lindsey - November 2015 Scholarship Essay

There are so many aspects of my education that I am thankful for. I have been privileged with all of the opportunities that have come my way. While it is very difficult to choose one thing that I am most grateful for in my education, there is definitely one thing that stands out above all the rest. At my school, we have something known as the twenty-first century programs. These different programs have specialized courses that are meant to give you an edge in your future career goals. I was very lucky in that fact that I was accepted into, as not everyone who applied was, the Geoscience program.
The Geoscience program has given me so many opportunities that I never even imagined I would be able to have. It has given me the chance to attend classes that most schools do not have and would never dream of having. I have been able to take a course about oceanography, in which we learned how and why it is used in our world today. I also was able to take a marine biology class, where I was able to dissect various kinds of sea life, such as a squid, a starfish, and even a shark. The program also has a course in which you are able to learn how to care for marine life, as it has many tanks with marine life ranging from sea stars, to guppies, to pufferfish, to clownfish, to a shark, to ever horseshoe crabs.
Yet another opportunity that the Geoscience program has given me was the ability to go on a ten day long summer trip to Yellowstone national park. I had wanted to go to Yellowstone all of my life, but was never given the chance to. While I did have to raise enough money to go on the trip, it was well worth it. When we were at Yellowstone, we were given the authorization to run tests on the water and soil in order to gain fieldwork experience. When we were there, we kept very detailed lab notebooks of all of our finds, and we later compiled all of the data into different graphs. While we were there, we were also able to talk to some park rangers, climb a mountain, and see various forms of wildlife, such as bears, bison, and wolves.
I know that my entire high school experience would have been much different if I had not been accepted into this wonderful program. The opportunities it has given me are remarkable and have definitely changed my life for the better. I cannot imagine what my life would be like now without the Geoscience program, as it has been such a huge part of my life since day one of high school. There is absolutely no question about it that this is the aspect of my education that I am most thankful for.