Making the Moustache by Lucas

Making the Moustache by Lucas - December 2016 Scholarship Essay

Notre Dame College Prep is a Catholic, private school in a small suburb outside of Chicago. We are a school of over 800 boys, and pride ourselves on being Gentlemen of Mary; because of this title, we have a very strict student handbook. One of the most highly enforced restrictions is that students must be clean shaven at all times. Recently, while attending a leadership conference with our school, I came upon an organization called Movember. It is a well known organization that calls for men to grow moustaches during November in order to promote awareness about prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and men's mental health. Given the significance of the campaign to an all male population, I decided that it would be a good idea to incorporate this as a fundraiser at our school. And, being the Director of Student Activities of our Leadership Council, I was in an ideal position to do so. I took this idea to our principal and was immediately shut down. He did not feel that this fundraiser would make enough money to justify the students “breaking the rules” for a whole month.
I was discouraged but felt that if I presented the idea with a fully thought out plan and a way to get almost the entire school involved, our principal would accept the idea. So I talked with our Leadership Council Moderator and our school's Director of Student Activities and worked with them to create a solid plan to present. When I met with our principal the second time, he was willing to listen and thought that the plan we had come with had high potential. He gave it the okay, and from there I had to run it through the school’s executive board, who accepted the plan after a few days of consideration.
We worked to put together a committee from the Leadership Council composed of students who were willing to help with putting up flyers, spreading the word on announcements, and collecting money and donations. We are currently in the final steps of setting up this event, and will begin the Movember participation from both students and teachers on Tuesday, November 1st. The challenges of the past few weeks have shown me that it is important to challenge ideas, even if these challenges are initially met with resistance. Would I do it again? I don’t know. Ask me at the end of November.