Status: Tags: Links: Potential Scholarships
RRCF Scholarship
Requirements
- A covering letter that must include verifiable personal identification including full name, current address, email, telephone number, Skype/FaceTime or What App details and a photo.
- A written statement that demonstrates the applicant’s financial need, academic achievement, integrity, ingenuity, innovation, compassion, commitment, demonstrated community service, society needs and good character. To demonstrate that they meet these criteria, applicants must provide a document of approximately 1000 words, addressing:
- The applicant’s education education, hobbies, interests and community participation
- A highest level of personal progress or achievement, especially as it relates to overcoming adversity
- An outline of personal goals and how the education to be pursued will support achieving these goals, especially as it relates to lifting the applicant beyond her or his current circumstances
- Any other factors the applicant considers makes them uniquely qualified to be an awardee
- A certified copy of present academic performance (e.g. high school) to date issued by the institution(s) which the applicant has attended.
- Information considered relevant by the applicant to establish financial need.
- Confirmation of acceptance at the Institution where the applicant plans to study, including their planned program of study. Institutions must be recognized post secondary institutions or ‘prescribed university’ as identified in the Income Tax Act.
- Two references
Writing
Personal Statement (1000 Words)
To say that I could not live without technology would be an understatement; the existence of the internet and technology has been invaluable in exercising my passions and developing my character. As a result, I am fortunate enough to challenge myself and earn money from the comfort of my own home, learn through the infinite sea of knowledge online, and exercise my creative logic through programming. To pay homage to its significant influence on my upbringing, I seek to proactively work on developing my fundamentals so I can leave my own footprint in the progression of technology.
I yearn to reach peak levels of productivity, happiness, and introspection and have been spending every day seeking out ways to cultivate these aspects of my life. Whether it be through reading books for personal development, meditation, becoming engrossed in the stock market, weekly goal setting and reflection, journaling ideas, or effective time management, I’ve been able to learn more about myself every day, flourish in my current environment, work towards my utmost potential, and discover a clear direction in which I want my days and overall path in life to unfold. Empowered by such a driving force, I have been able to accomplish impressive feats that further develop my character.
First, I ran three e-commerce businesses, managing two of them entirely by myself. After over 650 transactions and maintaining a 98.9% positive rating, I learned the importance of innovation, perseverance, and customer satisfaction when running a company and started cultivating such skills to continue serving others in the future.
More importantly, I discovered my innate desire to contribute to the world; after independently learning the fundamentals of Kotlin and Android Studio from online tutorials and courses, I created an app that incentivizes productive work through user-determined rewards. Through my efforts, I hope to provide a solution for those who may feel unmotivated due to the ongoing pandemic, while expanding my technological skillset.
Second, my interest in learning has led me into taking various Advanced Placement courses offered by my high school, including non-STEM subjects like Psychology and English. Despite my workload for the past three years, I am consistently awarded “Great Distinction”: an award for students with grade averages above 95% throughout an academic year. During my time at university, I am eager to transform the countless classes and intricate concepts that await into valuable learning opportunities that refine my work ethic and teach me more about the world. By nurturing my growth mindset and committing to a lifelong journey of learning, I aim to live an intellectual and contentful life.
Finally, as a culminating final project for my Computer Science class, I independently learned coding concepts, troubleshot countless errors, and created a video to showcase a python chess program. From this experience, I learned I can exercise my creativity and logicality to produce quality solutions to relevant problems under challenging circumstances, which will undoubtedly prove to be useful in finding and implementing the ideas to solve the hidden problems residing in society. Although the app itself may not be revolutionary, it warms my heart to see that my Youtube video documenting the process has helped inspire those wanting to take on a similar project. To conclude, the ability to learn and positively impact the lives of others has added tremendous meaning in my life, and I want to transmute this energy into ideas that will pave the way to a greater society.
For my post-secondary adventures, I have secured a chance to move from Regina, my home city for the past 11 years, to explore the opportunities British Columbia has to offer at Simon Fraser University. Through my enrollment, I hope to cultivate my skills in programming through enrolling in rigorous courses and pursuing co-op opportunities. Of course, there are significant costs that accompany my future plans; my parents support my decision to further my studies and have made considerable sacrifices of time and opportunities in order for me to pursue my own dreams, but their savings are still not enough. Fortunately, being a recipient of the RRCF Scholarship will act as a catalyst towards my aspirations, allowing me to focus less on my family’s financial security and more on the resounding impact I eventually want to make in society.
After seeing the revolutionary breakthroughs in technology and science developed by companies to combat modern world problems such as waste production (Good Natured Products implementing plant-based packaging), the ongoing pandemic (Pfizer manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines for worldwide use), and the rise in mental health issues (MindMed’s testing towards using psychedelics as mental therapeutics), I’m eager to see what I can bring to the table after finishing my post-secondary adventures. I’m going to formulate innovative ideas just like the ones that serve as the foundations of the above companies. Once I come across an idea with overwhelming potential, I’ll use my talents and knowledge to build the foundation of a company that upholds my valued notion, cooperating with others who share the same passion and beliefs to make our mission a reality. By being the driving force of such a company, I hope to achieve exponential growth that exceeds my own individual capabilities through the collaboration of everyone involved and their own unique set of skills and ideas. My life will be dedicated to a life-long process of developing the relevant skills and coming up with the ideas necessary to thrive in such a crucial and stressful role. Although my time on earth is limited, my actions and ideas do not have to be, for I confidently know that my spirit will continue to live on through my life-long contribution towards innovative technology.
Financial Need
When calculating my estimated costs using SFU’s budget estimator, I’m expected to spend ~$7000 CAD for every term, which estimates to an average of $21,000 CAD for every year. It takes approximately 4-5 years to finish my chosen degree, so my entire university expense would be a minimum of $84,000 to $105,000. My parents have been saving for my RESP which has about $30,000 saved, but our household’s combined monthly net pay of ~$5000/mo prevents them from contributing more into my education than they would have hoped, seeing that most of it goes to living expenses and sending money to other family members who need it more than we do.
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