Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Personal Statement--Share Feelings

Put life into your personal statement. The last thing you want is to have it sound like a shopping list. Make it come to life by sharing how you feel.

When talking about an obstacle that you have overcome, describe what you learned from it. How did it make you a better person? Have you learned to become more accepting and/or compassionate of others? Have you gained a better understanding of yourself?

Humility is a wonderful character trait, but try, without sounding like a braggart, to write about yourself in a positive way. I know that it is a fine line, but you are trying to convince the reader of your personal statement that you are deserving of the scholarship or award. Organizations want to give money to winners. They want to help students who are going to make a difference in the world or even in their community.

Keep working on that personal statement until you feel you have it right. Then let someone, whose judgement you trust, read it and listen to the feedback. When you feel that it is perfect, let me take a look at it. For those of you who are not my students, ask a counselor or an English teacher to review it.

A good personal statement takes a lot of thought and lots of editing. Soooo, keep writing and rewriting because that is the most important part of your scholarship application.

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