Category: JustJobs Scholarship

[W]e are proud to announce the seven finalists for the 2016 JustJobs Scholarship award, which include a future speech-language pathologist, game designer, neuroscientist, film director, political economist and engineer.  We received thousands of exceptional applications, but we feel that these candidates showed the best combination of passion, integrity, and dedication to their chosen fields of study.

Now we need your help in choosing the one scholarship award winner!  The final selection process will involve three different factors:

1.   outside voting (Facebook ‘Like’ and other social media options on the left side of the essays)
2.   comments left by visitors
3.   the JustJobs Scholarship committee’s scoring of the student’s application and essay

The one winner will be announced on Friday, July 15th.  Please help us with our selection by voting for your favorite essay (Facebook ‘Like’ and other social media sharing options on the left side of the essays) and by leaving comments or clicking the ‘star’ icon above the comments section.

Jendayi Johnson, Communication Sciences and Disorders

In the Ancient Egyptian text, Maxims of Ptahhotep, speech is cited as being so powerful that it is “mightier than all fighting.” In this case, I am not referring to speech as a weapon in a literal sense. Instead, my desire to study speech-language pathology is driven by my belief that all individuals should have the opportunity to utilize speech to provide them with a sense of self-agency and to preserve their native language as an essential part of their culture

Preston Lingle, Games and Game Design

How did I choose my major? Simple. The Last of Us. The Last of Us in just its first few hours of play showcased what you could do with a video game as a storytelling medium, integrating aspects of film and gameplay to tell a passionate story, ultimately, of the love between a father and daughter. Despite our two protagonists not being related. It has the players not only experience the development of character not just through cut-scenes but also displays character through subtle lines through gameplay.

Jacob Huls, Neuroscience

I came to my major through a long route of thought and interest. In middle school, I read a book about philosophy, which discussed the relationship between the brain and the mind. Oddly enough to me, the book discussed the mind and the brain as two different things, one immaterial and the other material, and provided several arguments as to why this is the case. After reading said book, I become engrossed in the branch of philosophy called “Philosophy of Mind,” which seeks to answer philosophical questions about the mind.

Raz Tzameret, Electronic Media and Film

For two years before moving to the US, I worked eighty hours a week to pursue my dream of moving to the US and become a film director. I spent my days as a full-time member of an IT department, and three nights a week and Saturday I spent working shifts at a gas station. People called me crazy for working so much, but I knew I could do it. I was no stranger to hard work. From the age of 18 to 21, I served in the Israeli Defense Force.

Antonio Sakkis, Political Economy

Although active in the church, volunteering for the past five years, the experience of following politics has changed the way I look at most institutions. The church was no exception. I question many aspects of Christian dogma and have always used church teaching as I did politics, as a point of view and not necessarily an absolute. I’ve realized through my volunteer work that opinions on politics vary depending on social and economic conditions.

 George Nail, Engineering

It has been in my raising that I have discovered a loving relationship with math and physics and the potential applicability of its mechanisms to solve real world problems. The fascination of being able to make something the most efficient functioning component of its denomination is a topic that has developed in me and inspired me to take on engineering to solve the problems of the world.

 Nathan Rauscher, Jazz Performance

Majoring in Jazz Performance meant overcoming fear. When I began planning for college, I didn’t know what to study. Music was my passion, but the whole starving artist image terrified me. I doubted I could make it as a performer, but performing was all I wanted to do. For a while, I considered studying health care like my parents and maybe playing in a band on the side. Although I never had much enthusiasm for that idea.

I transferred to Towson University from Howard Community College in the Fall of 2015. At Howard, I first worked as a math tutor for one semester. I then campaigned and was elected Vice President of the Student Government Association for two semesters. I filed for permission to work outside of school (OPT) and worked in filming and editing with an entertainment company. After a year my OPT expired, and it was time for a new Vice President to take my place. After I had transferred to Towson, I tried to find a job on campus but with no success; and as of this moment I am not working.

I mention all of the above because I know what Just Jobs is all about. It is about the value and benefits of hard work, right? For that, I have some credentials.

For two years before moving to the US, I worked eighty hours a week to pursue my dream of moving to the US and become a film director. I spent my days as a full-time member of an IT department, and three nights a week and Saturday I spent working shifts at a gas station. People called me crazy for working so much, but I knew I could do it. I was no stranger to hard work.

From the age of 18 to 21, I served in the Israeli Defense Force. In the middle of my service, my family incurred financial problems, and the military salary was very low for new recruits. During my free weekends, I worked as an usher and as a busboy at a comedy nightclub. It was a lot of work, but I knew I could do it. I was no stranger to hard work. Before the military, I worked at the Israel-Jordan border as a “general employee”.

Being an employee with no real definition allows people to do whatever they want with you, and I found myself carrying bags of rice that fell off forklifts and sweeping marble stone parts that broke while being lifted from one truck to another. I did it all in 120 degrees. I didn’t know I could do it, but I did. The value of hard work is in the core of me as a human being: always has been, always will be.

Now I am lucky enough to be working on things that I love while pursuing my degree. Graduating with a degree will not be the end of four years in school but the culminating experience of decades of hard work that began with a dream. This dream could never have come to fruition without the values I developed doing supposedly menial things. So while I am editing, writing, directing or producing, I will do it all with the same values that I had sweeping rocks, cleaning movie theaters, and putting gas in cars.

We are proud to announce Raz Tzameret is one of the current JustJobs Scholarship finalists. Vote for his essay (Facebook ‘Like’ and other social media sharing options in left column), click the ‘heart’ just above comments section below, and/or leave comments of support to help us with the selection process.

In the Ancient Egyptian text, Maxims of Ptahhotep, speech is cited as being so powerful that it is “mightier than all fighting.” In this case, I am not referring to speech as a weapon in a literal sense. Instead, my desire to study speech-language pathology is driven by my belief that all individuals should have the opportunity to utilize speech to provide them with a sense of self-agency and to preserve their native language as an essential part of their cultures.

I first desired to become a speech-language pathologist after my grandmother suffered a stroke that limited her ability to speak. The doctor cautioned that her inability to speak or swallow could be permanent. After many months of one-on-one sessions with her speech pathologist, however, my grandmother was able to produce several words and phrases. Eventually, the speech-language pathologist was able to get my grandmother to create whole sentences.

Although my grandmother’s ability to speak is still marginal, it was impressive to see a professional use her degree to help someone who had lost such a fundamental skill regain her speech capabilities. Seeing the speech-language pathologist work with my grandmother was my first encounter with this career path, and her efforts greatly influenced me to search further for ways I could combine my passion for language and inclination to help others.

Throughout my college career, I suffered from anxiety that stemmed from the belief that I wasn’t good enough to handle the demands of college. When I was accepted into college, I was told that I only got in because I was Black. Even after getting into college, a lot of classmates would post on social media, such as Yik Yak, or comment on articles in the school newspaper discrediting the achievements of Black students at my university.

I will be the first person in my family to receive a master’s degree. It is important to me, as my parents did not have the same opportunities that I did to attend college. Receiving my degree will allow me to prove everyone that thought that I didn’t have the ability to succeed wrong. More importantly, it would be the first step of many towards achieving my goal of fortifying my clients’ abilities to communicate their thoughts, opinions, and desires and continuing on the trajectory that other Black scholars who came before me created.

We are proud to announce Jendayi Johnson is one of the current JustJobs Scholarship finalists. Vote for her essay (Facebook ‘Like’ and other social media sharing options in left column), click the ‘heart’ just above comments section below, and/or leave comments of support to help us with the selection process.

The world, throughout centuries, decades, and even the last couple of years has accumulated quite a bit of problems that range anywhere from global health to climate change. It has been in my raising that I have also discovered a loving relationship with math and physics and the potential applicability of its mechanisms to solve real world problems. The fascination of being able to make something the most efficient functioning component of its denomination is a topic that has developed in me and inspired me to take on engineering to solve the problems of the world.

Due to the dynamic scope of mechanical engineering and its primary relation to physics regarding movement and energy transfer is the reason why I have chosen it to be my major of choice. I can see myself working in a variety of fields including aerospace engineering, biomedical engineering, or energy generation and distribution. I link these topics to problems that involve millions, if not billions, of people around the world, and I want to dedicate my life serving to better the lives of those people in as many ways that I can.

To empower my selected major, I have decided to pursue a minor in Earth and Planetary Sciences because it stresses the importance of geology, climatology, as well as space exploration and Mars evolution. I believe that these concepts may play critical roles in my future career as a mechanical engineer in that they provide slight specialization in my field that sets me apart from the rest and also emphasizes my passions of safeguarding not only the sustainability of human prosperity but also the existence of a fertile, sustainable and equally prosperous environment.

In addition to my major and minor of choice, I also seek the fortune of one day being able to not only be innovative but also to be an advocate to promote positive global policies in order to initiate human social change, as this is the second half in solving every global problem. To do this, I have joined a number of groups including American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Association of Energy Engineers, Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity, and more significantly, International Business Students Global. I hope to master working in large groups to initiate and drive philanthropic, political, and scientific change that impacts both my local community and the global one.

Pursuing a degree in engineering comes with stereotypes of stark anti-social tendencies and the inability to be interdisciplinary as well as strict time management. Despite these patterns in my major, I know that I can finish my degree with the hard work, determination, and motives of changing the world that I have possessed throughout my life. For me, obtaining my degree will mark the beginning of solving the world’s problems to the best of my ability through policy and innovation. Ultimately, people see engineering as being about systems and things, but it is all about people.

We are proud to announce George Nail is one of the current JustJobs Scholarship finalists. Vote for his essay (Facebook ‘Like’ and other social media sharing options in left column), click the ‘heart’ just above comments section below, and/or leave comments of support to help us with the selection process.

How did I choose my major? Simple. The Last of Us. The Last of Us in just its first few hours of play showcased what you could do with a video game as a storytelling medium, integrating aspects of film and gameplay to tell a passionate story, ultimately, of the love between a father and daughter. Despite our two protagonists not being related. It has the players not only experience the development of character not just through cut-scenes but also displays character through subtle lines through gameplay.
Watch his full video essay below:

We are proud to announce Preston Lingle is one of the current JustJobs Scholarship finalists. Vote for his essay (Facebook ‘Like’ and other social media sharing options in left column), click the ‘heart’ just above comments section below, and/or leave comments of support to help us with the selection process.

In 2004, I travelled by car with my family to Washington DC on vacation. To pass the time, my father devised a game. He would ask a question related to history, government or politics. The first answer was free. After that, my sister and I would win a dollar for every right answer we could repeat and would lose twenty-five cents for every wrong answer. How many members in the house of representatives? What are the three branches of government? Who’s the Secretary of Defense?

It wasn’t much, but when we got to the capital, I had a few dollars in my pocket and a basic understanding of the framework of government. Since then, I’ve travelled to Europe and have been around the United States. Through that initial experience, travel has always been a chance to learn, not just to go on vacation.

Fast forward to today: I’ve been active in my church. I volunteer to lead youth groups and conduct seminars on the stresses of being a teenager. The cliche that I volunteer because I want to give back to the community is true; it’s also true that I get a lot out of it. I get a chance to learn about other people, and I get to learn about myself and my commitments.

Although active in the church, volunteering for the past five years, the experience of following politics has changed the way I look at most institutions. The church was no exception. I question many aspects of Christian dogma and have always used church teaching as I did politics, as a point of view and not necessarily an absolute. I’ve realized through my volunteer work that opinions on politics vary depending on social and economic conditions. Worded differently, politics and economics are interdependent.

Never was I more confronted with this fact than two summers ago. Through my volunteer work, I had a chance to attend the World Youth Conference in Brazil. Again, through my early experiences, I saw the trip as a chance to learn about a culture, and to challenge myself with understanding a different point of view. It was during the protests of the Vatican, the World Cup, and Olympics.

My trip, important to me, was not simply a vacation. As it had been when I went to Washington, I was challenged on my opinions. Did I understand the politics that related to the people in Rio? Did I know what the president had in mind when she embraced these prestigious events? As I had done years earlier, I found myself in Rio with a better framework for the workings of Brazil – and of the world in general.

I plan to earn a degree in Political Economy, and to use the framework created during my leisure time, but cultivated from a lifelong interest in government, social situations and business.

We are proud to announce Antonio Sakkis is one of the current JustJobs Scholarship finalists. Vote for his essay (Facebook ‘Like’ and other social media sharing options in left column), click the ‘heart’ just above comments section below, and/or leave comments of support to help us with the selection process.

I came to my major through a long route of thought and interest. In middle school, I read a book about philosophy that discussed the relationship between the brain and the mind. Oddly enough to me, the book discussed the mind and the brain as two different things, one immaterial and the other material, and provided several arguments as to why this is the case.

After reading said book, I became engrossed in the branch of philosophy called “Philosophy of Mind,” which seeks to answer philosophical questions about the mind. One of them is whether or not the mind is identical with the brain, the same discussion as the book above, and the highest point of academic interest for me.

Once I took Human Anatomy and Physiology in high school, I learned about the complexity and amazing capacity of the human brain. The complexity fascinated me and made me wonder whether or not one could determine if the brain is identical with the mind by studying the brain itself. Thus, I chose my major to be Neuroscience (while minoring in philosophy) in order to answer this question for myself, while also having the goal of working in research in neuroscience while being a philosophy professor.

There have been many obstacles I’ve had to overcome just in my first year of college. I was never a great writer, but through much work and spending a lot of time in the Writing Center at my university I have significantly improved my writing skills, and even obtained and ‘A’ in my first year writing course.

Likewise, I have had to improve my people skills. This was difficult for me since I was home schooled most of my college career. My first semester of college, however, I joined the Philosophy Club at IUPUI and began to make many good friends here. Likewise, I even began to network and talk with employers and got a job as a graphic designer working for the community foundation of my home county (Washington County).

Overcoming these obstacles and the others that will come my way means a great deal to me. I will be one of the few members of my family to achieve a bachelor’s degree, and the absolute first member of my family to earn a degree in science. Obtaining my degree will also help me to find the answers I desire on my search of the truth of the matter about the brain and the mind. As is most important for any given person or major, however, graduating with this degree will help me become a fully functional and important part of the society in which we live.

We are proud to announce Jacob Huls is one of the current JustJobs Scholarship finalists. Vote for his essay (Facebook ‘Like’ and other social media sharing options in left column), click the ‘heart’ just above comments section below, and/or leave comments of support to help us with the selection process.

We are proud to announce that Katie Vittal, a nutrition student at Benedictine University, has won our 2015 JustJobs Scholarship award.

Katie’s essay was inspirational and energizing. Fascinated by health and fitness as a little girl, she began to understand the importance of nutrition while growing up. She “spent years reading about nutrition and developing a love for the art of eating well”, which eventually inspired her to become a dietitian. Though “being a 30 year old student is a far cry from being a 21 year old one”, she has “managed to pay the bills, buy my books, and keep my grades up all at the same time.” With one year left to graduate, she feels proud of how far she has come and plans to “approach the next chapter of my life with the passion and enthusiasm with which I have always approached everything and like an 8 year old working out to ‘Body by Jake’ before school, I will love every minute of it!”

Katie’s intelligence, passion, and obvious drive will no doubt allow her success in his chosen career as a Dietitian.

The six finalists – Katie Vittal, Taylor Green, Morgan Kleissler, John Kim, Jordan Bendler and Brit’ney McTush – were selected from thousands of other applicants for their dedication to learning, desire to make a positive impact on the world, and how their incredible stories have helped mold their future career paths. Choosing one winner was an incredibly difficult decision considering the exceptional student applicants and quality of their essays.

We want to thank our site visitors and all who voted to help us select a winner. The support shown through positive comments left for these students affirms both their career paths and the wonderful impact they already have on the lives of others.

To apply for the next JustJobs Scholarship, visit the scholarship page and check if your school has registered for the program.

[W]e are proud to announce the six finalists for the 2015 JustJobs Scholarship award, which include engineers, educators, business professionals and dietitians.  We received thousands of exceptional applications, but we feel that these candidates showed the best combination of passion, integrity, and dedication to their chosen fields of study.

Now we need your help in choosing the one scholarship award winner!  The final selection process will involve three different factors:

1.   outside voting (Facebook ‘Like’ and other social media options on the left side of the essays)
2.   comments left by visitors
3.   the JustJobs Scholarship committee’s scoring of the student’s application and essay

The one winner will be announced on Tuesday June 30th.  Please help us with our selection by voting for your favorite essay (Facebook ‘Like’ and other social media sharing options on the left side of the essays) and by leaving comments or clicking the ‘star’ icon above the comments section.

Jordan Bendler, Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland

As a child, I was always taking things apart to see how they worked. If my parents gave me something that moved or had a battery, odds are I would end up taking it apart within a month. If I wasn’t taking something apart, I was watching a documentary about how things were put together. As I made my way to the end of my middle school days, I started building model houses out of cardboard boxes and just about anything else I could find around the house. It was a small hobby to start, but soon I started putting a lot of detail and design into the houses. I knew then that I loved building and problem solving.

Taylor Green, Technology and Innovation and Education, Harvard University

Choosing the Technology, Innovation, and Education (T.I.E.) program felt like a great fit for my desire to educate and my experience working in a technology company that is craving for diversity and qualified individuals. I have recognized that technology is not the solution to all of the world’s problems as it relates to education, but the innovation of education has technology at its core.

John Kim, Business, Northwestern University

Having experience working in emergency medical services and a regional public health department, I was exposed to various deficiencies within the healthcare system. In addition, my mother’s failing kidneys and her sitting behind a near endless stream of other eagerly waiting renal failure patients allowed me to observe, firsthand, a problem with the core belief of American healthcare—that is, people are convinced that they need to fight death.

Morgan Kleissler, Industrial Engineering, Iowa State University

My parents have been pushing me toward the engineering field since I was a child. They sent me to summer engineering camps, signed me up for youth engineering courses, and even coaxed me into taking an engineering design course in high school. I always pushed back. I had no interest in pursuing a field so dominated by men. It wasn’t until college, however, that I realized why they pushed me. Not only did engineering fit my proud-to-be-nerdy personality but by pursuing a field so untouched by other women, I have a great opportunity to show myself and other people that everyone can be intellectually competitive.

Brit’ney McTush, Integrated Marketing Communications, Northwestern University

I came to battle the consequential scars as I was under the spotlight to be a student leader while working hard to become the first in my family to graduate from college. As I’ve matured, I have grown conscious of the media and its tainted messages, which continue to hurt the self-worth of little girls and women of every aesthetic. We’re constantly held and compared to unrealistic expectations and images. This reality can be especially felt among women of color who are underrepresented in media and underserved in cosmetic products.

Katie Vittal, Nutrition, Benedictine University

Ever since I was a little girl, I have been fascinated with health and fitness. At the tender age of eight, one of my greatest pleasures was waking up early before school and working out with the fitness shows on television. Yes, I was a strange child, but a passionate one. As I grew older, I learned that nutrition is the foundation of our health. We must build a strong foundation if we want our bodies to be sturdy and strong. I have spent years reading about nutrition and developing a love for the art of eating well.

[R]ecently, I read the “About the Author” section that I wrote in 2nd grade. I wrote, “Taylor wants to be a teacher when she grows up.” I never saw myself as choosing the education path, but I always seemed to run back into it.

I entered college as an undergrad with intentions of being a Dentist. I heard I had a nice smile, and that it only made sense that with my intelligence and teeth, I should be a dentist. Within the first semester, I changed my major. I had to be honest with myself and realize that I wasn’t making competitive grades needed to enter dental school. While tough, I pursued a great alternative: high school science teacher.

After graduation, I worked for a couple of years on a Computer Science Education initiative, building CS First at Google. I had two major challenges with working in the technology sector. The first challenge was learning how to code. Without a computer science background, I felt very inexperienced. There is this immediate frustration with the code not being “perfect” or not working the way it is intended. This experience led to my second obstacle: myself.

Imposter syndrome ran through my veins like it belonged there. I spent many weeks challenging myself to feel qualified and valued. I second guessed my ideas in a room full of assured voices. I found solace in my manager who, like me, understood the stress and impact of imposter syndrome. She dared me to think differently about my work and myself.

Choosing the Technology, Innovation, and Education (T.I.E.) program felt like a great fit for my desire to educate and my experience working in a technology company that is craving for diversity and qualified individuals. I have recognized that technology is not the solution to all of the world’s problems as it relates to education, but the innovation of education has technology at its core.

At the completion of my graduate school experience, I want to understand what aspects of any technology tool or educational curriculum are best for all learners, whether they are urban, rural, suburban, Latino, hearing impaired, etc.

My future continues to be on a quest to educate – understanding that educating is not restricted to a classroom. When I graduate with my Masters next spring, I will have obtained a key to one of the many locks of advancing individuals in their pursuit of education. For anyone who identifies with me, I will have personally challenged the status quo – pursuing a graduate degree amidst the pressures and expectations that society puts on me and those very feelings that I put on myself.

We are proud to announce Taylor Green is one of the current JustJobs Scholarship finalists. Vote for her essay (Facebook ‘Like’ and other social media sharing options in left column), click the ‘star’ just above comments section below, and/or leave comments of support to help us with the selection process.