To whomever it may concern, I received a letter in the mail this evening informing me I have been selected to attend WYSE this year and I was extremely honored. I actually ran inside my house and jumped onto my mother begging to be allowed to attend. She started reading, only to pause midway through one page, “It’s going to cost me $2000 dollars, Dee, and we don’t have that kind of money.” I cannot begin to explain to you the amount of disappointment I was feeling. I have this amazing opportunity to go to an amazing college and to Washington DC, and yet I cannot go. My mother works in a Southern West Virginia middle school for almost no money. My father is a warehouse stocker for a parts company, making even less than my mother. The two …show more content…
of their paychecks combined barely support our family of five. We do not even have internet at my house. I work extremely hard in school to be able to attend a college, with as many scholarships in the bag that I can qualify for.
I am not looking to be a doctor, a lawyer, or really anything that pays more than $100,000 a year. I plan to become a Marine Biologist. In order to do so, I have to attend an out-of-state college, making me pay almost twice, if not three times, as much as I would should I go to an in-state college. I am going to need all the help I can get. Attending WYSE would give me a leg up on thousands of others applying for the same colleges I will be applying to. Even being asked to attend WYSE has made my entire week, possibly month. I understand I keep referring to my need to go to college, to make something of myself and that’s why I truly want to go to WYSE, but that is only half of the story. Have you ever been to Southern West Virginia? To Beckley or Charleston or, God forbid, Huntington? If you have, you’ve born witness to the conditions I live in. I am actually very fortunate, as neither of my parents, or really any of my close family, those who are still alive, are addicted to the drugs that plague my state. I see my fellow students at school high, drunk, some are even so out of it they cannot walk properly. My teachers cannot do anything to stop the drug abuse in high school students, mainly on the account that it is a pick and choose battle: either they come to school on drugs and my teachers can attempt to push them onto the right path or they can
stay home and be sent to the Juvenile Detention Center for a few months where they just get worse. Which would you choose? If I were gifted a scholarship to attend WYSE, I might be able to get it through my peers thick heads that there is a world out there, a good world. I might be able to help someone I know. Even if I cannot help, I can at least sleep at night knowing that I tried, knowing that I did not sit idly by, watching my great, beautiful state crumble to drugs. The people I attend school with have no hope. The environment is poisonous. At the very least, I would like to escape the poison, and I’d love to see a few of my peers escape it, too. If you have any further questions please contact me at 304-920-5536 or stormytrexler@gmail.com . Sincerely, Stormy Trexler
In the book Letters to My Daughters, poet Maya Angelou wrote “I am a spring leaf trembling in anticipation of full growth” (163). Anticipation is a good description of how I feel about being a thirty-six year old college freshman. Anxiety, self-doubt, and dogged determination are on my list of emotions alongside anticipation, if I were being honest I would add. Providing my children with security, find true happiness in my career, and conquer my fear of failure are just a few things that hold my hand as I take this leap into higher education. Friends and family are surprised that I have gone back to school. In January of 2015 when I applied to South Plains College, I was working for AT&T making a good living. My mother especially couldn’t
Unfortunately, my family and I fall into an area of the middle class that prohibits us from receiving need-based aid. Although I have graciously been awarded the Elizabeth Ann Seton Scholarship, without some additional form of aid, a Seton Hill education may be prohibitively expensive. My fourth year’s tuition alone would cost $37,520 with my current scholarship, and I would still have to pay for living expenses. Once my undergraduate and fifth years’ expenses are included, I will be over $150,000 in debt when I graduate. As a student who has worked exceedingly hard in the classroom and as a leader for four years, this amount of financial burden feels like a punishment. If I do not receive the Seton Scholar Award, I am not confident that I can attend Seton Hill and make the impacts I have described in this
I was upset after graduating high school right at the age of seventeen, my parents were too afraid to let me apply to big Universities far away from home. My parents knew I was clueless about life, but knew I wanted to get a college degree. My mother recommended Lone Star College to me, since she attended there when she
Since the early 1990s, the degree of students abusing controlled substances has dramatically increased; abuse of painkillers increasing by more than 300 percent, abuse of stimulants increasing to more than 90 percent, and 110 percent increase in proportion of students using marijuana daily (Califano, 2007). In the most recent years, this issue of abuse has become far too common with the rate of illicit drug use of 22 percent among full time college students between the ages of 18 and 22 (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration [SAMHSA], 2013). This percentage of substance abusers continues to dramatically increase annually.
The drug is a big problem at many colleges today, and is getting worse by time. There are more and more drugs circling in college atmospheres, where many students aren’t aware. If people learn what is happening around them, and watch out for each other, the problem should be able to be contained.
Parents today know all too well how unsafe our schools are. All you have to do is turn on the news and there seems to be a story about violence in schools and how it is drug related. One of the largest contributors to juvenile violence and delinquency is the use of drugs. If it were as easy as just taking it away, we would see more academic achievements by young adults, but it goes much further than that. The problem is much deeper than it appears at the surface, and it takes strong individuals to be willing to go into the depth required to make a difference in the situation. In the story, "A New Tradition of Courageous Dissent," by Myron Glazer and Penina Glazer, they t...
The drug control policy of the United States has always been a subject of debate. From Prohibition in the early 1930’s to the current debate over the legalization of marijuana, drugs have always been near the top of the government’s agenda. Drug use affects every part of our society. It strains our economy, our healthcare, our criminal justice systems, and it endangers the futures of young people. In order to support a public health approach to drug control, the Obama administration has committed over $10 billion to drug education programs and support for expanding access to drug treatment for addicts (Office). The United States should commit more government resources to protect against illegal use of drugs by youths and provide help for recovering addicts.
During my senior year of high school I received the Bill Gates Millennium Scholarship and was accepted into my soon to be alma mater, Howard University. In those times it was not uncommon for my grandmother to boast to the grocery store cashier, bank teller, or anyone who would listen that her granddaughter had received a full scholarship and was attending Harvard University. Each time I would smile and politely correct her by saying, “Grandmother I’m going to Howard not Harvard.” She and whomever she was talking with would simply protest that it did not matter which HU I was attending, they were proud of me regardless. From then on I vowed to continue to serve as an inspiration to the many members of my community who had never left the small town of Durham, NC yet alone received a higher education. I’ve since exceeded my own expectations of the things I would achieve in my college tenure. Traveling abroad, serving as an Americorps member, interning for my United States Senator, and joining distinguished organizations culminate a few of my successes.
Drug abuse in America is a major problem. Especially among teenagers. Drugs have hurt the lives of nearly 40 percent of all teenagers in America. Either with health problems, DWIs, highway crashes, arrests, impaired school and job performance. These drugs that teenagers use range from Alcohol, LSD, Marijuana, and even Cigarettes. Most of the teenagers that are involved in drug abuse have either, broken families, parents that are drug abusers, a unstable environment where they are constantly moving from place to place, or there parents aren't exactly making a lot of money and they are never around because they are trying to make enough money for them to survive. But even to most ordinary teenager can have a drug problem depending on there friends, and relationship with there family.
Drugs affect people in many different ways. One person can take abuse drugs, yet never become addicted, while another person has one experience and is immediately hooked to that drug. Drug addiction is defined as a dependence on an illegal drug, or medication. When you are addicted, you cannot control your drug use despite the fact that you know the consequences. The scary thing is that drug addiction can cause a major intense craving of drugs. Even though you want to stop, most people can’t do it on their own it is very difficult, and most need therapeutic help. For many people this is what is going to lead them to their death, or a long term mental/physical disability. Being addicted will also affect your relationships with friends and family as well as your employment status. Illegal drug abuse and addiction cost individual Americans upward of half a trillion dollars annually. This could be through medical, criminal, or even social expenditures. Drug use also contributes to an estimated 440,000 deaths by overdose per year. For the United States government, it costs hundreds of billions of dollars in increased health care, crime, and lost productivity. What can we do to prevent or help hopeless addicts from drug abuse and addictions? And whats our law enforcement officers doing about this situation?
By taking the necessary steps to create these prevention programs we can drastically lower the amount of people who are affected by this disease and continue to help those who are already in need. First, I argue that we can do this by expanding and improving drug education in the public education system. One of the most widespread drug education programs for grade level schools, Drug Abuse Resistance Education, known as DARE or the “just say no” program created by Nancy Reagan is still being used in today (Friedman). Unfortunately, this program proved to be ineffective with research showing that students who participated in the program were just as likely to use drugs as those who did not participate. While researchers are still debating over kind of disease addiction is they believe that it could genetic or psychological, which could open up the door for specialized drug education prevention programs (Katel, Friedman). For example, if we know that those who are at a higher risk for drug addiction carry certain traits in their DNA or show other psychological signs then we can test for these characteristics early on and create a program that is specifically targeted to help those specific individuals. Not only would a drug education program like the example that I provided be more
Being accepted to college can be the most exciting time of a person’ life while also being the most disappointing. According to an article from Forbes, titled “Too Poor For College, Too Rich For Financial Aid,” author Robert Farrington wrote a story about his daughter’s college application experience. She patiently awaited to hear back from her top choice school, the prestigious John’s Hopkins University. After months of pure anxiety, a giant envelope arrived in the mail. The colorful exterior gave away the seemingly great news that the envelope enclosed. After opening the envelope, her acceptance letter revealed itself. According to Farrington, at first, the family was over joyed. Their kid got into her top choice college! But after moving
High school students are leaders to younger kids and many others in their community. As a leader these student must show others what good character is like, but instead they are destroying their lives by doing drugs. In the past decade the drug use among high school students is on the rise once again. With the internet, their exposure to drugs is much greater. High school students are convinced that they are able to get away with using drugs. These drug addicts soon influence other students into doing the drugs because there isn’t a rule preventing drug use. In order to protect these student’s future, drug tests must be enforced among all students ensuring a safe environment for students to learn successfully. Allowing random drug testing in high schools will shy away students from trying these harmful drugs. The stop of drug use among high school students is crucial because drugs prevents student from learning leading them to dropping out of high school. Students that become overwhelmed by these harmful drugs will ruin their lives forever, but if steered in the right direction they can be saved.
The first step when beginning to implement drug education in a classroom or school is for the individual that is considering the topic to deem why the implementation is important. There are three main reasons teachers have found the implementation to be important. The first reason is that students are more likely to come in contact with drugs by hearing about them, or using them. By having a program implemented into a classroom or school, it can assist individuals to gain knowledge about the topic. The purpose of this is to help individuals make healthy, responsible decisions about drugs now and in the future that will reflect the individual’s identity and morals. The second reason is to help promote a healthy lifestyle for students. Teachers believe that by engaging students in drug education programs, it can help to benefit well-being of the students so that healthy lifestyles are reached to the fullest potentials. Lastly, teachers have found it to be important because teachers can act as a partner with parents, guardians, and other members of the community, in order to ensure that students are being provided with accurate and developmentally appropriate drug education. The school can provide knowledge to students in an area that is sometimes difficult for parents, guardians, and the community to talk about.
(1) There is much controversy regarding the war on drugs in America today. It has become a growing concern for parents, educators, politicians, etc. There is no question that education can play a major role in decreasing the drug problem. But there is some disagreement over whether schools or parents are more effective in steering children away from drugs.