Dear Schutz Alumni Association,
I thank you sincerely for granting me this scholarship. I hope to prove myself worthy of it as I depart from Schutz to begin the rest of my life. I can never forget, and I know that I will always recollect whenever I succeed in the future, my first year at Schutz. I was in seventh grade and I had not before known what a diverse community is like. It was my first exposure to non-Egyptian form of education. I was at first not used to the constant “please” and “thank you” that was a necessity in any conversation. I was not used to the idea of moving from class to class according to a rigorous schedule; in my previous school it was the teachers who came into the one class I stayed in the entire day.
I was fascinated by the fact that the library was opened at all times; I had discovered what reading meant. I was especially overwhelmed by my Social Studies class because it featured the history of countries other than Egypt. Since I have developed throughout the years a great passion for history and government to the point where today I plan on majoring in Political Science, it is quite a powerful testimonial when I confess that it was only when I first went to Schutz that I learned that that the world has seven continents. When I was twelve I knew only the history of Egypt; after six years in Schutz, I now know the history of the rest of the world. I can only be astounded and proud when regarding the difference between the amount of knowledge I had back then and now, and this applies to all subjects.
Many times in my life I have paused a moment to reflect on how different my views and general train of thought would have been had I not been in Schutz and granted a superior form of education that most students in Egypt are deprived from. I have spent my six years in Schutz emerging out of an enclosing bubble of excessive timidity, for I was a person who seldom opened her mouth in class, to a person who enjoys activities such as Model United Nations that rely on good arguments and loud speeches along with classes such as AP Comparative Government that include weekly Socratic Seminars. And all those years the library always welcomed me in; I have read and read and read.
I have committed myself to the most demanding of my teachers’ projects, from finding a way of sailing on the school swimming pool on a cardboard boat without defying the laws of physics to representing the UK’s Labor Party in a hot debate. I have inducted in the National Honor Society and became Secretary. I have been also lucky to join the Model United Nations Club and create its Conference Guide. At the same time, I have travelled many times with the school and met people with different cultural backgrounds. A feeling of self-gratification overwhelmed me at the end of each year; the feelings of gratitude and appreciation always revisited me to remind of how lucky I am that I am in Schutz and very happily so. Schutz has laid out a new path of life before me based on good education and strong character and I plan to work hard to never bring it to the brink of an abyss; I will carry on this path throughout university.
I have already been accepted in Bard College Berlin and won a half scholarship in politics; I will study Economics, Politics, and Social Thought. Such a new opportunity is rekindling the fire that was once lit by my admission to Schutz. I am anxious to learn many languages, read more and more books, and engage in more debates and seminars. I am anxious to one day pursue a career in politics to become an ambassador of Egypt. Such high aspirations I would have never considered had I not gone to Schutz, but now that I have them, I shall strive to fulfill them, and even more so now that I am granted this scholarship. Once again, thank you for thus rewarding me; I cannot be more grateful.
Sincerely,
Farah Badr