<p>I was notified by my school today!</p>
<p>I also did not know I was nominated. The professor at my school who interviewed me didn’t even know I was nominated! The committee that nominates wanted to remain as unbiased as possible, so I never met them (the committee), and they didn’t even let my interviewer know after they received her feedback.</p>
<p>I started at a community college in Southern California at 30yo just two years ago. By the end of this semester, I will have earned two AA degrees (one in Film Studies & the other in Social & Behavioral Sciences.) I completed their honor’s program. I am a member of Phi Theta Kappa and do volunteer work through them. I am an appointed Primary Commissioner for the Vice-Chair of the Inter-Club Council (that’s a mouthful–the Vice Chair has a vote in student govt.) I helped manage a student election campaign for a slate of 13 candidates in a recent student election, and I have a 4.0GPA. At the end of this semester, I’ll have about 75 units.</p>
<p>My essay spoke about growing up poor and my passion for the human condition (how our consciousness evolved to benefit what we were already good at doing without it before we invented agriculture.) Since agriculture was invented, technology boomed and in less than 12,000 years, we became exponentially mismatched for our technological modern environment. I want to study how evolutionary theory can be used to predict how humans today might better adjust to our modern environment. I believe people’s evolutionary instincts are taken advantage of by politicians, business, and media–and even they might not be aware of this consciously. They probably just do what works. But we all deserve to know what it is that humans evolved to be good at doing to make predictions for our behavior in modern environments.</p>
<p>I come from a low-middle class family of 6, none of which graduated high school except for my mother and me. I am first to go to college. I’d like to make films and write books that can get my community of laypersons (who are not college-educated) over their prejudice of Evolutionary Theory. It isn’t something you believe in; it’s something that needs to be studied like any science.</p>
<p>Anyway, my essays reflected the above and I’m thrilled that the foundation is helping me get both of my feet up onto the curb!</p>
<p>I have already been accepted to Columbia University’s General Studies program in NYC for nontraditional students (which the JKCF was aware of) and UC Berkeley. I am awaiting decisions from Brown University and USC School of Cinematic Arts and USC’s Annenberg School of Communication. </p>
<p>I do not have a first choice; these are all the finest dream schools that I’ve ever wanted to go to.</p>
<p>I had been an actor, waiter, an office temp, and an administrative assistant since I was 16, but never found any stimulation from any of that, so I started college. It was the best thing I ever did. I look forward to meeting other recipients in August!</p>
<p>I consider this scholarship a “pay it forward”, and I look forward to the day when I can give back more than I’m about to receive.</p>
<p>My best to everyone who put in all the hard work of applying for this scholarship.</p>
)</p>
congrats to the rest of u!!</p>