Renthop Scholarship Essay
The 2020 Covid-19 pandemic has heavily impacted several different institutions the world over. Among its first victims was the field of education. The closure of learning institutions by quarantine guidelines has affected millions of learners world-wide forcing them to either stay home or if they are lucky, continue their education online. Though online systems may seem like a simple, elegant solution, it has brought with it several challenges of its own. I would now wish to discuss the major challenges I faced as a student as a result of this rollercoaster of a pandemic.
Before the current state the pandemic has caused, the student life was all about classes, term papers, exams and part-time jobs. I tackled all these with the same hopes and aspirations of any other student; to have it all pay off someday. While in school, I had an internship in the bag. As a senior, I was ecstatic that I’d have an opportunity to showcase all I’d learnt as well as to gain some real-world experience in my field. Aside from the internship I had already secured, I also had a few job interviews lined up. In a moment’s notice, it was all stripped away from me. Every single interview I had got cancelled as well as the internship I so greatly worked to get. It was devastating, not to mention terrifying. It foreshadowed what was to come in the following months and what was already being experienced in many parts of the world, rampant unemployment. I was shaken by this new uncertainty that I might go out into the world and not be able to get a job and provide for myself especially after all the hard work I’ve put in all these years. The thought of not even having a safe place to call home is truly terrifying.
The plan was simple; finish school, possibly land a killer internship that will eventually launch my engineering career. The pandemic threw a wrench into those plans and completely changed the education system. Soon all my life was centred on being in the house and trying my best to make do with online classes. Interesting lectures and debates in classes were traded in for bored students and less than techno-savvy lecturers with barely functioning webcams and more distractions than one could count. Lecturers are now more than ever relying on the internet to do the teaching because getting the desired message and information across online platforms is becoming increasingly difficult more so to those studying rather practical subjects like some of mine. The quality of education is not the same.
Your amazing organization is a true source of inspiration through its work of helping students like me find affordable housing, especially in such uncertain times. I would be sincerely honoured to be considered to receive the scholarship, and it would go such a long way in easing some of the challenges I’m currently facing as an unemployed student struggling to learn in the middle of a global pandemic.