How do you weigh the worth of a student? by Samuel

How do you weigh the worth of a student? by Samuel - December 2025 Scholarship Essay

I hope to positively impact my school by encouraging self-reflection and personal growth among students. I go to a technical vocational school; It’s also a STEM school on top of that. Going to a school like that means, from my experience, you’re going to be around a lot of overachievers. People who come to school to excel. They want a 4.0 GPA, five AP classes each year, and enough activities and awards on their resume to make a college or hiring manager salivate. But what this often means is that actual learning can take a backseat to getting an A on a report card.
I personally know people who have lived like this, although don’t get me wrong, it’s paying off. I have a friend who's getting a full ride to an Ivy League. I know someone else who’s currently doing a paid internship with a big tech company as a junior in high school. And all that’s awesome, but those same people get less sleep than they should. I have other friends who are ranked in my school’s top fifty, but have cheated on tests. I’ve seen other people who hold very little respect for teachers and even their own peers. I’m saying all this to say, going to college is good and all that, but what does getting an education matter if we make it out into the world and our character isn’t enough to bear the burden of humanity?
If I was student body president, I’d put a greater emphasis on personal growth. High school is unique in the fact that you’re a completely different person at the end of it than when you first come as a freshman. I mean, I came in as a guy who was irritable, unmotivated, crude, and disrespectful. Now, I can say that I’m at least trying to be a better person, not just for me but also for those around me. Knowing that is one of the best feelings in the world, and I want others to experience that.
So I’d encourage things like mental health days, and not just in the sense where we take a I off. I mean a day where students come to school, but don’t take any classes. They’re encouraged to talk with their friends, build new relationships, do something kind, or just play a sport. Days like these would help tackle another issue with high schoolers. A lot of us are incredibly intelligent but have no idea what we want to be in life. Now, we’re sitting in front of a college application, wondering what major we want to sign up for. Everyone is asking “What do you want to be?” or “Who are you?” and the only answer we can give is “I’m not sure.” Which means we (both students and adults) have been doing something wrong.
On a mental health day, students could try to find something we actually have a passion for, rather than something that will pay the bills or something that’ll make for an easy degree. After handling that elephant in the room, a good student president could move on to other things that students have issues with, like uniforms and rules that might be a bit unreasonable. In conclusion, I want students to be able to say they’re better off, both internally and externally, when they leave high school. Because if they can’t, then is that generation really ready to run the next leg of humanity’s race?