Scholarship and service

When I first think of scholarships, I think of geeky people who graduate with honours in their subject(s) and get sponsored into a higher institution. However, that is just shallow and a mere surface level look on scholars. Scholarship, as defined by dictionary.com, refers to learning; knowledge acquired by study; The most basic requirement of a scholar is one who is constantly learning, eager to gain more knowledge and insight. I feel that this is very important because we have to compete with everyone else in the world to get the job or the degree, to be one step ahead of the rest. An interest in learning would also be very helpful in that it would spur the scholar on to achieve greater things.

Apart from learning, scholarship would also involve leadership. A scholar is someone that everyone looks up to in terms of academic results and also discipline. It is, therefore, very important to project a positive self image and influence others to be follow their good example. Scholars should humble themselves, no doubt their higher intellect and sometimes more positive attitude, and help out his/her fellow classmates when the need arises.

Scholars are usually pictured as goody-goody students who study 24/7. This is one of the toughest obstacles a scholar faces, being labelled as geeky and nerdy. Like I've mentioned earlier, it's very shallow to judge someone just because they seem to study more. I would like very much to clarify that a scholar is not a geek. It is a mere stereotype/misconception of a scholar. People need to see through the geek label and realise that a scholar is like anyone of them. Not a study freak, but someone driven by hard work and the interest of learning. They need to realise this first in order to be motivated to work harder and learn continuously. (see, leadership sets in here!)

Leading hearts, leading minds. We need to apply the school's vision to lead others to achieve their best. First off, a scholar can start by influencing his/her peers. A scholar needs to show that work can be done and done well. A scholar needs to serve others as well, helping his/her classmates when they've missed out on lessons/have not been paying attention in class/are simply slower in processing information. Service also includes wining awards for the school through lots of hard work. This is also a form of leadership, in that it encourages the juniors to be follow the scholar's example of working hard.