How Zaire Got Into This Thing

Let me tell you a crazy story about how I got into this.

At first, it was not my intention to do the scholarship program. But, I'm happy I did it.

The after school program that I attend. One of the tutors pulled me and a friend of mine to the side to tell us about the scholarship. At  first I did not care about it. So, I waited a few hours; then I started the 500 word essay. It took my friend and myself a few hours to finish our essays. The tutor helped us with the corrections and made sure we met the deadline of entry into the scholarship contest.

A few days passed and I said to my friend,  "Let's start looking for a summer job," because I didn't think we would be one of the ones to finalize and win. I told my friend that I would like to be working for the summer. I didn't have the patience and time to be waiting around to find out if I was going to be one of the finalists.

And, by luck or faith (don't know which one it was), I received the email telling me I was one of the finalists. I was shocked and surprised - I wasn't expecting it! But, now I'm on my way to the experience of a lifetime.

So, I would like to say to the Irish Network, thank you for the opportunity.

Zaire, NOLA to DUBLIN!!!!!! With three other wonderful finalists. SMILE!!!!!

How Marisa Got Into This Thing

Like many New Orleanians, I've spent many a St. Patrick's Day at the parades, catching cabbages and watching the trees get blanketed with plastic beads.

We lived within walking distance of the parade route, so my neighbor would open the doors to his garage and have a party.  It was converted to a sports bar type of thing, complete with all the New Orleans paraphernalia, Elvis accessories, mismatched couches, and various other things a proper garage sports bar ought to have. But anyway, he'd invite all sorts of people: neighbors, family, friends, and business friends, and every St. Patrick's Day was a great big pot luck with a brisket going all day and tailgating-style food, with beer and whiskey drinks available for the grown-ups. We neighborhood kids were stuck with the kiddie cooler, filled with as many flavors of Capri Sun as were available at Rouses. 

The soundtrack always began with whatever Party City had deemed Irish that year, and ended with Texas roadhouse karaoke, in the true American way.

And that was my introduction to the Republic of Ireland.

***

So, fast-forward a couple years, I'm now in high school.

My school's college counselor regularly forwards emails to everybody about random scholarships, college visits, summer program opportunities, etc. One day, an email caught my eye: this one promised a full scholarship to a two-week summer program at UCD in Dublin. The only requirements were a 3.0 GPA and a well-thought-out 500 word essay on why Ireland and New Orleans should be friends.

All I knew about Ireland was what I'd absorbed from the parade culture (mostly about alcohol and the color green), and that the people had been fighting among themselves for nearly a century (I had no idea why, but I did know the country was split in two because of it).

Nevertheless, of course I decided to apply, because two weeks in a new place with new people sounds exciting! Especially overseas. Plus I could be one less American who doesn't know what's going on outside the states.

***

And so, I opened the email.

I remember looking at the application, immediately filling out the easy part (name, contact information, GPA, the usual), and then waiting til nearly the last minute to write the essay. There were two different dates listed as the deadline, which confused me, and I know I panic-emailed Ms. Caruso (my school's college counselor) a bunch of times. I wrote my essay a couple days before the due date and made sure to edit it so that it didn't compromise my nervous mind.

Thankfully, she was patient, and the gods of fortune and eloquence were kind, and so here I am!

Image sources: wwltv.com, tripadvisor.ie, respectively

How Alexis Got Into This Thing

      Hi! Let me start by introducing myself, my name is Alexis Calderon and I'm one of four finalists for this scholarship (obviously). So how did I arrive at even hearing and applying for the scholarship? Simple.

I was tricked.

Yes, I was tricked but the outcome was well worth it. My friend wanted to stay after school for tutoring and like the good friend I am I stayed with her, staying unwitting to her true intentions. After about ten minutes of "tutoring" she dragged me to Mr. Gallin's classroom to get some imaginary paperwork, where she soon after ditched me, only replying "Its for your own good!" when I asked her where she was going. I didn't know it at the moment, but my friend had put me in the right place at the right time whether I liked it or not. In that room that afternoon I received an application for the scholarship and decided a closed mouth doesn't get fed so I started writing an essay.

     About 3 grueling hours later I came up with an okay rough draft. The same teacher from earlier helped me revise and through that I found my biggest problem (besides grammatical errors) was that I didn't know enough about the actually place. I only knew that Ireland was the native home of fashion designer JW Anderson. I became culturally aware that Ireland was alike New Orleans because of educational and economic reasoning. This essay was no longer about going to Ireland to see if i could shop at the United Kingdom retailer Primark it was my chance to get out of my little fishbowl of ignorance and explore a place I've never been. American can be known for its lack of knowledge when it comes foreign affairs but I didn't want that to be me. So this could really be the first step in a globally aware me.

      After completing the essay I waited and waited until the email arrived. Once I read that I was a finalist I was past excited, past ecstatic, words can't and won't ever describe that feeling I felt. I worked on my video the next day at school and sent off my finishing touches to my final entry, praying and hoping. Fast forward through the gala and those minutes after winning with the other finalists due to the generosity of the people in the room and people I've never seen will probably be the most exhilarating moment ever. I felt vindicated. It felt as if the weight of the world was finally lifted off my shoulders after weeks of doing of no sleep and random mood swings. I can finally breathe and now in the weeks before the trip of a lifetime, I'm back to those random mood swings and no sleep, not because of stress from the unknown but because of excitement for what's to come.

How Erin Got Into This Thing

It's Sunday, February 17th at 4:00 in the afternoon.  I've just gotten back from my Spring Break college-hunting trip in the Northeast.  Exhausted from countless hours of driving and alarms set to 6:30 pretty much every single morning, I collapse onto the couch and nonchalantly check my email for anything I might have missed over the break.  Urban Outfitters: "Last chance to get free shipping on all orders," delete.  Flickr: "New photos from amkayla," delete.  Collegeboard: "The Official SAT Question of the Day," delete.  Mr. Graf: "Irish Network New Orleans' scholarship program," click.

The whole school year I had been searching for some kind of summer program to participate in, and none of them really struck my fancy.  This one, however, stood out to me for some reason.  Well, actually not just for some reason.  My family heritage traces back to Ireland, and I feel like this connection is what made UCD's program appealing to me.  

At first I thought, How am I going to get all this paperwork filled out, bring it to a lawyer to get notarized, figure out what I am going to write about for my essay, write the actual essay, AND ask someone to look over it with me all in the next 24 hours??  There was no way that an essay written in such a short time period would get me anywhere.  However, it sounded like too much of an incredible opportunity to simply pass it up and say that 24 hours was not enough time.  I could do it.  So I ignored all the schoolwork I still had left to finish for the next day and began to fill out the application.  I may have had to pull an almost-all-nighter to finish everything, but I'm pretty sure anyone would say that it was worth it.  

It's the next day.  I'm sitting on a bench outside Newman waiting for my mom to come with the sealed paperwork, 4:08 p.m., about an hour before everything is due.  4:09 p.m.  4:10 p.m.  I'm beginning to get restless.  Suddenly, my mom pulls up.  Scrambling to the car, I yell a quick "Thanks, mom!  Love you!" and then run back inside to the nearest scanner.  My hands are almost shaking.  I have to get this in on time.  I fumble for the flash drive, plug it in to my computer, and open up my email.  4:27 p.m.  Looking over my essay one last time, I place all the scanned documents into one email, and hover my finger over the left clicker.  Let's just check it over one more time, I think, paranoid that I may have overlooked a mistake.  But time is running out.  Forcing myself to just click the button already, I send the email off to the Irish Network, my hopes and prayers not too far behind.

Lesson learned: 24 hours is always enough time.

The Essays Themselves (updated with LINKS!)

So how'd we earn this trip?

To put it simply, there was an essay contest.

Irish Network New Orleans (IN-NOLA), the local attachment to IN-USA, was offering a scholarship. According to the forwarded email:

This summer, IN-NOLA will be sending some deserving New Orleans high school juniors to University College Dublin to attend a two week summer program designed to show high school students a glimpse of college life in Ireland.

Each of us heard about it different ways (our individual stories are linked below), but the application was the same. The only real requirement was a GPA at or above a 3.0, and the application asked for only some basic contact information. The only way to distinguish ourselves from the rest was the application essay:

"Please tell us in 500 words or less why is the connection between New Orleans and Ireland important in 2013?"

At least they asked politely.

Essentially, we had to convince them that we understood their motive behind sending four high school kids across the pond.

But hey, free trip to Ireland, right?

And so, we took to our keyboards, did a little research, and away we went.

Each of our stories: (not updated yet - still working on it!)

• Alexis
• Erin
• Marisa
• The mysterious Zaire

Each of our essays:

• Alexis
• Erin
• Marisa
• The elusive Zaire: http://fromnolatoucd.blogspot.com/2013/07/zaire-essay_9.html