International student sees hurdles in applying for foundation scholarship

Pierce College Foundation has funded bunch of dollars into a scholarship and all students should try to apply for it — even international students.

There are still more chances to apply on a website or link for a scholarship at Pierce —  and more students are likely to experience a chance at earning the scholarship than at their previous school. It makes students feel proud because of these other opportunities.

I thought Pierce College Foundation scholarship was for all people, including international students who pay a lot for the tuition in every quarter. There are scholarship programs available for students who love golf or other kinds of activities. They can be a part of that team and get more experiences on how to be success at it. Of course, as an international student, it will be definitely challenging for them to get a chance for those kinds of scholarships.

Scholarships are not a competition that we saw in many newspapers in my country of Indonesia. It was more about effort. The more effort you gave, the more you received. We also counted luck as the second factor.

There are lots of students that come from different countries. They want to study for a few years but they are upset to see the price that they have to spend every quarter in America. So, they postpone their studies until they get a job in their home countries and save much money to study here.

I was excited when I tried to apply for the scholarship from Pierce College Foundation. I always told myself that this was my start in helping my parents to save their money.

But it wasn’t same as I imagined before.

Applying for this scholarship requires more than I am eligible for. When I researched the website, I needed to be a part of the FAFSA program to apply, which I understood is not for international students —  only U.S citizens.

However, I feel the scholarship should be given to either international students or U.S citizens, whomever is qualified because of consideration of essay, GPA, and maybe, proof of English proficiency.

I hope in the future that Pierce Foundation will give us more chances to expand our skills to prove that we can get this scholarship as a key of success in our life.