What The Hixson Award Means To Me

Finances has never been a worry for me. My family was in the middle class and I just assumed that we were normal. Then when my dad passed away because of cancer the Spring of my Junior year, while everyone was thinking about what to do next, I was thinking about how I was going to pay for college. Fear crept in when I couldn't think of a way to pay for college, especially with price of college not getting any cheaper, without taking any loans. My Junior and Senior year I worked as hard as I could in hopes of possibly getting a scholarship. I have heard so many stories about people getting in a large amount of debt because of their college loans that they couldn't pay off. My dad has his masters degree in Biology and I remember seeing him mail bill after bill to try and pay all of his loans off. 

When I started to look for scholarships, I was trying to decide whether to go to The University of Northern Iowa or Iowa State University. When I saw the Hixson Scholarship I knew immediately that this was the perfect scholarship for me to get. The fact that one of the requirements really showed me that they were looking for people who had gone through something tough and was able to persevere through it. The fact that it was worth a lot of money also attracted it to me. What I decided, without telling anyone, is that if I got the Hixson scholarship then I would go to Iowa State. Then when I received the news that I had received the scholarship I ran around the house yelling. Not only because I had just received a great honor, but because I knew finally where I was going to go to college. 

In conclusion the Hixson Award means more to me than an amount of money. It means to me one of the reasons why I came to Iowa State and that I have people that are willing to support me and believe that because of the things I have gone through they think that I have the ability to succeed in college and in life.