Aspirations for a Successful Senior Year by Lilith

Aspirations for a Successful Senior Year by Lilith - August 2025 Scholarship Essay

Over the summer I’ve come to terms with this upcoming school year—my senior year—as being what will shape my future academic and professional career. In doing so, I’ve realized that all my goals center around academics, service, and rounding out my college applications. All of these goals are interconnected, and driven by a desire to learn, grow, and—as cliché as it is—make the world a better place.
One goal I strive to achieve in my senior year is to maintain my academic standing, despite exceptionally rigorous coursework. Throughout my senior year I will be taking several AP and college classes, of which include: AP Environmental Science, AP Studio Art, Advanced Composition, Applied Physics, and College Mathematics. Starting September 2nd, I intend to delve deeper into my interests, and build a strong foundation for future studies—good grades don’t prove success, they act as a gateway for future opportunities. Everyday I am reminded of how important grades are to being admitted to top-tier universities. Thousands of seniors fight tooth-and-nail for admission, and I am committed to standing out in my applications. I intend to do this with the obvious—attending classes, completing assignments, utilizing office hours—and the not-so-obvious—independent research, study groups, and online courses. These will supplement my learning and help me extend information into other subjects.
On top of academics, I am committed to contributing to my community as the president of our National Honors Society. An integral part of this role is to organize and execute a successful service project. For the last two years we’ve run a student-led tutoring program, wherein members of NHS tutored their peers for up to two hours every Wednesday. My goal regarding this year’s service project is to extend the program to two hours, three days a week—not every student is available on Wednesday, and I see the previous schedule as an irresponsible oversight. By working collaboratively with my peers in the National Honors Society, I believe we can better support our fellow classmates. Being a member of the National Honors Society has been central to my high school career, and will continue to be in this upcoming year.
My final goal for this upcoming year is to create strong college applications, and be accepted into a top-notch university. Of course, this isn’t where it ends—aspirations build into larger goals. In psychology we learn about Erikson's psychosocial stages of development. Erikson theorizes that from birth we experience eight stages each with their own conflict. If resolved, these conflicts build into integrity, wherein the individual is proud of where they are in life. I see my senior goals as stages to integrity—while they all build into a well rounded college application, they also build into my ultimate goal: helping people in need. Medical humanitarian aid organizations are how I will do this—but first I have to go through my own personal stages of development, one which prioritizes academics and service.
I will not reach integrity until I have helped people.