Pat Tillman Scholarship Essay

Pat Tillman was a famous football player who gave up his million-dollar career to join the Army after 9/ll. He lost his life serving his country, and his family put together the Pat Tillman Military Scholar Fund.

I've been applying for many scholarships, but out of all of them, I really hope I can get this one. I feel strongly about Pat Tillman's life of service. I'm not in the military, and I never can be, but I want to serve my country too. I want to serve in the way that I can and it starts with getting my degree. Here are the questions and my answers. Feel free to comment.

Explain your specific financial need, any gap in educational benefits you may already be receiving and your reason for applying for a Tillman Military Scholarship. *

Bold ambition describes my goals for my education and career, and I’m daring and determined enough to go for it! It will cost me $36,256 (tuition only) to accomplish ALL of my education goals in two years. I anticipate having $2,000 of my own money saved by the time school starts, and my other sources are a PELL grant (up to $2,100) and a SEGAL Education Award of $7,712. I have no other awards or scholarships at this time. I haven’t included other costs here because if the Pat Tillman Foundation can help pay tuition, I am resourceful enough to come up with the rest.

I’m applying for the Tillman Scholarship because it would be a great honor to receive it. I had never heard of Pat Tillman before applying for this scholarship, and I was deeply moved by his story as well as the stories of the other Scholars. Of course, I also have the example of my father and younger brother who both have served our country. Even my youngest brother (age 15) is enrolled in his school’s JROTC program. Unfortunately, I will never be able to serve my country the way they have. That’s why, as a Tillman Military Scholar, it would be an immense privilege to be associated with people like Pat Tillman, my father, brothers, and the other scholarship winners.

Even though I can’t serve in the military, I can still serve our country as a diplomat and peace-maker, and I fully intend to! The key to this is in my educational plans for the next two years based on my two main passions: meeting and learning all about people from different cultural backgrounds and working with people to solve problems and reach their full potential. I am majoring in International Cultural Studies with an emphasis in Communications and Culture. I will double-minor in Japanese and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) and earn additional certifications in International Peace Building and Cultural Resources Management. Included in my plans are two study-abroad programs: one culture-based program in the Middle East, and a language-intensive program in Japan.

Intense? Yes. Possible? Absolutely. I can earn all of this and still graduate within two years for what it would cost for a year of tuition at some universities! You’d be hard-pressed to find so much bang for your buck anywhere else!



How has your family member's service in the U.S. military influenced your actions or inspired you? What have you learned through observing his/her service to our country? *

I’m grateful to my father and brother for their sacrifices for our country. It’s because of them that I am able to pursue my goals. I can fully enjoy learning about and visiting other countries because I have THIS country to return home to. My father and brother have both paid a personal price to protect this country and the freedoms that I enjoy as its citizen. When my father returned from Iraq, he had frequent nightmares and liked to be alone more than before. He got up early, went to work, and came home to work in his garage until he was too tired to do anymore. He came back inside after everyone else was asleep. My parents divorced shortly after.

My brother may have paid an even bigger price. He joined the army at 17 and served in Iraq as a convoy driver the next year. Unlike my father, he had a hard time being alone when he got back and fell into many addictive and destructive habits. I think it was the best way he could cope with (or drown out) his thoughts when he had to be alone. He was also paranoid about objects on the side of the road when he drove because he was trained to recognize things like that as possible IEDs. He did better with time (as well as my dad) and managed to marry a strong, beautiful girl (also in the military!) before leaving for a tour in Afghanistan. He is still there and now has a baby girl. She was born premature and has had some health problems, and although he got to come home to visit when she was born, he’s back in Afghanistan now. I know he worries about his family. I know he wants to be with his wife and hold his little girl. I know he sometimes worries that he might not make it back at all, and that’s the hardest part.

Neither of them regret serving. I don’t know if I can adequately describe how I feel about what I’ve seen them go through for me. I feel inspired and reverently sad at the same time. America was designed so that anyone can become who they want and follow their dreams. I feel that the best way I can serve them is to show that their sacrifice was worth it and means something to me.





Discuss your previous service to others and the community. How will you incorporate these service experiences into your educational and career goals? How do you intend to continue your service to others and the community? *
My involvement in service started when I served as a full-time missionary for my church in the Philadelphia area for 18 months. I was not paid during that time. In fact, my family and others sacrificed much to help me pay expenses. In the past, I’ve avoided talking about my mission in applications like this because I’ve worried about the religious aspect bothering some people, but I’ve gained so much from the experience it’d be terrible not to. It changed my life forever.

My mission taught me that everyone has worth no matter how poor they are in money, education, or circumstance. Once I truly saw that, it was easy to help people overcome their struggles. Everyone wants to be happy, and they do the best that they know how. I helped people to understand and apply different principles and values, but I think the greatest thing I did for people was to believe in them. I knew they could stop drinking or bring their family closer or let go of anger. I saw people make incredible changes and overcome tremendous obstacles.

Now I serve as a member of the AmeriCorps Literacy Initiative in Utah. I work directly with kids in small groups in targeted reading skills and practice to help them achieve grade-level standards. I manage a take-home library at the school where every student takes home a book every week to practice reading with parents. I plan and carry out literacy events to increase parent involvement in education. I’ve also done other projects in school designed around areas such as safety and service.

Community service is a huge component of AmeriCorps. I have volunteered with organizations such as the local food pantry, the Victim’s Advocate, the Family Support Center and LDS Humanitarian Services. I’ve stocked shelves, filed forms, supervised kids, created activity kits, tied quilts, cleaned a storage room, painted walls, washed windows, picked up garbage, collected and delivered cleaning supplies for a homeless shelter and can tabs for Primary Children’s Hospital. Whew! And I love it!

Bringing out the best in people is a part of who I am now. No matter what career I have, it will involve tapping unused potential for good in the world, hopefully from individuals to large organizations and even entire countries! Besides my career, I will also continue serving the needs of local organizations as I have been.