Boost Your Scholarship, Award And College Applications
Boost Your Scholarship, Award and College Applications
Participating in lightning-round tech award reviews revealed a number of ways you can make an application, if for a scholarship, award or school acceptance, more powerful...
Use narrative writing to illustrate your experience and put the reader in your shoes. While reading some responses I could see the world the applicant was living in and shared their emotions and goals.
Sprinkle you answers with quantities to communicated how you contributed: volunteered 10 hours a month, presented to 100 students and built a 120lb robot in six weeks.
YOU ARE NOT BRAGGING, you are showing the reader your hard-work, influence and achieved goals. The application reader does not have the power to read minds. You are NOT being humble, you are communicating poorly. Save your "humbleness" for a thank you letter to the scholarship/ award committee after you win.
Avoid repetitiveness in questions although that experience can fit into multiple answers. As a reader, seeing repeated experiences depreciate the experience's value.
Try to use the max character/ word count. But do not do so if you need to use fluff or sacrifice concise communication/ meaning.
More Posts from Ourtech and Others
FIRST Robotics Kick Off is THIS SATURDAY Jan7 at 9amCT!
3,400 teams made up of over 85,000 students will learn what game their robot will be playing. Within a six week build season students will have to fabricate, wire and program that robot. The game's name, "STEAMworks", has been revealed along with some vague hints. Here is a post with some of my theories and the link to watch the unveiling of the game live.
Apollo 13 Night
On Friday the 13th NASA interns had the awesome opportunity to watch Apollo 13th in the Historic Apollo Mission Control Room on the twentieth anniversary of the movie. What was most precious about this experience was our guest lecturers, members of the Apollo 13 missions. Norman Chaffee, Apollo 13 engineer building parts on the Saturn V rocket met us at rocket park. Chaffee took us on a grand tour of the grounded beast describing the rocket's stages, his role in development and similarities to NASA's new Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. Joining Chaffee was Frank Hughes, Apollo 13 astronaut trainer. "I don't go anywhere without my toys", he said pulling out a model of the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) and command module. After our Saturn V tour Hughes talked with us in the Historic Mission Control about his work training astronauts, details about the Apollo 13 command module and his favorite astronaut personalities. It was an honor to hear from Chaffee and Hughes, both contributing to Apollo 13th safe return - NASA's "successful failure".
Pictures by Carlos Gaytan fellow JSC NASA Co-Op
One of my NASA mentors worked on BEAM. It's nuts to see something go from testing to orbit! #journeytomars
Holding the NASA Meatball (their circular logo). The red print NASA logo is called the worm.
Help a fellow NASA Intern send a satellite into space!
Giveaway and Satellite Crowd Funder!
Giveaway/raffle, WIN a FREE telescope! We will select one winner and give away a Celestron 21035 70mm Travel Scope: And help support our effort launch a satellite!
To enter the UGA Small Satellite Research Lab’s giveaway all you have to do is:
Reblog this post (so we can get your name)
Liking the post will enter you a second time!
Following the small sat lab on tumblr will enter you a third time!
Following the small sat lab on twitter will enter your a fourth time (just tweet your us tumblr user name at us and tell us how cool you think space exploration is)!
Help Our Crowdfunded to build a spacecraft! Help us build a spacecraft!
We’re Crowdfunding a satellite! Donate at SmallSat.uga.edu/donate!
We’ll be sending a Satellite to the international Space Station in 2018! We just need help building the ground station!
The Donation Rewards:
If you have donated larger amount you will also get all the benefits of the lesser amounts! Be sure when you visit smallsat.uga.edu/donate that you include your information so that we can get in contact with you!
$5 - You will entered in the telescope raffle 2 more times and will receive a signed thank you card in the mail from the lab!
$10 - You will receive a signed certificate of space exploration from the UGA Small Satellite Research Laboratory
$25 - You will receive a mission patch of your choosing (our NASA patch has yet to be designed but the MOCI patch is below)
$50 - You will receive both mission patches!
$100 - We will give you a UGA Small Satellite Laboratory tee-shirt! Special made for supporters of our campaign!
$250 - We will tweet at you from space! once a month! (or you can control the message that you send!)
$500 - You will receive a plaque commemorating your participation in the development of our spacecraft!
$1000 - We will engrave your name on the side of our satellite!
Remember, you get ALL of the benefits of lower donations if you donate a higher one!
Please Help Us Out! We are partnered with NASA and will be sending a satellite to the International Space Station in 2018, but we do not have the money to build a ground station yet!
We have 2 3U cube satellites! The image below is the patch for our Mapping and Ocean Color Imager (MOCI). We are also building the SPectroscopic Observatory of Coastal regions (SPOC), is this is the satellite that will be launched to the International Space Station!
Donate At: SmallSat.uga.edu/donate!
The Crowdfunded and raffle end on July 31, 2016, after that it will take us 20-30 days to send out all the rewards! Donate at smallsat.uga.edu/donate! Feel free to message us or ask us any space questions you may have!
Donate At: SmallSat.uga.edu/donate!
One of the renderings of our satellite:
Us Johnson Space folk visited our sibling NASA center Kennedy. We toured the largest one story building in the world, Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), saw parts of the new Space Launch System (SLS) and visited amazing innovators at Swamp Works. Unfortunately the launch was delayed until tomorrow so we will catch it before we leave. Touring NASA Kennedy was humbling, it reminded me that my generation of space exploration advancers stands on the shoulders of giants. WATCH LAUNCH OCT31 12:13pmET http://www.ulalaunch.com/webcast.aspx
NASA Co-Op Week 16: Barf Lab & Mockups
Twenty five weeks at NASA Johnson I finally got a proper tour, lead by a tour guide, of the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility that houses exact replicas (build with same blueprint) of International Space Station modules, Shuttle, and Soyuz. Astronauts train in these mockups. A "low definition" mockup of Orion was present too.
Neurosciences Laboratory took us on a tour of their various astronaut barf machines. It is really like the rumors of spinning chairs, dizzying treadmills, and dark enclosed sliding contraptions. The spinning is to isolate parts of your brain that are used for balance. Only one day after Space Station astronauts return to Earth in Russia they are flown over to Johnson Space Center and put through a series of gravity adaptation tests. They had to pick up weighted objects, navigate around obstacles, jump of a short platform, and exit a hatch like structure. These tests will help NASA determine if astronauts would be capable of completing Mars surface operations after a long low gravity flight to the Red Planet. I wouldn't be surprised if returning astronauts Kjell, Oleg and Kimiya are on their way to the barf lab right now!
Most of the NASA Johnson Co-Ops and Interns complete their Fall semester this week. It is absolutely heart breaking to get to know so many space passionate people only to have to say goodbye at the end of the semester. I wish I could see all of these stellar students participate in NASA's future as they have already contributed to the growth of space exploration. It was an honor to work among these bright minds.
WAYS TO GET INVOLVED
Accomplishments this week at NASA: https://youtu.be/4tw5uwHD0PEApply for a NASA Internship NOW (high school to grad school):https://intern.nasa.gov/ossi/web/public/main/Apply for a NASA Co-Op (Pathways Internship):http://nasajobs.nasa.gov/studentopps/employment/opportunities.htmLearn to code: https://hourofcode.com/usMeteor Shower live chat December 13th: https://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/news/news/releases/2015/M15-180.htmlCurrent NASA opportunities for students: http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/current-opps-index.htmlCode more: https://www.madewithcode.com/
Are Apps Worth Our Time? Defrag Day 2
Our obsession of technology has amounted to 11 hours of action yesterday at Defrag 2014. A theme throughout all of the conference is determining if this obsession is worth while. Speaker Anil Dash, from Think Up, explored if technology is a good use of time. How often you scrolled through your Facebook newsfeed, sent a tweet, or Snapchated a pic? In fact, you are using a form of social media right now. Social media is a tool used to connect others, yet there may not be much to show from all of our time on apps. Dash recognizes that companies will do their best to "steal your time" and keep you on their apps longer. As developers and innovators there exists a level of responsibility since what is created will use people's precious time, therefore should be worth a user's while. Tech creators, in Dash's words, must "earn (a user's) time. As a user, be aware of who creates your apps and social media tools . Is it a "ma and pop", giant company's, or 20 something year old from silicon valley's app? Reflect if you are getting anything out of your time. Thankfully, I can reflect and see that through the power of social media I have been able to make connections with others who share similar interests with me and opened doors to many opportunities. However if your time is spent racking up "likes", a rearrangement of priorities may be in order. Time is the most valuable resource, use it wisely.
Watch an SLS Booster test live today 6/28/2016 at 10:05amCT. This booster will slingshot an unmanned Orion Space Craft around the Moon in 2018:
