Answers to Gaia Scholarship Questions

What is your purpose?

Explore this world boldly and passionately to experience its cultures and people and all its beauty, and make memories I can treasure all my life.

What do you love, and how do (or will) your actions demonstrate this?

I love to learn and to explore human culture and history: the differences that make us unique as well as the ties that bind us together.  So far, I have built upon this by devoting my spare time to the study of world history, religion, and cultural expression and by joining Diversity groups and participating in multi-cultural events on my school campus.  In the future, I hope to further my understanding and exploration by studying abroad, and to become a champion of human rights as a member of Amnesty International through their local branch at my university. 

I believe that all human beings are born equal regardless of their individual differences and I feel that it is not enough to believe this.  It is important to support it in the prevention and cessation of genocide and persecution as well as through the passing of legislation that protects equal rights and civil liberties. 

I also feel strongly about animal rights and protection.  I am a lover of all animals and of horses in particular, and I look forward to joining my local equine rescue league within the coming year.  As much as it is our responsibility to protect our fellow man, it also falls within our responsibility to protect the creatures that mankind has taken as its charge.  In both cases, I will aspire to speak for the voiceless and protect the innocent in the hope that future generations will find themselves living in a safer and more tolerant world.

Write your ideal job description.

After years of scholarship and humanitarian action in college, which I would pursue even if it was not required to further a career, I would like to settle down on a farm of my own.  I would keep predominately horses and would spend my days riding, training, and caring for them.  I would also like to act as a foster home for rescue horses awaiting adoption. 

I have always gotten a strong feeling of satisfaction from a hard days' work on the farm.  I love the smell of the hay and the grain, of freshly-mown grass and leather and saddle soap and I hope to spend the rest of my life breathing in these smells of earth and life and knowing that I am working hard for what I have. 

It is my goal to become just good enough as a rider to make it to national competition so that I can compete in the Puissance Wall high-level jumping event, but I have no real interest in fame or fortune.  I hope to do well enough financially to be secure and to continue my travels from time to time but more than anything, I hope to live a simple life among family, friends, and pets.