My name is Nicholas Kolar and I will be a junior this year at the University of Wisconsin – Baraboo/Sauk County. I am writing this essay seeking the additional scholarship funding needed to complete my college education. My intended vocation is a math professor or electrical engineer.
One of the greatest challenges that I have faced is discovering that I have Asperger Syndrome. I was diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome in my senior year of High School. This diagnosis helped me and my family understand why I'd always had behaviors and attitudes that were considered unusual.
All my life I had struggled with this condition without even knowing it. Being the kid in school that nobody understands and continuously struggling in social situations is a daily routine for me. In grade school, I was the alien on the playground, a social outlaw, a weirdo, a three-dollar bill. I constantly thought about how I felt different and how peculiar my personality was compared to other kids. You could see it in my eyes as I trekked across the playground with nobody to talk to. General kid business was a mystery to me. While other kids were playing tag, I was busily decoding bee behavior and contemplating plant life.
In middle and high school, social challenges became towering obstacles that I could not even comprehend. I had zero interest in mainstream teenage behavior and social norms. I was prone to solitary intervals of deep, concentrated thoughts on obscure subjects like cosmology, linguistics, botany, and geometry. During these times I would be almost entirely oblivious to simple social behavior like combing my hair and saying hello to friends. As everyone else on the school bus was laughing and talking, I was staring out the window with my mind faraway in profound imagination.
Truthfully, the Asperger Syndrome diagnosis was a blessing. Now, rather than being an outcast, I feel like a member of a strange and exclusive club of creative thinkers. I have learned to recognize and embrace the mental strengths I possess, while admitting and working to improve my social weaknesses. Even though I have always known I am different, I have always worked hard at my education, knowing that someday I would have a place in this world.
Thank you for considering me for your scholarship. I hope I have been successful in persuading you that my further education and career goals are a worthy cause for your grant. If I am chosen, you can rest assured that this will be a secure investment in a solid person and will be appreciated for a lifetime.
