How I Landed A $60,000 Scholarship In High School
Here's everything I did right (and wrong) when I was in school
My little brother is going into grade 12 soon, and I’ve been reflecting on my experiences in high school and university so I could give him good advice.
Not gonna lie but high school Kyne was kind of an icon. I was going to my Catholic high school in a full face of makeup and doing the jump splits to Lady Gaga at the Christmas concert (unsure yet whether he’s going to follow in those footsteps). But I was also an AP student and I won a $60,000 scholarship to go to university straight after!
It was a life changing amount of money and it came at a crazy time in my life. My dad had just died from cancer 4 weeks prior, and that scholarship took a lot of financial stress off of my family.
For all the students that follow me, all of the young people, and all of my fellow overachievers, this post is for you. Here’s all my advice on how to get yourself a scholarship, including everything I did right (and wrong).
Put nothing less than your best foot forward
I was what the kids would call a try-hard. One time in English class, I showed up to school in a wig and fake beard with white eye contacts that covered up my pupils, prosthetic makeup, and a solar system diorama on my head as part of my book report about Goethe’s Faust.
For our Shakespeare assignments, me and my cousin (my try-hard twin) made all of our friends dance in a music video lipsyncing to Bad Romance by Lady Gaga as a metaphor for Lady Macbeth turning into a fierce bloodthirsty queen. We really spared no expense to impress our teachers and our peers.
I was the kid that would get a 99 on an assignment and then meet the teacher after class to ask why it wasn’t a 100.
Yeah, I was insufferable. But you know what? I had high expectations for myself, and so should you. You’re worth the extra 1 point!
It goes without saying, but you have to work hard and try your best.
Don’t walk into an exam unsure or unprepared. You should start studying for stuff at least a week in advance! That way, you have time to ask questions.
Don’t put in the bare minimum amount of effort into a project. If you want an above-average grade, you have to put in an above-average level of effort.
If your teacher did a bad job at explaining something, go online and teach yourself. There’s loads of free resources like Khan Academy and YouTube where you can learn the same stuff you’re learning in class, just taught by a different teacher. Maybe they’ll word it in a way you’ll understand.
Do difficult things
I did math contests every year that I was in high school. It’s basically like an extracurricular math exam that doesn’t affect your grades. But they can really help your scholarship/university application stand out. I did really well on one and I credit that for helping me get my scholarship. Check out this video series I did taking up the questions one by one!
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[That’s part 1. Here’s part 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 of the contest. Beware, the questions get harder!]
To be honest, I felt like it was a total fluke that I got such a high score on that year’s contest. I wrote a lot of other contests that I did quite poorly on. But you should challenge yourself to do hard things, even if you don’t think you’ll do that well.
If you’re interested in going into STEM, then math contests are a great place to start. I always did the CEMC ones organized by my local university, but the most famous one is the International Mathematical Olympiad. There’s also Math Kangaroo which has contests for all ages K-12! Ask your math teachers about setting any of these up at your school, or ask what math contests are popular in your area.
What if I don’t want to do math?
If you like science, there are International Science Olympiads in subjects like chemistry, biology, astronomy, even linguistics! There might even be regional ones specific to your country, like the UK’s Biology Olympiad.
If you want to try a physics-version of a math contest, try the Sir Isaac Newton Exam.
If coding is your thing, sign up for a hackathon. The biggest one in Canada is Hack The North, but there’s also Hackergal for Canadian girls. Major League Hacking is a good resource.
If you like creative writing or essays, sign up for the Scholastic Art And Writing Awards. Your local community might run a competition as well.
Interested in poetry? Check out Poetry In Voice and be a recitation champion.
Interested in politics and law? Join the Model United Nations or participate in a Mock Trial.
Interested in history? Ask your teacher about the National History Day competition, which is worldwide!
Interested in Classical Greek and Latin? Check out Certamen.
Don’t have a particular interest? Even better! Reach For The Top is a general trivia competition for Canadian students.
(Thanks to my Instagram followers for helping me put together this list!)
If you’re lucky, you might win a nice cash prize from any one of these contests. But you don’t have to win for it to count. Doing poorly on these won’t reflect poorly on you. Participating at all is a great thing to be proud of! It can introduce you to new friends, help strengthen your passions, and the fact that you challenged yourself looks great on your application.
Find your story
Every successful scholarship applicant has a good story. Let me share with you a bit of my essay that I submitted along with my scholarship application as an example:
Ever since I was young, I’ve had an affinity for feminine things like glamour and makeup, and I grew up feeling ashamed for liking these things, and for not fitting perfectly into society’s expectation of me as a man. I feared that continuing to be vibrant and flamboyant would make my peers and teachers lose respect for me and prevent me from being taken seriously as an adult. Now that I have overcome this phase of my life, I serve as living proof that you don’t have to compromise your identity in order to achieve success, become a force of nature in your community, and be at the top of your class.
In my high school experience, I served as a CIVIX Student Ambassador for the 2015 Federal Election, where I ignited the dialogue about politics in my school, and helped run a mock election to get future voters involved in the political process. I’ve also volunteered for Kitchener Oxford Learning, where I assisted a teacher in fostering scientific literacy and curiosity among young children. In the past, I have also volunteered as a problem writer for CSSMA, a student-run organization whose math contests are written by students all over Canada. My appetite for knowledge, mathematics and social development leads me to spread my passion to everyone I meet, including my passion for art and makeup. On my youtube channel “onlinekyne”, I create makeup transformations and I occasionally use my platform as a means to share with the world my ideas about politics, gender roles, and acceptance. My goal is to improve the landscape for LGBTQ people and be a positive role model for those who are different.
Eeeeek I cringe at reading my teenage writing!
But you have to overcome the cringe and just brag about yourself, okay? Talk about the life experiences that shaped you. Talk about the clubs and organizations you were a part of. Talk about what problems you want to solve. What are you passionate about?
For me, it was my YouTube channel that made me unique. And I only started it for fun, not because I thought there was anything to gain from it. Don’t want to start a YouTube channel? Try one of these:
Start writing a blog. Share your thoughts about what you’re currently watching or reading!
Start a club at school. It can be a chess club, birdwatching club, glee club, cubing club, or anything you can think of. You just have to find a teacher to help you out.
Volunteer. If your passion is saving the environment, then do something concrete that you can write about, like planting trees with a local organization. That goes way further than just writing about a passion that’s in your head.
Make something. It can be physical or digital. Keith Galli has a video on YouTube teaching you how to program a computer game on Python, and the whole thing can be done in an afternoon. If someone you know has a sewing machine, maybe you can learn how to sew your own clothes. Or maybe you start writing your own book, or build a robot with a team of friends! It doesn’t have to be original. It just has to come from your heart.
Scholarships and universities aren’t just looking for straight-A students. They’re looking for students who go above and beyond what their teachers tell them to do. You don’t have to change the world, you just have to be interesting. And to do that, you have to do interesting things. Don’t let your fear of being cringey get in the way.
Ask for what you want
Did you know that there’s something like $100 million in scholarship money and $2 billion in grants that go UNCLAIMED EACH YEAR?! So many students don’t apply for scholarships because they think they’re unworthy.
You are worth it!
If you’ve worked hard for something and you know you deserve it, you should ask for it. Don’t be the first person to tell yourself no. Look up every scholarship you can find and apply to the ones that you’re eligible for. You can even ask your teachers and guidance counsellors for help finding these.
If you have circumstances that make it harder for you to get better grades or do more extracurricular activities (like a disability, part time job, or complicated family life), you’re allowed to talk about that in your essay when writing about your personal story. If you have financial need, there are scholarships and bursaries meant especially for you. But you might have to make the first move and ask for it.
This doesn’t just apply to scholarships either. Ask for mentorship or advice. Ask for help if you’re struggling in a class. Your teachers want you to succeed!
If you don’t ask, then the answer will always be no.
This is a piece of advice that I have a hard time taking myself because I’m such an introvert. I don’t like asking for gigs, asking for collaborations, or asking for help. I don’t even like sending the first message on a dating app! I’m married now, but only because my husband made the first move! Luckily I’m gorgeous.
I’m trying to get better at making the first move when it comes to business. I had never asked my followers for money ever until I started this newsletter. In my first week, I got 4 paid subscribers! I used to always doubt myself and think I wasn’t worth the money. Turns out all I had to do was ask.
Surround yourself with the right people
The best thing I did in university was to be part of a good friend group. They were interested in talking about the assignments after class, and helping each other out when one of us was stuck on a problem. They were ambitious, and hustled hard to get into good co-op placements around the world. And I made a lot of good memories with them. I really felt like my friends lifted me up and challenged me to work harder so that I could also help them if they needed it.
Your friends are the biggest determining factor for how hard you work at school. You’ll find yourself subconsciously looking at the people around you for indicators of how much effort to put into the big assignment, or how much to study for the exam.
Don’t follow the wrong people down the wrong path.
Be friends with people who lift you up and make you feel good!
Be more social
This is something I didn’t appreciate enough when I was young. Making friends as an adult is freaking hard. At least in high school, you see these people every day and have an automatic thing in common to talk about. I mean now it’s literally as easy as just following someone on Instagram and replying to their stories and boom you’re friends.
Having friends is fun!!
Plus, being charismatic is an underrated skill that can get you far in life. So many jobs these days are just TALKING TO PEOPLE! It’s how you get jobs and promotions and connections, yet your teachers don’t even grade you on it. Here’s where you have the chance to build your charisma and social skills:
Present in front of the class
Make announcements in front of the school
Make small talk with anyone (your teachers are PAID to be nice to you, so you can start with them)
Look people in the eye and smile
Ask people questions about themselves
As an introvert, I know it’s not fair that the world seems to reward extroverts more, but that’s just the way it is honey. Every time I get on stage or get in front of the camera, I get more comfortable than before. Just like with anything, it takes practice!
Remember that grades don’t define your worth
If there’s one more lesson I can impart, it’s that grades aren’t everything. When you’re young, it can feel like your entire future depends on you passing this class and getting into the right school. But life is really LONGGGGG.
It’s okay to fail a test. It’s okay if you ruin your average and lose a scholarship. I know it kind of goes against everything I’ve just written, but trust me, academic success is not the end of the world. I’ve won scholarships but I’ve also been rejected from grad schools and sashayed away on Drag Race. You know what happens when you don’t reach your dreams? You wake up the next morning and you set a new dream.
Success isn’t defined by a number on your report card or a number in your bank account. It’s whatever you define it as. You have so much growing to do, and you’re going to discover new dreams you hadn’t even thought of yet.
You are capable of so much more than you think! Dream big, work hard, but don’t be hard on yourself. Give yourself time to breathe and enjoy being a kid too.