The cost of my freshmen year at ASU is about 78% of my parent's salary combined. My parents currently own a small restaurant in the phoenix area, and barely makes enough to get by month to month. My mom could only finish 7th grade before going to the work force to help support her parents. My dad had an education of a 5th grader as he also has to work in order to support his family. In 1998, my parents abandoned everything in their home country to come to America, just because of me. They wish to provide a successful future, and have a life of opportunity. Anyways, my parents worked all over the valley to provide me a decent life, traveling well over 30 miles just to work at a restaurant. Just about 9 years ago, my family opened their own restaurant. The restaurant had a phenomenal first year, and we even managed to hire many workers! However, the economic crash and rising gas prices caused our family to fire every worker. Now, the restaurant only has my dad, mom and I. After school, I would stop by the restaurant to help out the family. During this time, the family was struggling financially and put me, their 10 year old son to work. It was horrible, the hours were long and the labor was hard. However, we got passed through this stage, and overcame the financial crisis. Even today, I continue to help my parents, whether it was creating a restaurant website or answering phone calls. I have been working at my parents restaurant for over 7 years.
Derek, the story that you tell in the scholarship application should focus on your story and the story of how difficult it will be for you to attend college without a scholarship. You can mention your parent's restaurant and how you have worked there for 7 years, how your parents finances have gone up and down to the point where you no longer have employees in the restaurant. What the reviewer will not care about is the story of your parents and how they grew up poor. Their story does not have a direct relation to your college dreams so you should not focus too much attention on their story.
In a schoolarship application, what the reviewer would like to know if you have personally done anything to help ease your financial problem. Maybe you have a saving account that you started when you were enter high school but it isn't enough to get you into college. Or maybe you parents have a college fund set aside for you but it can only answer for a limited amount of your fees. When you combine your savings with the fund, you still find yourself short. So while you will continue to find work as a college student, you feel that receiving a scholarship will help you perform better at school because of the less worry about financial needs. Make sure that you highlight your ability to finance your college degree by finding a job. However, you can only work one job in order to not sacrifice your studies. These are the lines of reasoning that the reviewers often take note of and consider when discussing the scholarship grants.
