What Does 30 Days Mean to Me - Scholarship Essay Example

30 day project What Does 30 Days Mean to Me? Part Estimated Monthly Expenses Items Cost Rent 200.00 Rent Deposit $400.00Groceries $200.00 Take-outs $50.00 Cafeteria $25.00 Utilities (Gas, Heating/Cooling, Electric) $120.00 Gasoline $110.00 Car Insurance $70.00 Car Payment $250.00 (Landline, Internet and Cable) $100.00 Cell Phone Bill $60.00 Medical/Dental/Prescription Insurance $190.00 Entertainment $50.00 School Supplies/Books $426.08 Tuition $1000.00 School Club Fees $25.00 Hair and Body Products $30.00 Charity $20.00 Clothes $70.00 House Cleaning Supplies $22.00 Medications $14.00 Book Club Membership $10.00 Miscellaneous Expenses $15.00 Cosmetics $20.00 Bicycle Repairs $5.00 Transport( train/taxi/bus) $30.00 Total Monthly Costs: $4,526.00 Part 2: Government Assistance 1. The Middle Class Scholarship I decided to try out for this scholarship program since I qualified for it. The Middle Class Scholarship is a new program, which began beginning this academic year. It is meant to help undergraduate students whose total family incomes range from one hundred to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. This targets students that would like to attend the University of California or California State University only. The Students must be a California resident currently attending a UC or CSU. They must also be a U.S. citizen or have permanent residency. They will also have to meet other income and financial aid standards. They will also need to maintain satisfactory academic performance. They may not have any defaults on any previous student loans. They should also not be incarcerated at the time of application. This was a nice program but it had the ability of making your feel poor without ever intending to. It was even a bit embarrassing going to ask for it and going through the application process. 2. Federal Work-Study Program This is a program that provides both an on and off the campus jobs for eligible undergraduate and graduate students. This is done through private and public non-profit organizations. It also has done in local school districts, and other local, state, or federal agencies. The private sector organizations can hire work-study students as long as they provide jobs that are related to a students course of study. This will help in apprenticeship and in achieving the career objectives of the student. A portion of Federal Work Study funds are also used in the promotion of community service by students as a way to give back to the society. It was exciting to be able to work and study at the same time because then I could see the direct impact and implications of what I was doing. I really felt out of depth at first because I was the only one in my department who was not a full time employee but the others soon put me at ease. It also helped that I got some pay as an incentive for the time I put in. I really began to appreciate the people who had to put in more than two jobs in order to make ends meet. I felt like I had two full time jobs: one as a student and the other as an intern. 3. Federal Stafford Subsidized Loan This program avails government insured, long-term and low-interest loans. This is to ensure that eligible undergraduate can get funding that will not harm them in the long term in terms of payment when they start working and repaying the loans. Therefore, the federal government takes up the responsibility of paying the interest on the loan as long as the student remains enrolled in a college. The undergraduate student can get a loan of up three thousand five hundred dollars for the first year of study. Then later they become eligible for four thousand five hundred dollars in their second year. This keeps going higher in the third year where they can borrow up to five thousand five hundred and maintain this figure through their stay in college. The loans eligibility is limited to a period of up to six years only for the typical four-year degree program. This I felt was just what I needed because it would take the strain off studying and working now and distribute it into little payments in the future when I had a job. Part 3: Sociological Concepts Applied I found that stratification in society is not just a creation of the politicians as most students like to think but that it was more a creation of economic forces at play. This is Social stratification and is a system where a society ranks categories of persons in a hierarchy. This is very clearly observable in United States. It very clear that some groups of persons have greater status, more power, and wealth than most other groups. These are the differences which have lead to social stratification. The phenomenon of social stratification works on four major principles. The first principle is that social stratification is a trait of society, and is not simply a show of individual differences between persons or groups. The second and most influencing factor is that social stratification can persists over generations. The third factor is that this is not just a phenomenon that is seen in the United States but social stratification is universal. This is something that is experienced everywhere where societies exist though it can be but variable and it take on different forms as it works across different cultures and societies. This is because fourthly social stratification is not only a phenomenon that involves not just inequality but also beliefs as well. The culture of a society and its ideologies about inequality are deeply rooted in a societys own philosophy. I found that I had to choose everything based on the amount of money that was available to me in terms of housing, eating places and even insurance covers. I found most of my colleagues at university living in the same areas, going to the same restaurants and shopping in the same shops. It was almost as though we were programmed by some invisible force to behave in the same manner. The more I thought about it the more I saw the power of money and its ability to stratify society into different levels of living. even more terrifying was the thought that this could have lifelong implications on not just my life nut those who lived, studied and worked as I did in an effort to get ahead in life. The other thing that I realized is that we tended to behave in an atypical manner. It was almost comical looking at the crowd for one could almost, with one hundred percent accuracy pick out the working class from the student. There was this restless energy around them and they hung around the same places doing the same things without even knowing (Johnson, 1975). There was also this great tendency among the student fraternity to move in groups. They were mostly divided into the different programs then into preference groups within the programs. You could see the dynamics of group psychology clearly playing out. They went to the same clubs, played the same video games in the same shops and usually chose the same type of meals. They also dressed almost the same way. Part 4: My Reactions I was not able to make ends meet on my salary but that had been obvious to me from the start. In fact, I needed two thousand six hundred dollars to make ends meet. I had even thought of doing some cooking on my own to save on expenses at one time nut found that it was too time consuming and it cost more to but the right kind of ingredients. I have to better appreciate the great meals that I took for granted at home. I decided to be buying some of the stuff I needed at home at bulk stores to save up on costs. I also decided to make use of the bus, train and taxis which might help me cut down on costs and save time. I quickly discovered that time is money. I have been finding myself thinking back on my parents and how they handled money. I had never really concentrated on their budgeting, paying on bills and so on. The thing I remembered most was this weekly sit-down to do the numbers and I decided that I would do that for myself. What I found disconcerting about this assignment was the numbers. I realized that I was not saving up any money. It was as if I was living in a vicious cycle or working and spending and worst of all accumulating debt in terms of government, loans, which I would have to pay for in the future. I found this to be unfair and I thought that surely Karl Marx was right when he introduced the notion of conflict theory in society. It revolves around the idea that “some small group controls the means of production and exploits those who are not in control” (Henslin, 2011, p. 28). This theory is characterized by the division of society into two major social classes: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. I felt like I was being bred to work for the upper class. The need for government assistance and grants through gifts were something I had always never really thought of. The best thing about this experience was that I was able to pick up on some norms within my cultural context that I knew would surely help me as I forged ahead in life. References CA. Govt. Department of Community Services and development, (2012). Low-income home energy assistance program (liheap). Retrieved from website: http://www.csd.ca.gov/Programs/Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).aspx Henslin, J. M. (2011). Sociology, a down-to-earth approach 11th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Johnson, D. W. (1975). Joining Together:Group Theory and Group Skills. Eaglewood cliffs NJ: Prentice Hall. Read More