Gaia Scholarship Winners!
Posted on Feb 19th, 2008
by 
Gaia Team
Gaia Team
Hello beautiful Gaia people.
Jessica here.
You may know that Gaia offers four scholarships a year to four (two at a time) inspiring individuals striving to change the world and live audaciously and authentically. A huge part of our mission is to help you change the world and these scholarships are one small way we try to support good people doing good things.
So, without further ado, I’d like to introduce you to the winners of our Change the World Scholarship 2007. (drum roll)
Meet Eryka. She’s a mother of four (!) going back to school and preparing for law school, hoping to specialize in adoption. We asked two essay questions of our applicants, What would you do if you weren’t afraid? and How are you going to change the world? I’d like to share some quotes from Eryka’s essay because they speak for themselves:
Fear has kept me from realizing my full potential. It once convinced me that It was more powerful than I am. As a result, my expectations became limited and my world shrank until all that remained was the daily struggle to make it from sunrise to sunset. But, the universe is perfect in its balance, and one day, it came to me that the one thing greater than Fear is Hope. In that instant I began to grow. My hope for a better life has empowered me to dream and take the steps necessary to manifest the destiny I have chosen for myself.
Um. Wow.
And how is she going to change the world?
For me, practicing law is more than a dream; it is a conviction. The idea that I could spend my life uniting parents and children is exciting and gratifying because I know that when a child is provided with a warm and nurturing environment, their potential to grow is unlimited. This project is immense and I am only one person with a vision, but I have faith that my path will certainly change the world for the individuals I help. When I think of rescuing children I have yet to meet, I also think of the adults they may become. Perhaps one of them will grow to do great things for the world in their own right…then my work would be complete.
Please feel free to say hi to her and check out the ridiculously cute baby photos on her profile.
Next, it’s my pleasure to introduce you to Brittany. She’s a photographer and documentary maker. When we confront our fears, I think we open up the way to triumph over them. It’s the honesty about our fears that allows us to overcome. Here is a quote from Brittany:
I am afraid others may not be impacted by the depth that my documentaries show. I fear they may not be good enough to be published. Despite winning best documentary at my college and having the Chief Editor of the Sacramento Bee love my documentary, I still fear there is more work that needs to be done. In today's world, people are quick to judge without taking the time to understand. My work needs to send the right message quickly to others.
We all have fears and it take courage to share them with sincerity and to continue on the path despite them, which is clearly what Brittany is doing…
Photography leaves an imprint on your mind whether you like it or not. It is remembered. It plants little seeds in your head sprouting growth and in most cases, compassion. It can and has changed the world... I would love to continue that.
Stop by her profile and check out her beautiful photography.
I just want to note, that we had thousands of submissions for this scholarship. There were so many wonderful entries and it was hard to choose. We wish the very very best for all of those who applied and are out there fulfilling their dreams, making this world better and brighter.
Posted by: Jessica
Jessica here.
You may know that Gaia offers four scholarships a year to four (two at a time) inspiring individuals striving to change the world and live audaciously and authentically. A huge part of our mission is to help you change the world and these scholarships are one small way we try to support good people doing good things.
So, without further ado, I’d like to introduce you to the winners of our Change the World Scholarship 2007. (drum roll)
Meet Eryka. She’s a mother of four (!) going back to school and preparing for law school, hoping to specialize in adoption. We asked two essay questions of our applicants, What would you do if you weren’t afraid? and How are you going to change the world? I’d like to share some quotes from Eryka’s essay because they speak for themselves:
Fear has kept me from realizing my full potential. It once convinced me that It was more powerful than I am. As a result, my expectations became limited and my world shrank until all that remained was the daily struggle to make it from sunrise to sunset. But, the universe is perfect in its balance, and one day, it came to me that the one thing greater than Fear is Hope. In that instant I began to grow. My hope for a better life has empowered me to dream and take the steps necessary to manifest the destiny I have chosen for myself.
Um. Wow.
And how is she going to change the world?
For me, practicing law is more than a dream; it is a conviction. The idea that I could spend my life uniting parents and children is exciting and gratifying because I know that when a child is provided with a warm and nurturing environment, their potential to grow is unlimited. This project is immense and I am only one person with a vision, but I have faith that my path will certainly change the world for the individuals I help. When I think of rescuing children I have yet to meet, I also think of the adults they may become. Perhaps one of them will grow to do great things for the world in their own right…then my work would be complete.
Please feel free to say hi to her and check out the ridiculously cute baby photos on her profile.
Next, it’s my pleasure to introduce you to Brittany. She’s a photographer and documentary maker. When we confront our fears, I think we open up the way to triumph over them. It’s the honesty about our fears that allows us to overcome. Here is a quote from Brittany:
I am afraid others may not be impacted by the depth that my documentaries show. I fear they may not be good enough to be published. Despite winning best documentary at my college and having the Chief Editor of the Sacramento Bee love my documentary, I still fear there is more work that needs to be done. In today's world, people are quick to judge without taking the time to understand. My work needs to send the right message quickly to others.
We all have fears and it take courage to share them with sincerity and to continue on the path despite them, which is clearly what Brittany is doing…
Photography leaves an imprint on your mind whether you like it or not. It is remembered. It plants little seeds in your head sprouting growth and in most cases, compassion. It can and has changed the world... I would love to continue that.
Stop by her profile and check out her beautiful photography.
I just want to note, that we had thousands of submissions for this scholarship. There were so many wonderful entries and it was hard to choose. We wish the very very best for all of those who applied and are out there fulfilling their dreams, making this world better and brighter.
Posted by: Jessica
Access: Public
2007
August 2008 
Wow and double wow!
We have some amazing people around here, don't we?
Thank you for the links - I hadn't come across either of these two amazing people before. What a gift!
We had so many amazing scholarship entries. It was an honor to be able to help decide who would be the winners. I was so inspired reading about all the great things our members plan to do to make a difference in the world. I hope the opportunity for all the scholarship applicants to put their dreams into words helps them all fulfill their dreams.
We have a great new scholarship running if you know anyone that may be interested.
Rapunzel, I know! They are beautiful people and this is an extraordinary community.
And Mark, so true. We had so many great entries. It's so inspiring.
Go girls, go with the flow!
Awesome, I love meeting individuals that conquer personal fears so that they may focus on improving the lives of others. I know what a feat this is so I was so inspired by the snippets of your replys. Good luck, I can learn alot from both of you so after I figure out how this cite works I would like to have you on friends list? I'm new at this. My goal is to write legislation to cut caseloads for social workers and I'm creating a documentary about the realities of foster care, so we might have fun chatting:) Take care!
Congratulations on your essays and I pray you continue to move closer to your goals.
It is truly inspiring to read the quotes from the scholarship winners of this last year. As an applicant for a scholarship in the coming year, I am more enlightened as to the quality of content, and the related quality of character, that makes for recognition by the Gaia community. I tend to feel that my story is less impressive because I have chosen to follow a life journey path that leads to outside the boundaries of what most of society on this planet places at high ranking. Gaia community is special though in that it seems to see the world as it should and could be. For my heart to rest, this will include the quality care of those often considered as “the least of these” – those with mental illnesses. I hope that the current scholarship winners, Eryka and Brittany, will consider using their
education and fields of expertise, in both law and the production of documentaries, to promote the increased consciousness of the great potential for good found in those with psychiatric diagnoses when they receive quality treatment for these otherwise cruel disabilities. And one more thing I would like to mention – I was in the documentary film Asylum: The Story of St. Elizabeths Hospital which premiered at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, on October 26, 1988. It was produced by Sarah Mondale and Sarah Patton. It was a labor of love done in an effort to save the West Campus of St. Elizabeths which is now being taken away from the mentally ill, for whom it was given by Dorthea Dix, and is slated to be used for Homeland Security instead.
“which is now being taken away from the mentally ill, for whom it was given by Dorthea Dix, and is slated to be used for Homeland Security instead.”
Wow, Elizabeth, I really admire the restraint of that statement, and how you let the sad irony of that situation stand on its own. I'm so sorry to hear that that was the outcome, but I admire you for having been involved in such a creative effort save a vital resource for an underserved community.
what a treat to read the winning excerpts. People all over the world are doing amazing things and it is really necessary that we all remember how powerful and special we are when we do have doubt or fear or sadness in our beings.here's to the sunrise and sunset!!! Also, thanks to Gaia for helping further education for these folks:)
These two women will be remarkable change agents. Very exciting. I appreciated how open to their vulnerability they were. I can image the rest of their essay's were very powerful.
Beautiful words. Congratulations to the winners in the past. That's some really admirable stuff.
It's so interesting that despite all the diversity in the world, there's always the common denominator of the vibrancy of the human spirit.