Dear Mr. Leonard,

I am sending this letter to express my deepest appreciation to the Foreign Language Council of San Diego and to you for selecting me as a winner and awarding me with a $500 scholarship. I plan on using this scholarship money to pay for my 2006 academic textbooks. Both the French language and my French teacher have been instrumental elements of my high school experience, and it is with the utmost confidence that I can say French will be equally important to me in the years to come. I have already been recruited for high-level French courses at Boston College and I plan on enrolling in courses regarding the spoken language as well as the history and literature of the French language. I am working toward a major or minor in French and I know that this added skill will prove very advantageous for me in the future. Again, I thank you and the Foreign Language Council of San Diego for offering such a wonderful scholarship and for helping students such as myself to pursue their strong interests in language. 

Sincerely,

Cristina Espinosa-da Silva  

Update:

My first year of college has been amazing. Although my roommate has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and completely disagrees with me on any major political issue, she's become one of my best friends here at Boston College (and ourroom the definition of neatness and cleanliness for the girls on the floor.) Although I was jet-lagged, homesick, and rather unconvinced about the entire college proposition, the first day of orientation showed me that my year was going to be unbelievable. The administration divided the students in my Orientation Section into 36 groups, each with approximately 11 students. However, while most of the students were placed in groups with fellow fresh-men, I was one of the few freshmen placed in an international group, meaning the first relationships I formulated at BC were with transfer students from Jamaica, Israel, Argentina, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, and Italy - with ages ranging from 18 to 23. These first three days at BC were spent conversingin broken English, learning phrases in Hebrew and Italian, and discussing international politics as well as the culture shock of American society. 

My continuation of the French language has been equally intriguing. Although I had the entire language department (including my academic advisor, the professor for advanced Italian) pushing me to enroll in the French literature class for French native speakers, I wanted to adjust and anticipate the academic transition from high school to college, so I decided instead to enroll in the intermediate French class. The first two weeks were rather difficult and I dreaded going to my 10 am French class. My professor had already picked up on my advanced proficiency and had basically labeled me as the "under-achiever" of the class. On two separate occasions, she held me after class and asked very frankly, "What are you doing in this class? You should be in a higher-level class and preparing for a year abroad!" Although there was some initial friction we have made our peace since then - she calls on me when the class is being especially unresponsive and I humor her with a five-minute monologue about what I ate for dinner or what I did during the weekend. She has also realized that my goals are much higher than that intermediate class - currently pre-med with a major in philosophy and aminor in French - and has loosened the slack accordingly.