This is for a short study abroad program in England. The program will give me 3 hours of graduate credit. The scholarship would cover tuition.

The essay is actually one page of single spaced writing. Your thoughts are appreciated. If you don't feel like reading it, exit now.

Study Abroad Scholarship Essay

Nothing speaks to me, or has ever spoken to me, like literature. My love for reading and hunger for books developed years before the concept of studying would become real for me. I devoured words and short novels as a child, experiencing the stories as I read them with all of my heart and mind. Reading and studying literature is an authentic, engaging, life-long experience for me. My participation in the study abroad program in English Literature is important to me because it will extend my understanding of many authors and works that I have come to love. It will give me the opportunity to explore many works in depth while working with other students who love literature. Most importantly, to me, studying abroad will allow me to cement emotional ties that I have only begun to form with authors whose works are very much alive in the places we will visit.
While participating in the travel seminar, I feel like I will gain a deeper understanding of the works we will study as a part of the trip. Discussing the literature as we visit landmarks, museums, and even homes of the authors will link those passages and poems to concrete places in my mind and heart. I will further understand the themes and ideas behind the literature as I visit the lands in which it was conceived and brought to reality. The course will provide a more in-depth look at the technical and artistic roots of the works we will study, as well as a deeper understanding of the eras from which the various works arise.
The study of literature is inseparably linked to discussion and exploration of personal responses to the subject matter and themes of the works. Participating in the travel seminar to England will provide a continuous opportunity for in-depth discussion of the works with other students who value literature as deeply as I do. Experiencing literary sites and works with a group of students will hugely benefit my growth as a scholar by providing endless access to diverse viewpoints and understandings of works in British literature.
So much of literature is laced with such vibrant passion and emotion. I’ve experienced an echo of this passion in class with wonderful professors, but I long to stand in the places where these authors stood, see the landscapes these authors gazed upon, tread the streets and steps they walked upon. I crave the physical connection I know I will experience upon visiting a land brimming with literary history. I imagine the fulfillment of more fully knowing the feeling of the literature I have been studying and loving, of simply standing still and taking up the same spaces, of walking down streets and driving through country sides I have known affectionately already in the works of Dickens, Wordsworth, the Bronte sisters. I want to be where their words were born and connect those places to where my love of literature was born within my own heart.

very well-written. just a couple of things, though. first, just a minor thing that i was taught in college. in this sentence: "I feel like I will gain a deeper understanding of the works we will study as a part of the trip." use of the phrases "i think" and "i feel" put across a sense of weakness in your writing, as if you don't have enough confidence in your thoughts and ideas. since i only caught that once i don't think it will be that big of a deal. second, you mention a lot what you think you will gain from the experience, but what about what you can offer to others? it may help mentioning what you could bring home to share with others, the experiences you could share with your peers.

Thanks!

you're welcome. i hope you get the scholarship! that would be such a great learning experience and i'll be sooo jealous if you go!