National Opportunities Abundant for Teens
As a teenager in the ‘90s there was not many things in life that I had to apply for and wait to hear if I was selected. If you wanted to attend a summer camp, go on a field trip or play in a local golf tournament, you simply signed up, paid a fee and marked your calendar.
Today, the landscape has drastically changed. While many local and statewide activities exist for teens, so do regional and national activities, ones that definitely never made the news in Lee County in the 90s.
March kicks off application session at The First Tee. Annually the home office provides regional and national experiences for chapter youth to apply for participation in. Ranging from College Prep Academies, Golf Competitions, Scholars Programs, Corporate Seminars and so much more. These opportunities include an application process consisting of participant essays, letters of recommendation, transcripts and even interviews by third parties.
A far cry from the processes my family endured while my brother and I were teenagers.
The tip of the iceberg is that once our local participants apply, we have the tough decision to determine which applications are strong enough to submit in representation of our chapter through the selection process of the national review committee.
Curious what an essay question for the participant may look like?
The most recent submission process was for the 2015 – 2016 Scholars Program where participants were asked to describe the value participating in The First Tee has had in their life by using a personal narrative about one of the Life Skills they have learned. Participants were asked to include examples of personal growth, development of leadership traits, and golf skill development. Finally, how these lessons will help them succeed in college.
All in 500 words or less.
Initially I’m overwhelmed to think that a 17 year old is experienced enough to be able to clearly dictate this request, because honestly at 17 I don’t think I was, was I? Then, I take a step back and realize that our high school seniors really have had a high level of education, experience and mentorship over the last several years to compose their answers.
Interested in hearing some of their answers?
One participant, now 17, reflects on his younger years of feeling shy, scared and uncomfortable meeting new people and trying new activities. Because of his healthy experiences with coaches and fellow participants, he started to look forward to what used to be a new experience at The First Tee as well as began improving his golf game.
Later he learned how to set goals that are positive and important to himself. While initially hesitant of what other’s reaction might be to his goals, he embraced his golf goal of overcoming the anxious nerves of tournament competition and desire to not get sick leading up to his first shot of the day.
Through encouragement from his coaches and reflecting on his goal ladder, he had a new found confidence and ability to enter new experiences and environments without hesitation.
Another participant, who will be playing on the Women’s Team at UNC Pembroke next fall, also wrote her essay on how to set goals. She reflected on an early lesson learned at The First Tee discussing how to create an image of what you want to achieve.
Because she was able to successfully apply these skills to goal setting in high school, she has already set short and long term goals for college including her desired graduation GPA, school organizations she would like to join, golf accomplishments and more.
In her wrap up, she reflected on how The First Tee teaches you to state a goal has a lot to do with whether you reach it. She has learned to state her goals positively, make them important and specific to her and ensure they are under her control.
We want know for a few weeks if either of these participants were selected to the Scholars Program. Though sitting back and reading their personal essays, teacher recommendations and seeing the sparkle of hope in their eye tells me regardless of the outcome, they will be ok.
The application process is now an experience in itself, one that I may not have been capable of 17 years ago but am glad that in the future my children will be poised and prepared to tackle their own applications, due to their lessons along the way.