By SUMYA MOHIUDDINPhoto by Sumya Mohiuddin With help from Malden High School Alumni and current classmates, Elizabeth Tran completed her application process for the Posse scholarship with success. In fall of 2014, Tran will be attending Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. Moving to New York is only the first step to her stimulating journey. Her dreams of the future are plentiful, but obscure; however, Summer Search has expanded her vast experiences when she had the opportunity to go to Mexico. Through her community service, she gained an interest in social justice. During her first year of college, Tran wishes to “experiment with humanities and the social sciences.” Within the next few years, her goals of “[collaborating] with government-dependent communities in third world countries” are not only realistic, but morally satisfying. She wants to change the lives of people who believe dependency on the government is the only way to live. Because of Tran’s own experience, she can help others gain independence with confidence, changing one life at a time. Tran believes effective communication can get anyone far in life. One of the main reasons she chose Hamilton College was because of the emphasis they put on communication through speaking and writing. Along with the the “successful writing program that requires its students to take three writing-intensive classes,” Tran was attracted to the freedom to choose classes she wanted to take, rather than following a required curriculum. Before Tran had the privilege of becoming a Posse scholar, however, she had to go through the elongated application process. Because “each interview sets the applicant up for high expectations and high stakes,” Tran got a taste of “what the real world work field is like, [which is] highly competitive.” She is thankful for the experience, especially since she was one of sixty Posse scholars. Through her experience with Posse, she has made new friends and learned more about herself. In the future, she hopes “to become more confident with the way [she presents] myself and to also articulate [her] experiences and opinions thoroughly to cause ripple effects in our generation.”
