Just a few minutes of your time?

lynx-xoxo:

Hello. My name’s Madeline, I’m fifteen years old. May I have five minutes of your time? I don’t like reading long text posts either, so I’ll bold the more important points.

I’ve always tried to give back to my community. When we had those things were you buy a candy bar or rose or bag of popcorn to send to your friend, and half of the money went to our schools special needs program, I always tried to spend $20-$30 because in elementary school I was in the special programs and I know how crappy they are. I donated to a fund that raised money to buy our 8th grade student teacher an iPad. I’ve helped with my churches summer camp for about five years; when I was younger I helped in the kitchen, now I’m old enough to be a counselor. When my grandma was alive I helped her with a lot of her church things—setting up the Christmas trees, communion, cooking for the community lunches we had on Sundays. This summer I was old enough to spend a week in Kentucky with my church working with an on location settlement. We built a shed and put a new roof on an incredible ladies’s house. (Not going to lie, I haven’t done much with my church since school started)

I didn’t do it to type it all out online—I just like helping people. And I hate sounding like I did it just for, I don’t know, bragging rights. So why am I telling you this?

I was accepted into the National Student Leadership Conference for Journalism, Film and Media, despite only being fifteen. It’s an amazing summer program in Washington DC and I can even get three college credits. I’d spend 11 days living on American University campus, learning far more than most people my age about college, the and most importantly Journalism—my dream career. I’ve always felt that words are the most powerful thing, and to say I like to get on my soapbox is an understatement. The first time I really knew that what I said was far more effective than what I did was when I was in sixth grade, and I made a Facebook post about my choir’s behavior before a singing competition, about how we needed to take it more seriously. I’m not sure what impact I had, but I still couldn’t believe the response I’d gotten. I took my school’s media class—we produced our school’s morning news show. I was absent the day we signed up for jobs and ultimately was forced in front of the camera when I came back. I was terrible and terrified, but as I got better at reading, Media Productions because my favorite class—and Anchor my favorite job. I took that class for two full years (only one of two people who did) and worked on our school blog, newspaper, yearbook and the news show. My favorite thing about all four was getting to interview people (photo documentation for yearbook.) I was thrilled when I saw I’d not only been nominated for this program, but accepted as well. 
Unfortunately, with the cost of travel and tuition, it’s about $4,000.

My mom’s a single mom who’s had a hard time finding work and in the beginning of 2013 we starting taking care of my grandmother—who is in the later stages of Alzheimer’s Disease.

I’m from a low income family, in a low income district, with other priorities than NSLC. Scholarships usually cover 750 maximum.

If you could spare a dollar or two, please consider donating it to my YouCaring fundraising account. 

100% of any money raised goes to tuition and travel costs. 

http://www.youcaring.com/tuition-fundraiser/madeline-pierron-s-nslc-fund/142038