As many of you know, I spent my early career teaching and I have a deep passion for lifelong learning and creating a life of dreams fulfilled. I tell my audiences that “I want to create a widely diversified portfolio of unforgettable memories” and I encourage others to do the same.
Achieving your educational goals is a significant step toward achieving your dreams. Each of us has an important purpose and a unique story to tell. But sometimes we need a boost to give our dreams the momentum they deserve.
Burrus Scholarship Gives Dreams a Boost
About a year ago, I had an idea to support a few individuals each year who were pursuing their educational dreams with a focus on the greater community in which they live, so I created the Daniel Burrus Scholarship Fund.
The awards are given twice a year to individuals who are in high school planning on attending a college or university or are full-time college or university students in good academic standing and who have a desire to continue their education to better impact their community.
I’m proud to announce the three winners of our Fall 2017 award. The scholarship recipients’ essays demonstrated how they each applied my Anticipatory Organization (AO) principles, such as Hard Trends, the Law of Opposites, Problem Skipping and Choose to Be Extraordinary in their life, work and community.
Let me introduce them.
Bayne Shaifer is a high school senior who identified a problem in her community and boldly applied the AO principles to devise a plan to create change.
She created The Bayne Community Scholarship Foundation, which at its core, is a mentoring program to teach high school students to create a project that genuinely excites them and serves their communities in a meaningful way.
The foundation is especially important to Bayne because she has struggled with severe dyslexia her whole life. One teacher even told her parents that she had a 50% chance of graduating from high school. But when she discovered her passion, she suddenly had a clear direction despite her disability.
She wanted every single one of her peers to experience the same amazing boost in confidence by creating their own projects. She’s heading to University of Miami.
Follow Bayne Academy:
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@BayneAcademy
Xavier Jimenez Guzman made his way to the United States from Ecuador to attend Penn State. Since his first semester at college, he knew he wanted to do research and discover new things to help himself grow as an engineer and to help the world be a better place for future generations.
As a mechanical engineering student, he applied Hard Trends to his research objectives mentored by Dr. Tim Simpson and Dr. John Cimbala and published his first co-authored paper at the 2016 Annual International Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium entitled “3D Printing in the Wild: A Preliminary Investigation of Air Quality in College Maker Spaces.” He was not only able to apply knowledge that he gained in research to his classes but also to the hazardous materials technician courses he was taking while volunteering as a firefighter.
Xavier is transferring to University of Texas El Paso to complete his graduate studies and continue his research.
Follow Xavier:
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@XavierJimenezG
Aaron Algave has a passion for leadership. He is a senior in high school, where he competes in debate team and teaches speech and debate skills to younger students. He’s also been an intern for two congressional leaders and has used AO principles to advance democracy through various civic and leadership activities in his community.
Aaron is heading to University of Florida for his undergrad and plans to study business and law so he can use his skills to benefit society.
Follow Aaron:
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@AlgaveA
I am truly inspired by these young people and I hope you are too. Small acts of support grow exponentially. I would love to hear how you are making an impact on the next generation of leaders in your community.
The Daniel Burrus Scholarship Fund was created to be a resource for those students who applied AO principles to help them achieve their goals and objectives, while leading others along the way. By supporting students to shape a positive future, I believe our youth can be better prepared to become transformational leaders within their communities and achieve enormous success. Learn more about the Daniel Burrus Scholarship Program. You might also be interested in learning about the Anticipatory Organization.