Please join me in congratulating the winners of the 2022 Robert Jordan Memorial Scholarship, Carolina Costa D'Ávila and Lisa Frost!
Sincere thanks to the Hall for reading, analyzing and making difficult decisions in determining our winners for this year. You are appreciated!
The recipients winning essays are below and will be added to the library page here with the previous winners of the scholarships and their essays. Again, congratulations!
Winning Essay: Carolina Costa D'Ávila
Winning Essay: Lisa Frost
Sincere thanks to the Hall for reading, analyzing and making difficult decisions in determining our winners for this year. You are appreciated!
The recipients winning essays are below and will be added to the library page here with the previous winners of the scholarships and their essays. Again, congratulations!
Winning Essay: Carolina Costa D'Ávila
Dear Hall of the Tower,
I must first tell you that I am Brazilian and, as such, I do not have the appropriate grasp of the english language to write a formal essay. I learned english through activities of leisure, such as reading or playing, and as flattering as can be to know what a mantelpiece or a polearm is, I am afraid I sometimes find difficult what others take for granted. That being said, I shall tell you how my education entails being a Servant of All. It is the very reason why I chose my profession in the first place. My familiar background is… shameful. As you may know (or not), Brazil went through a military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985. The real democratization process, however, would only occur in the 90s. I grew up in a family that, directly and indirectly, supported the dictatorship. I grew up in a home filled with hate, violence, and prejudice, and I grew up confused about the world I was living in. I learned the wrong things at home, and it was a long and hard process to be able to overcome my family’s world views. I am being as straightforward as I can; my home was all about racism, homophobia, misogyny, and religious prejudice (against non-christians). As a teenager, I was angry, and I had all the wrong ideas. At the same time, the world would give me clues that things did not fit in my family’s explanations about life. I had to take a different path; and so I did.
I am a much different person today. I entered the Social Sciences course in college because I had to understand what my family was failing to provide me. It was very difficult because I had to work and study at the same time, and I was always exhausted. Several times I quit because I just could not do both. But I persevered (I just knew there was no other path for me, no other profession), I went back to college and, almost 10 years after first entering college, I got my bachelor degree in Social Sciences. That happened in 2020. Today, I am a master’s degree student in Political Science. I study Democratic Theory, because nothing makes more sense to me than thinking of ways to make the world just – the public arena must be a place of equality. I know too many people scorn politics, and I can already see the turning of noses at the word “theory”. I learned, however, that the greatest achievements of mankind were once the dreams of bold and good men and women. Everything we have – our institutions, the valorization of freedom and justice, the reciprocity and the ability to live in highly plural societies – was once imagined by someone who thought that could make the world a nicer place to live. Needless to say, political thinking is more needed than ever these days. In one hand, we see the rising of extremist views and there is this atmosphere of dread, as if we were hanging by our fingers on the edge of the abyss that is hate. However, we also see the rising of the political movements that will forever change what we know as traditional democratic politics. Minorities are simply too tired of being mistreated and wronged. As a latin lesbian woman who had to face her own family’s prejudices and wrong-doings, I am entitled to say that I can understand other people’s pains. Those are my pains too. I hope to have a prosper career and significantly contribute to finding solutions for inequality and injustice. If I was granted the scholarship, I would be able to pay for study resources such as books and softwares, and I would be able to pay for article submissions, to participate on congresses, and to improve my access to education in general. I would also be able to make my voice heard, and to see that my production has a significant impact. Currently, I make something around 300 dollars per month, and it barely pays my bills. I also hope that, whether this essay grants me the scholarship or not, you find my words to be of such impact that will lead you to reflect on political issues and spread the message forward.
Winning Essay: Lisa Frost
In North America, there is an unprecedented skilled trades shortage arriving within the next 10-20 years. The governments of both Canada and the United States have statistically determined that there is a critical need to train new trades people now to lessen the economic impact from the impending labour shortage. Their alarm is from how the trades shortage will bubble over into all of society by causing slower production in all sectors, and at much higher costs that will impact all goods and services in all sectors. Skilled workers in construction or industrial trades sectors are truly Servants of All, although most people may think otherwise. However, skilled trades workers were deemed Essential Workers throughout all stages of the Covid-19 global pandemic; and during the strongest levels of lockdown within my country, skilled trades worksites only saw a temporary shutdown of a week or two if there was a confirmed covid-outbreak at the site.
I am enrolling into pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship block 1 schooling to become an Industrial Millwright Mechanic. Industrial Millwrights are tradesworkers who install, dismantle, maintain, repair, reassemble, and move machinery in factories, power plants, and construction sites. If you have used anything that is manufactured with the use of industrial tools and machines, millwrights are the tradesworkers who build and repair those tools and machines. Thousands of jobs often rely on a single millwright to quickly fix a component that breaks on a machine in a factory line. If it cannot be fixed, we have to custom-make its replacement - often on over-time - so everyone else can return to work. It’s much like being a doctor and surgeon for machines. Every factory requires millwrights: therefore, all of modern society around the globe has used products that were impacted by my trade.
As I am growing older, I am learning more each year that I am a person who prefers to be working behind the scenes, and to humbly offer critical support out of the spotlight. My desire to be an Industrial Millwright Mechanic falls directly in line with these aspects about me and the quiet behind-the-scenes approach I take to being a Servant of All. I will build the physical components of new machine innovations that help society, I will mend mechanical parts that are broken, and I will be my specific but critical role in the greater machine to enable countless others to get back to work and earn their wages to support their lives and loved ones. In my personal life I further exemplify being a Servant of All by volunteer-mentoring other women and young people to consider a career in the trades by showing them relatable work exercises, and serving as an example that a woman can do anything in the trades. Any woman, and any person can be this type of Servant of All. But until more young people join into this trade, I am ready to be that Servant of All.