How I made $2,500 in four hours as a high school student

It was the fall of my senior year of high school, and I was lounging in the living room on a Saturday afternoon, browsing through a packet of information on local scholarships that my high school guidance office had put together.

One particular scholarship caught my eye. “Municipal Utilities: Good For All of Us,” it read. My town’s water and electricity was provided through a public utility company called Shakopee Public Utilities, and they were sponsoring an essay contest. 

The requirements were straightforward, if a bit vague. “High school seniors who live in the Shakopee Public Utilities service area are invited to submit a 500-word essay on the benefits of municipal utilities. First and second place winners will receive scholarships in the amount of $1,000 and $500, respectively.”

Bingo. I’ve always enjoyed writing, so any scholarships that required students to submit essays were immediately on my short list.

Throwing mud at the wall and hoping something sticks is the wrong way to approach essay contests. You have a better shot of getting a scholarship from 5 well-written essays than from 10 essays you half ass. 

Half-assing things, especially when the stakes were a thousand bucks, had never been my style. I was determined to get first place, and I needed a game plan.

First, it was time to flex my google-fu. The theme of the essay contest was broad. I wonder what last year’s winners wrote about.  A quick search left me unimpressed. The writing, basic and boring, was nothing more than a regurgitation of a few notes from Wikipedia on the benefits of public utilities. I knew I could write a much better essay.

Eyes on the prize

Writing a better essay is one thing. Even though the competition for this local scholarship would be smaller than for your typical scholarship essay contests, I had some pretty great writers in my senior class who I knew would also be applying for this scholarship, so I didn’t need just a better essay: I needed a winning essay.

When writing a winning essay, personal statement or other content, keep in mind two things. First, you have to connect to your audience. Think about the person reading and judging your essay. Will it be your high school English teacher? Will it be your town’s volunteer organization? A local businessman? Your target reader should always be at the forefront when you write. 

Second, you have to stand out from the crowd. Think about all the others applying for this essay contest. Think about what they will write and how they’ll write it. Make sure you DON’T write like the rest. Whoever the reader may be, it’s highly likely they’ll be reading dozens of essays or personal statements. Eventually, they will get bored and the essays will start to blur together. Make sure your writing sounds different from the rest. You don’t need to be the world’s best writer if you can make your ideas stand out. 

For a winning essay, I needed to accomplish two things: First, I needed to connect to whoever would be reading and judging my essay. Second, my essay needed to stand out from the rest. Time to brainstorm.

What are the benefits of public utilities, anyway, I wondered. As I browsed the internet, I found plenty of articles online explaining the differences between public utilities — nonprofit entities — and regular utilities, which were for-profit companies. But I didn’t want to regurgitate this content into another generic essay — there would be plenty of those in the pile, as far as I was concerned. What kind of twist can I put on this? I pondered, staring at the ceiling.

Suddenly, I had a brilliant idea. How could I turn something generic into something that would resonate with the people judging my essay? By making it local! 

In other words, I needed to uncover how Shakopee Public Utilities specifically benefited the town of Shakopee itself? And what better way to do that than to talk the the public relations representative of SPU?

That very Monday, I rang the local office. 

Me: “Hi, I’m working on the essay for SPU’s essay contest, and I had some questions about how Shakopee Public Utilities has contributed to the local community. I was hoping to speak to someone who could answer a few of my questions.”

Clearly taken aback by the request, the reception paused for a second before responding. I could tell she hadn’t gotten a request like this from a high school kid before. But like I said, throwing mud at the wall wasn’t my style. The only thing standing between me and a thousand bucks, as far as I concerned, were just a few unanswered questions. 

“Can I put you on hold for a minute? Let me see if someone is available.”

A few minutes later, I was transferred to the PR representative. She was pleasantly surprised that I was putting in this amount of effort into the essay and was eager to answer my questions.

"Do employees at SPU volunteer in the local community?” I asked from my prepared list of questions. “Does SPU give money to the community to support schools or other community initiatives?”

The PR rep gave me some great answers — yes, employees at SPU got paid time off to volunteer in the community, and the company had recently given our local high school a grant toward the construction of a new wing, among other things. I spent a couple more hours compiling the rep’s answers into a compelling piece on how Shakopee Public Utilities benefited the town of Shakopee, and then sent in my application.

A few months later, I received a letter in the mail.

Dear Janneta,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been awarded $1,000 for your first place essay in the Tom Bovitz Memorial Scholarship essay contest. Congratulations! 

I was elated. A thousand bucks for, like, 3 hours of work? That’s more than I made working all school year at my part time waitressing gig! But the letter continued:

Additionally, we have forwarded your essay to the Minnesota Municipal Utilities Association, where it will be further considered for additional awards.

I hadn’t realized this at the time I applied, but all local first-place essays were forwarded to the state level, where first, second and third place winners would receive additional scholarships ranging from $1,000 to $2,000. A few months later, I received another letter. Not only had my essay won first place at the Shakopee Public Utilities essay contest — I was also awarded second place at the state level!

Cha-ching, an additional $1,500! The greatest return on 4 hours of work in my life.

There’s a few lessons to be learned here, so let’s sum things up. 

1. Stand out from the crowd

Even if I hadn’t called the local utility company to get the inside scoop on SPU’s achievements, there’s still a good chance I would have won the first or second place spot in the local competition simply by having a smoothly structured and well-argued essay. However, without a local spin, my essay would have sounded pretty generic. I doubt I would have gone on to win that additional $1,500 at the state level. As you write you scholarship essays, think about what unique twist can bring a whole new perspective to your essay — and to your judge. 

2. Local is the way to go

A big key to my success in this essay scholarship was that only my town’s high school seniors could apply. Unlike national essay competitions where you and every other high school senior in the US can participate, this local competition had me up against just the other kids from my high school.

Let’s be real: how many of your high school classmates are going to go above and beyond composing an essay for a scholarship they may or may not win? Sure, there’s bound to be some smart cookies — if you’re reading this book, you’re probably one of them — who will put in a great deal of effort into an essay. The pool of those local overachievers, however, will always be much smaller at the local level relative to all the high schools in America.

3. Be a good writer, or find a good editor.

You’re probably just a really good writer, you might be thinking. And you’re right, to an extent. I’ve always enjoyed writing. If writing isn’t your strength, you might have to put in more effort — maybe you’ll need to put in more hours to write a standout essay. Maybe you’ll need to ask your grammar-savvy friend or even your English teacher to review your work. Work it out — don’t make excuses.

4. The harder you work, the luckier you’ll get.

Maybe what you’re thinking is, You just got lucky. Let’s touch on luck for a moment. Inevitably there’ll be an element of luck in any process, no matter how much effort you put in. You might do everything right and still not win that scholarship. No one’s guaranteeing you anything — even I am only here to help you maximize your chances. What it ultimately comes down to is effort. Going the extra mile. Because here’s the thing: the more effort you put in, the luckier you get. 

Ready, set, write.