Levine Scholars Blog
Over the summer, I interned with Safe Alliance. I would describe the experience as a classic Levine experience. The “classic” Levine experience is one that allows me to help people while also creating new opportunities for myself.
The sounds of labored breathing filled the air as we slowly lumbered up the trail on our first day at NOLS. The sun beat down on us with its blazing heat, and the rucksacks on our back made us feel like young crustaceans trying on their first shells, awkward and unprepared for the weight.
Three years ago, I was offered the Levine Scholarship to UNC Charlotte. I was thrilled, grateful, and humbled, but also… worried. My whole life, I’d been working towards the goal of a college scholarship.
On Saturday morning, March 24, I joined 7 freshman Levine Scholars, 7,000 Charlotteans, and millions worldwide to march for increased regulation and restrictions on firearms. The March for Our Lives spanned 800 cities, the largest student-led protest since the Vietnam War.
If I’m being honest, I never thought that studying abroad for a semester would be a possibility for me. I wanted to double major and thought I couldn’t miss any semesters at my home university in order to finish in four years.
Two seniors, two juniors, four sophomores, and six freshmen: as I looked at the crowd of scholars chatting with anticipation outside of Levine Hall, I felt excited to get to know them more deeply through the alternative service break to Roanoke, Virginia with Habitat for Humanity.
One year ago, when I was walking into Levine Hall as a nervous finalist, I had no idea what to expect. I didn’t really know a lot about UNC Charlotte, or even the Levine Scholars Program, I just knew I was going to do an interview for a big scholarship and then go home to make up all the homework I had missed.
When I came to UNC Charlotte I knew that upon graduating I wanted to go to law school. I declared a major in political science and during my second semester took the introductory course for the legal studies minor.
Despite the many opportunities I’ve been given recently that I could write about, the most exciting one to date was seeing The Nutcracker with my fellow Scholars.
“Good Afternoon Levine Children’s Hospital, DJ Dani here live in Seacrest Studios and today during Weather World we’re talking about thunderstorms!”
As I desperately clung to the waist of a man I had met 5 minutes prior on the back of a motorcycle climbing a dirt road ascending a mountain to a women’s farm in the Nepali Himalayas with a backpack that had nothing in it but a watermelon, I had to ask myself: how did I get here?
From what I remember being a senior in high school attending Finalists’ Weekend, the part of the Levine Scholarship that the (interviewing high school seniors) students were least focused on was the civic engagement grant.
