Congratulations to our 2018 RCSCA Scholarship recipient, Andrew Buchanan! Our Education Committee (D.C. Collins, Linda Buckardt, Daryll Ann Sulliman, Jackie Carroll and John McCarthy) met with applicants and selected a recipient, Andrew Buchanan, to receive our scholarship in the amount of $1600.00. Andrew is pictured left with Kay Dwyer, past RCSCA President and founder of the club scholarship program. Applicants were asked to describe themselves and their goals in writing. They were also asked to write about their experience as a conservative attending UNLV. The following are Andrew’s responses:
About Andrew and Goals –
“I am a college student. I slave countless hours and numerous days to achieve a better life for myself. I am going to college to be an electrical engineer, and I am currently taking the hardest semester I have ever taken. I am taking seventeen credits, and I have two jobs. This is my first semester of my junior year and it is by for the greatest challenge I have ever faced.
This semester is such a challenge because the work load never quits, and neither do I. I have no free time. I am always working weather it be school or my other jobs. On the side of school, I work for a retirement home as a server in their dining room, and for my second job I work as a tutor in the Academic Success Center at UNLV.
My life is busy, but it wasn’t always been like this. Back in high school I tried as hard as I could to get good grades, so my options would be better for picking my degree in college. Its ironic that through out my life people have always asked what I wanted to be, but it wasn’t up until I was sitting in the academic advising center picking my classes for my first semester in college that it mattered. I knew the pursuit of higher education was for me when I told the academic advisor that I wanted to be an inventor, and he didn’t look at me as if I was a child dreaming. He looked at me as if this idea of being an inventor was not unrealistic. This is when I knew I wanted to be an engineer."
About being a conservative on the UNLV campus –
“Being a conservative while attending a University is not as easy as I thought it would be, and it has changed how I see my friends. Being a full time student with two part time jobs I often do not have the time to research current political views Conservative or Progressive. Many of my friends do not give the office of the President, held by Donald J Trump the respect that holding that office commands. With that being said I rely on my father to keep me up on current affairs. He believes in the constitution and has always taught me to speak what’s on my mind, ask questions, and do my own research.
Being a conservative while attending University has taught me that Progressives whether they are red or blue often make statements that are not true or are misleading. The main stream news is over ninety percent negative when it comes to our President, Donald J Trump. When you speak about something the president of the united states has said or done you are met with comments like homophobe, racist, xenophobe, ect. You must be careful and know your facts, so you can respond in a way that can defuse a conflict with a progressive Democrats. These democrats seem to have cognitive dissonance when our president is involved.
Attending this University has taught me how to become a better conservative. When you must be so careful about what you say around Progressive Democrats I feel it is discrimination against free speech. I wish there were more conservative Professor’s that taught at the University.
Attending this university in seek of a higher education has changed me, and showed me that even though the odds are against me I still have a right to stand up for what I believe in. What a great country we live in. A country where we are free to pursue our dreams and desires. I am proud to be a citizen of the United States. I’m proud to be a conservative thinker attending a University.”
Andrew will attend our January membership meeting, so we will get the opportunity to meet this exceptional young man.
Many of you have expressed how much you enjoyed meeting our past recipients and hearing them speak at our meetings. Thank you for your continued support of our scholarship program.
