The Ridge Alumni Memorial Scholarship selection committee has named RHS senior Sarah Amick recipient of the $8,500 Ridge Alumni Memorial Scholarship for 2013. Congratulations to Sarah.

Following are excerpts from Sarah’s application essay:

“Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?”

On a chilly afternoon in temple, my rabbi stood up and asked this very question to the congregation. (He told a story) centered on a girl who was complaining about how hard life was. Her mother boiled three pots of water: one with a carrot, one with an egg, and one with coffee beans.

After being boiled, the expected happened: the carrot softened into a tender, deep orange, the egg hard boiled to form a rubbery bright white outside and pasty yellow inside, and the coffee beans turned the water into rich, dark, aromatic coffee.

When faced with a tough decision or difficult situation, did she weaken like the carrot, build a hard interior like the egg, or change the environment around her to make the situation better like the coffee beans?

I am proud to say I am a coffee bean.

When I was three years old, my father passed away suddenly. Like the egg, I could have grown up with a tough interior, not trusting or letting anyone in, and refusing to establish any meaningful relationships. Instead, I grew stronger and independent.

Just a few years ago, my family’s income dropped dramatically. Like the carrot, I could have weakened and started spending time with the wrong crowd to fit in, or simply given up. Instead I acquired several jobs, and continue to buy everything I need.

This coffee bean has faced a lot of adversity and tragedy in my short seventeen years, yet I am a happy and optimistic person. My hardships have taught me how precious and fleeting life can be.

I make a strong brew.

I want to surround myself with small smiling faces, miniature bundles of joy, runny noses and aching stomachs. I want to make sick children healthy again. I want to help families, and travel the world and work with people of different cultures and find cures. This is my dream, to become a pediatrician. And sometimes I think my dream cannot come true.

This amount of money may not appear to be so much to some people, but it would mean everything to me. It would make it possible for me to go to college and fulfill my dream of becoming a doctor.