Scholar Motivation featuring Mary Polupan

"My college experience was sandwiched between the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, which directly affected my entire extended family as I am a first-generation immigrant and the child of Ukrainians who emigrated to the United States. Studying while every day is fraught with emotions like fear that your loved ones may not survive the next hour certainly makes writing essays and completing assignments challenging. However, I was unwilling to face the consequences of not finishing my degree and changing my goals. I was very invested in completing my education and continuing on in a career that would allow me to influence the situation and bring justice to the people I worried about every day. I learned to treat myself with grace and to handle the stress rather than bottle up my emotions. I learned to compromise and let go of perfectionism. Most of all, I learned that you could get through a situation and achieve your goals even if it didn't happen exactly the way you envisioned it. A vision is a guide, but real life often goes far off your imagined beaten track."

Mary Polupan , winner of a 2019 National Merit Computer Aid Scholarship, earned a bachelor of arts degree in political science from Loyola University Chicago graduating summa cum laude. While in college, Mary interned with a political consulting firm as well as a local nonprofit that helped unify various organizations in Chicago around a political cause. She also served on the Steering Committee of an independent Model U.N. conference, and the U.S. operations of an American-Ukrainian organization to help provide humanitarian aid to the war in Ukraine.

Mary is now pursuing a law degree at the 美国伊利诺伊大学香槟分校 . She says, "I love political science because it is a field with extremely practical applications. Politics plays an understated role in our day-to-day lives. Having grown up with a Ukrainian background in the United States with a deep appreciation of my parents' sacrifices in raising me here, I believe that the intentional study and application of political science and law are necessary to healing societal rifts and divisions in the U.S. and enabling the global community to advance together in the interest of humanity's best virtues and values."