My name is Giovanni Cuccaro-Mendez and I am a sophomore at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers, Florida. One of my goals while I am still enrolled in college is to graduate with an above 3.0 Grade Point Average. My current grade point average is a 2.71 after finishing up a semester with one A, two B’s, and one C. I do not just want to graduate from a university, I want to graduate with good grades as well. Not just follow the saying, “C’s get degrees.”
Another goal of mine is to hopefully get an internship with the men’s basketball team and work alongside the head coach pre-game, during the game, and post-game, and also work alongside the assistant coaches and student athletes as well. I have a passion for sports, especially basketball, and I want to make a career out of it, what better way to get started than to help your own school’s basketball team?
Another goal of mine while attending FGCU is to help Chi Alpha spread the good news, or the gospel, to the students who also attend the university. Chi Alpha is an on-campus ministry for Christianity and I just want to do my duty as a believer and change people’s lives and help give them a good and safe college experience and show them people that care about them and will help them.
Lastly, my final and ultimate goal while attending college is to graduate. This goal is one of, if not, my main goals/priorities because I am a first-generation college student. My father was born in Italy and did not attend post education after he finished high school. My mother finished high school and that was it. The only person in my entire family that went to college and graduated was my uncle Bobby who attended Penn State, and he doesn’t even use his degree for anything. Me, on the other hand, will use my sports management degree for something. I am determined to do better than anyone in my family and better than everyone back where I am from because where I am from, it is terrible and I will not go back there when I am successful. I will get my family away from Pasco County.
After I graduate, it is a different story. I will work full time for a year or less to pay off any student loans I owe and get them out of the way as fast as I can. After I finish that, I plan to move to Brooklyn, New York with some family and get an internship to work for either the New York Knicks or the Brooklyn Nets. I will eventually rise up and get an office position for one of the two teams. Another way is to start coaching private college basketball teams and work my way up and hopefully get an opportunity to get a coaching position for a Division 1 college and work my way up again to the professional level. My dream is to coach the New York Knicks at Madison Square Gardens. I know it is a rough stretch, but I will overcome the challenges that come my way and strive through my problems and stress. The competition in this industry is tough, but I know if I keep my faith in God and I keep working my hardest and use my full potential, I can make it through it all. I plan to be retired by 50 years old and already have my family and then just relax for the rest of my life and go out and preach the gospel and attend Knick’s games and Net’s games.
I would not say I deserve this scholarship, but rather I need it instead. I have to upgrade to a more expensive dorm because the one I was in is of terrible quality. I cannot live off campus because I cannot live by the 1 year lease that you must sign. Although I love Fort Myers, I have almost no friends and no family at all living there and the closest family I have is over two and a half hours away. I am also a youth leader for Chi Alpha, which is almost a full-time job in itself, so I will not be able to work that much for a job. I will work though, but not very much because my studies do come first and I need to be able to do my homework and study for classes and tests and finals. I also cannot afford a meal plan and sometimes even groceries because I pay for college through financial aid and it is not enough to pay for everything. I am trying to stay away from loans when I can so I do not have to pay so much in the future, but if I know I have to, I would pray about it, take some time to think about it, and if I feel like I truly need to take a loan out, then I will.
This scholarship will help me in more ways that you can think. Not only will it help pay for classes, textbooks, and my dorm, but it will also help me focus better on school because I won’t have to stress as much about it as much if I got a scholarship to help me. I would just have to pay for groceries and that is better than worrying about an extra textbook or an extra class. The scholarship will also give me more confidence towards myself and about the upcoming semester. It will help me stay right in my mind because I know if I cannot afford school, I would have to go back home and that is the last place I want to go to. Being surrounded by drug addicts and dealers and people who gave up and are just satisfied with a little above minimum wage paychecks and live in mobile homes, run down houses, and apartments that are not even nice looking in not so good Holiday, Florida in Pasco County.
