The Scholarship Hunger Games

By Zoe B.

Students shooting each other dirty looks, parents talking to the hotel to mess with another contestant’s alarms, and interviews where interviewers kick out students one by one, until only one remains standing – this is what you may expect when I say “Scholarship Hunger Games,” but as you will soon find out, that is not always the case. 

I spent the whole month of February in the U.S. visiting and interviewing for full-tuition scholarships at three different colleges. Today I’m here to share some of the highlights from that experience. 

The first chapter begins at a school in a small town in Arkansas (keep in mind, I live in Argentina, so I had to fly from there alone). The trip got off to a not-so-great start when I landed at the airport in Arkansas, and the admissions officer who was supposed to have someone pick me up wasn’t replying to my emails. An hour passed, and I still hadn’t heard anything. However, they later replied, and 45 minutes later, I was in a student’s car driving to the school. 

However, the unfortunate events were not over. In the car ride to this school, I found out the admissions officer I had been calling “Mr.” for three months was actually a woman. Not the best first impression... but after a long travel day, I finally made it to the school. 

The next three days were go, go, go. I was woken up one night at midnight by my older brother calling me and telling me to open the door to the hotel room. We toured the school (got lost a few times), had a few snowball fights, spied on some classes, and finally had the welcome dinner to the event. To be fully honest, I had never seen so many cowboy boots in one place before. The elevator doors opened to the lobby, where everyone was waiting, and all I could see were students everywhere. There were 109 total. It felt like the first Cornucopia scene in The Hunger Games. 

However, the food was good, and the company was better, so all in all it was a successful evening. The night did not end there, though. I had my interview at 9:30 AM the next morning, so we spent much of the time in our beds preparing for the interview, as my brother gave me lots of mock questions.

The next day, I was up bright and early to get ready. The nerves had really started to set in at this point. When the time came for the interview, one of the girls I had met the night before asked me if I was nervous. When I said I was, she offered to pray for me, so she came over and did just that. Keep in mind, she was competing for the same scholarship that I was, and yet still took the time to pray for me. If only they had behaved that way in the actual Hunger Games. 

The interview went well. We spent the rest of the day in different lectures and activities, and the weekend was over.  

Now, you probably remember I mentioned I went to three different colleges. That is the truth, but the reality is that they were all similar enough to the one I described. There were some highlights, though: I had an eight-hour-bus ride from Arkansas to Nashville (never again!), saw blood in the bedsheets of the Airbnb I was staying at (it hadn’t been cleaned), walked too much for my poor feet to handle (including over three miles in heels one day), ran halfway across an airport to not miss a flight after my connection landed after boarding for my next flight had started (still made it on time like a boss), and got to meet up with several friends I had known for years. 

Ultimately, though, the reality of these scholarship events is usually very different from what one imagines. I imagined detached students, cliques, and very intimidating professors hosting the interviews, waiting for me to mess up. The reality couldn’t be farther from that. I could tell the people there genuinely cared about me, my experiences, and what I had to say. Instead of dirty looks, it was smiles. Instead of messing with alarms, we were planning to have breakfast together. Instead of scary interviews, it was professors who would pray before it began. Maybe a Hunger Games version would have been fun, but I’ll stick with the one I had for now. 

P.S: I got the full-tuition scholarship at the first school. That prayer clearly worked.

Zoe B. lives in Argentina with her parents and one of her two brothers. This is her fourth and last year at NorthStar Academy, as she's currently a senior. This is her second year in the Navigator and in Student Council, where she currently holds the position of Vice President. In her free time, she enjoys going to the gym, reading, baking, and watching Formula 1.

🔎Informational, 🗞️Staff StoriesEIC NSA2025-2026, April 2026 Publication