Growing as a Park Scholar
John Coggin, a recipient of the Park Scholarship, discusses the many benefits of the Park program and how the Park Scholarship influenced his college career.
Interview on 2012-05-30 00:00:00 -0400
Transcript
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I think the Park program at NC State
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really helped shape me and my leadership skills
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in very wonderful ways.
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Through that I was the publicity manager for Service Raleigh in its tenth year,
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so I was able to get the word out to students
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about this wonderful day of service and we ended up having
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a thousand more people try to sign up for it than we had spots for.
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So that was really exciting and
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through that I was able to learn how to be in charge of
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a subcommittee within a larger committee
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and those different levels of bureaucracy.
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We had trips to Washington, DC
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where I was able to talk to a Supreme Court justice
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and the publisher of USA Today
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and lots of different experiences like that that
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I don't think I would have had if I hadn't had that experience.
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I was also put into a community of people that remains
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a good support system for me
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and just quite pragmatically
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because of the financial gift that they bestowed upon me
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I was able to partake in so many other extracurricular activities,
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particularly study abroad, that I wouldn't have been able to if I hadn't had that.
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In fact in one of the trips to the Galapagos they
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even additionally helped me with some travel costs for that.
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So the Park program was truly a blessing on my college career.
This video is an excerpt from a longer interview. Contact the Special Collections Research Center to request the transcript of the full interview.
