Allow Me To Plead My Case

Rita Mardakhanian, 12th Grade
Rose and Alex Pilibos Armenian School, Glendale, CA
Los Angeles Area

Your honors and jurors, I come here today to plea the case of allowing my peers and I to have a spot in college. I will not narrate saddening stories to invoke your sympathy; instead I will draw upon concrete evidence.

Exhibit A: In the state of California, all students must attend high school until the age of 18 or 16 if they have parental notification. Hopefully these schools prepare students for college, for when they graduate their college degree will be the underlying tool to help them get a stable and advanced job. So, education becomes an eligibility criterion for employment into any sector of the industry. We are rewarded for exercising the expertise required for the field we venture. We are weighed in the market on the basis of our educational skills and how well we can apply them. When the government does not make college accessible and affordable for all students, they are setting up their youth for failure. Without a college-educated youth, not only will they have to work jobs with minimum wage, there will be no qualified person taking leadership positions. Education for the youth not only positively effects the youth but to every one, including yourselves, your honors. For providing a college education is not only a selfless act but a selfish one too. For example, college educated students may grow up to be politicians. These politicians will make decisions that will affect the country. Now imagine if these politicians were not properly educated. Would you want those people running your lives?

Exhibit B: Education will offer knowledge. Our mind is an empty table that becomes full with plates and cups when knowledge is obtained through education. Although high school may offer the utensils, college will offer the full course meal. Education gives us the knowledge of the world around us. It develops in us a perspective of looking at life. It helps us build opinions and have points of view on everything in life. The conversion of information to knowledge is possible because of education. Education makes us capable of interpreting rightly the things perceived. Education is not about lessons and poems in textbooks, however, it is about the lessons of life.

Exhibit C: Education teaches us the right behavior. It teaches us how to lead our lives. It is the basis of culture and civilization and it is instrumental in the development of our values and virtues. Education cultivates us into mature individuals, individuals capable of planning for our futures and taking the right decisions. Education arms us with an insight to look at our lives and learn from every experience. The future of a nation is safe in the hands of educated individuals. Education is important for the economic growth of a nation. It fosters principles of equality and socialism. Education forms a support system for talents to excel in life. It is the backbone of society.

Most importantly, providing affordable and accessible college is a civil rights issue. College helps create a clear picture of everything around us. Education brings up questions and also devises ways to find satisfactory answers to them. Especially in college, students learn that everything has a science to it and that we should reason everything until every question meets its answer. Education can lead us to enlightenment. It is education that builds in every individual, a confidence to take decisions, to face life and to accept successes and failures. It instills a sense of pride about the knowledge one has and prepares him/her for life! How can any individual who understands the importance of education even dare to limit the access to college? It is time to have faith in the youth. Your honors have faith in your creations. Provide us with the tools to become successful and see how well we perform. I have proved beyond a reasonable doubt that my peers and I should have a spot in college. And just as I asked you all to have faith in us, we have faith in you.