Nominee Question Form

Gates Millenium Scholarship Program Application.

21. Briefly describe a situation in which you felt that you or others were treated unfairly or were not given an opportunity you felt you deserved. Why do you think this happened? How did you respond? Did the situation improve as a result of your response?

A situation in which I believe two people were treated unfairly took place during a basketball tournament. Two of our best players were not allowed to take part in the play-offs as a punishment for their crime. Our whole basketball team was aware that they had broken the rules, but we still insisted that our coach change the punishment. We all greatly desired to secure our slot in the championship games. Unfortunately, our coach did not alter the punishment because she was told not to do so by a superior, the director of our high school. Every one of the players on my team was infuriated by the final decision because we knew we would not be able to make it to the championship games without our two players. Complaints and more complaints were all that the coach received from us. What we did not realize was that our coach had no choice and that it was really our two players that owed the team an apology. Our two players were not ignorant of the rules and punishment. It was their responsibility as members of the team to make sure they did not do anything to jeopardize our chances of winning.

During the actual game, all of us were upset with the coach and some of us even spoke unfairly to her. Half the members of our team refused to play during the game and our coach had to ask people to play. I felt awful every time one of the players said, in a very audible tone, that it was our coach’s fault we were losing. After a terrible loss to our rival school, I decided to talk to the girls as their friend and as captain of our team because I would feel guilty if I didn’t’. To ease my guilt, I spoke with the girls and explained to them that our coach had no fault in this. I told them to put themselves in her shoes and realize that she had no choice because the director of our high school had made it very clear to them not to break school rules. After a few minutes of silence, a couple of them said that they thought that I was right and that they knew very well that our coach wanted us to win just as much as we did. One after another, the team began to communicate and share thoughts and feelings. Finally, just as I had predicted, the whole team realized that we had treated our coach unfairly because we had all forgotten the real purpose of the games. As a result of my response, our coaches received the apologies they deserved and the team learned never to forget that we should always just play for the fun of the game.

~#2 Senior Captain