Kenmore student wins scholarship from TranscriptionServices.com after national competition

For those who have never struggled with hearing loss, it is all too easy to take the ability to hear for granted. 

At TranscriptionServices.com, we are aware of the crucial role hearing plays in our transcriptionists’ ability to be great at what they do.

Millions of people around the world do not have the same privilege. That’s why with every order, we commit to providing a month’s worth of hearing aid batteries to a recipient in a developing country.

This year, TranscriptionServices.com offered a $500 scholarship to students who wrote an essay related to this topic.

In line with our emphasis on creating awareness of the importance of hearing in daily life, we asked applicants to write an essay between 500 and 750 words based on the prompt:

If you woke up tomorrow with permanent hearing loss, what would be the biggest challenge you would face? How would you address that challenge?

Our applicants didn’t disappoint. We received 371 submissions(!), each giving a different perspective on how they would navigate a world void of sounds.

Some shared their thoughts as individuals living with disabilities. Some took the philosophical route in examining ways to cope with a new and scary reality. Some reflected on the emotions involved in the loss of ability to do the things they once loved.

With no shortage of talented writers among the submissions, choosing a winner was not an easy task. 

However, after much deliberation, the 2020 TranscriptionServices.com Scholarship has been awarded to:

Claire Longcore, Kenmore, who attends Inglemoor High School in Kenmore, WA. 

Her essay explores the painful consequences of losing not just her technical abilities as a musician but her intimate connection with the musical world and the people in it that have shaped most of her life.

Close contenders who vied for the scholarship are John Legarte based in Champaign, IL, and Alexa Quintero from Merrimack, NH. John takes us on a journey that begins with the moment of realization and progresses through losing his identity and then reclaiming his identity by adapting to the new reality. Alexa gives us a passionate account of a dancer who will not let hearing loss stop her from moving to the rhythms of her heart.