The teacher who has inspired me most throughout my educational journey is my mom. My mom has been teaching for over thirty years. She had stopped working for a while after I was born, but she was still a teacher to me during that time. She spent her time making little laminated baby books just to increase my knowledge. I started Pre-K and I was already spelling my name. When I started kindergarten my mom got a new job at my school, she worked there all of the time that I was there. At first, I hated it. Not only did I have homework from my teachers, but she added a little bit of her own! I think that the key to a better society is the education of young minds. I had no idea how much that would help me along the way of my educational journey. As an ever-growing, young, black, female, I know the value of representation in the classroom. And that is one of the major ways I’ve learned the value of education from my mom. She was the first person in her family to graduate from college. With that, she was able to get a job and give my family the opportunities that we have today. Not everybody can have those opportunities and that makes me love learning. Education means a lot to me and its value was taught to me at a very young age. I value the light that appears in someone's eyes when they have that "lightbulb moment" after a breakthrough in a difficult subject. That's why I want to be an educator. In a world that is constantly changing, the necessity for flexibility grows with it. When we are taught to embrace our challenges and grow through the bends and fractures they create, it makes the pleasure of success that much sweeter. It makes the most trivial processes a little more tolerable. Albert Camus said, “In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” I want to encourage students through their "depths of winter," see the lightbulb moment like mine when they pass through another obstacle they didn’t think they could, and find their “invincible summer.” Throughout my life, the value of education has been re-affirmed. My parents always quoted a Jamaican saying to me when I started school: “Labour for learning before you grow old, for labour is better than silver and gold, silver and gold will vanish away, but a good education will never decay.” All in all an education is something that lasts forever and an awesome choice we can make. No matter how inconvenient and boring it seems to be to wake up early and go to school every morning, there is a point. There are so many things you can do with education and I hope to inspire children for years to come with its incredible benefits. It creates room for growth, which is important for all people. Without growth, we just stay in the same place we’ve always been. I value education because of the experience and opportunity it brings in the future. Education is a privilege, not a right, and that makes it all the more valuable.

I think that the key to a better society is the education of young minds. And as an ever-growing, young, black, female, I know the value of representation in the classroom. And that is one of the major ways I’ve learned the value of education from my mom. She was the first person in her family to graduate from college. With that, she was able to get a job and give my family the opportunities that we have today. Not everybody can have those opportunities and that makes me love learning. Education means a lot to me and its value was taught to me at a very young age. I value the light that appears in someone's eyes when they have that "lightbulb moment" after a breakthrough in a difficult subject. So many kids have a skewed view of education and what the process of learning is supposed to be like. That's why I want to be an educator, to highlight and emphasize the beauty of a mind that is in a consistent state of growth and learning. In a world that is constantly changing, the necessity for flexibility grows with it. When we are taught to embrace our challenges and grow through the bends and fractures they create, it makes the pleasure of success that much sweeter. It makes the most trivial processes a little more tolerable. Albert Camus said, “In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” I want to encourage students through their "depths of winter," see the lightbulb moment like mine when they pass through another obstacle they didn’t think they could, and find their “invincible summer.” Throughout my life, the value of education has been re-affirmed. My parents always quoted a Jamaican saying to me when I started school: “Labour for learning before you grow old, for labour is better than silver and gold, silver and gold will vanish away, but a good education will never decay.” All in all an education is something that lasts forever and an awesome choice we can make. No matter how inconvenient and boring it seems to be to wake up early and go to school every morning, there is a point. There are so many things you can do with education and I hope to inspire children for years to come with its incredible benefits. It creates room for growth, which is important for all people. Without growth, we just stay in the same place we’ve always been. I value education because of the experience and opportunity it brings in the future. Education is a privilege, not a right, and that makes it all the more valuable.

I think that the key to a better society is the education of young minds. And as an ever-growing, young, black, female, I know the value of representation in the classroom. And that is one of the major ways I’ve learned the value of education from my mom. She was the first person in her family to graduate from college. With that, she was able to get a job and give my family the opportunities that we have today. Not everybody can have those opportunities and that makes me love learning. Education means a lot to me and its value was taught to me at a very young age. I value the light that appears in someone's eyes when they have that "lightbulb moment" after a breakthrough in a difficult subject. That's why I want to be an educator. In a world that is constantly changing, the necessity for flexibility grows with it. When we are taught to embrace our challenges and grow through the bends and fractures they create, it makes the pleasure of success that much sweeter. It makes the most trivial processes a little more tolerable. Albert Camus said, “In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” I want to encourage students through their "depths of winter," see the lightbulb moment like mine when they pass through another obstacle they didn’t think they could, and find their “invincible summer.” Throughout my life, the value of education has been re-affirmed. My parents always quoted a Jamaican saying to me when I started school: “Labour for learning before you grow old, for labour is better than silver and gold, silver and gold will vanish away, but a good education will never decay.” All in all an education is something that lasts forever and an awesome choice we can make. No matter how inconvenient and boring it seems to be to wake up early and go to school every morning, there is a point. There are so many things you can do with education and I hope to inspire children for years to come with its incredible benefits. It creates room for growth, which is important for all people. Without growth, we just stay in the same place we’ve always been. I value education because of the experience and opportunity it brings in the future. Education is a privilege, not a right, and that makes it all the more valuable.