Everyone is unique in their own way even if certain attributes are the same as others. One attribute that I believe makes me unique is my love for learning and school in general. I was not the child that opposed school and saw it only as a social get-together. Although I was happy to see my friends, I saw school as an opportunity and blessing that many other children did not have access to. My love of learning and school started at a very young age and it has even continued into my life now. I take this attribute of mine and apply it to the job I have now. I work with children who have moderate to severe special needs and it is extremely hard to make them feel special in their own ways. I use the love I have for learning and try to instill that into their wonderful minds. I want them to know that school is not just tests and homework. It is a place to discover what one likes or dislikes. It is a place where one can learn what their strengths and weaknesses are as well as how to build themselves to be the best person they can possibly be. Another unique attribute that I believe I possess is that I have a very diplomatic spirit. I can get along with almost anybody. I use this when I am working with children. If an educator does not build a healthy rapport with their students then the love of learning cannot be brought forth. I use this spirit that I have and build relationships with my kids so they can see that learning is a blessing rather than a burden. If I can get my kids now as well as in the future the chance and opportunity to love learning, I would feel complete. I plan to give back to the community through education. I am employed in the same district that I graduated from. My teachers especially in my senior year of high school have greatly impacted my drive to be an educator and they taught more than I could ever imagine. I would only feel right to give that back to this next generation of students. All of my teachers showed a great amount of care for not only mine but all of our educational journeys. If I as an educator can be the same way to my future students, we can see our children thrive more than ever, just by increasing their love for education.

Grief is a feeling no one ever wants to feel, especially a seven-year-old. The death of a loved one is a challenge for everyone even more so when it is not just your parent, but the role model you are following. All of my educational goals and career aspirations come from the impact my mom and her death had on me. Before my mother's passing, I loved to learn and it came somewhat easy for me. I not only loved to learn but I loved to help others learn as well. Watching my mom teach showed me that if a child has someone who will always root for them to increase their learning they are more apt to do so and they find joy in it. I have always and still love to learn new things, but it brings me even more joy when I see another child feel the way my mom made other children feel. After my mom's passing, my love of learning dropped for some time. Many of my teachers did not understand the impact my mom had on my education and that is a tough void for any educator to fill. It wasn't until my ninth-grade year that I realized that passion and joy were still in me I just had to go back to what brought it out in the first place. In one of the courses I was taking, I had the opportunity to shadow an English teacher at my school and be like a teacher's assistant. It was one specific time that I remember until this very day. I was working with a student and I realized she did not connect with her learning, nor did she have the drive to connect. As I kept working with her, I made sure I brought real examples to the things she was learning and little by little her joy of education started to grow. She then opened up to me and told me she didn't have anyone to push her through her studies. When she told me this, the little girl in me came to the forefront. The impact my mother had on children could never be forgotten. I have strived since the very day of 2018 to keep not only my mother's passion alive, but mine as well. I strive to not only become an English teacher for high school students but a role model and good influence to children who need it. If I can make every child feel the way my mom made them feel, that would fill a void I believed could never be filled.

I believe that teachers are more than just individuals who read out of a textbook and assign homework. Many teachers are role models and support systems for children who may not have that in their lives. More now than ever, I see many kids raising themselves and the idea of education is that of a chore rather than a blessing. I want to become a teacher because I want to be there for the students who may not have someone. I work with kids for a living and many children I have worked with do not see the importance of learning, nor do they have good skills to understand how to get through school. When students have that adult in their life that shows they care, the students themselves care more. Every student should have an adult in their life to push them and inspire them to keep pushing on their education. Out of all of my schooling years, I can't remember all of my teachers. However, there is one teacher that I had that will forever remain in my memory. She is also the person who helped me understand my "why" for teaching. For three years in high school, I had the same teacher for my education and training courses. She made her classroom not even feel like a classroom. She made sure that in the first quarter of school, she built a positive rapport with each one of her students. To a lot of us, she became a second mom to us. She made sure that we felt comfortable enough to come to her if we had a problem and that was something we all needed. We enjoyed coming to her class every day and there was rarely a time she was not there. I remember that on some days she would have us all sit in a circle and just talk. From her doing this we not only established effective communication with each other, but it made the room feel more open. The way she built a relationship with us impacted our educational careers for the good. The way she was to us is the same way I want to be to, my future students. I faced many challenges in my life, especially in early childhood. Unfortunately, when I was in second grade I lost my mom to cancer. The death of a loved one is already something hard to deal with, even more so as a young child. When this happened, I went from a straight "A" student to sometimes achieving A's and mainly B's. Although this was a sad moment in my life, I took all the emotions I felt and put them into my schoolwork. I did this because I wanted to make sure I was making my mom proud. Once I started to work with that mindset, my grades started to flourish and I felt great about school again. As I completed school, I have always kept that in mind "Make mom proud." My life was definitely up and down but at the end of the day, I learned so much about myself. The people in my life shaped the way I think about education and showed me the importance of teaching others. I truly believe that learning is important and if I can get children to believe the same, I would be complete.

Education has always been very important to me. I was never that child in school who was late or missed work because I saw that learning was not only a privilege but an opportunity to make myself better and more prepared for my future. Early on in my life, I lost my mom to cancer and I went from a straight "A" student to a "B" student and one or two "A's" in the mix. While grieving, it was hard for me to keep up with my education, but I always knew I had to make my mom proud. So, that's what I did. I took all my emotions and put that into my assignments. Of all the hardships I had to go through, that was the worst and knocked the most out of me. Once I learned how to channel those emotions and use them to my advantage I saw not only my grades go up, but my love of education skyrocketed. I tend to see many social issues, especially in the environment I work in. I work with middle school children who have special needs. Before that, I was working with children who were considered at-risk. In this type of classroom. No matter where I was placed, I saw the same problem. There is a lack of love for education. Education is something that every person needs and they find joy in learning every day. Students today, do not find joy or importance in learning. This is a major social issue that had started to manifest itself all over in different settings. However, I do not believe this issue only falls on students, but the education system as well. Over the past few years, students have not been connected to the content that is being taught in their classrooms. I have noticed that when students are connected to their education, they are more motivated to do the assignments. If students had the power to choose what they wanted to learn about, they would feel like they have a part to play in their education. I actively work to address this issue in any of the classrooms I am put in. I have the curriculum the student must master, but I ask them to choose which assignment they want. I normally do three different assignments and they all end up choosing different ones. When I let them do this, they not only feel better about what they are learning, but they want to learn. If I can change each student's mindset to love learning rather than it feels like a chore, that would make all the difference in the world.

There are many issues that affect our country and our community. The main one, which happens to get worse as time does on is racism. Racism is not just toward some group of people, however, I have personally seen a rise in hate against those whom are of color. It is a sad thing that we have to go through, however I believe that if we all make a collective effort it can be changed. The first thing I would do is start with making sure our youth see the importance of learning the history of others. I work with children who are at the middle school age and during this time they not only have to learn how to accept themselves, they have to learn how to accept others. The only way they can start this process is by learning about themselves and their heritage in order to teach others. I actively encourage my students to research their cultural background and over the course of the year. Now that they are comfortable sharing themselves with others, they start to learn how to accept their peers. The next thing I would do is start branching this out to the community. This can be done by holding conventions and other community events where people come to learn about the place they live in. If we can get the community to start to accept our world’s diversity, more can change than we actually think. There can be a lot of positive change of racism was addressed. In the workplaces, employees would be treated fairly and they would have better experiences as a whole in the place of business. In schools, students would be able to build healthy relationships with each other. They would start to want to learn more about a person. This could also eliminate any form of bullying there is on school campus. Many students are discriminated against because of how they look, how they speak, their cultural background, and so much more. If this issue was eliminated, they would be more interested learning more about each and finding bonds based on the things they connect with. At the end of the day, there are many things that challenge our everyday life, however, some of those things we have the power to change. If we all just took a step back and realized the impact we have in society, the world can definitely be made a better place.

I am passionate about education because I believe every child should find joy in their learning. Amongst this generation of young students, going to school is more of a chore than an opportunity to learn many new things. I want to be a teacher who helps students see the importance of their learning every day. My mom was not only a teacher, but she was my teacher. I got a first-hand glance at what it meant for a teacher to change their students' lives. It was not only about making a difference but the look on her face when her students started to enjoy their learning. From the time I saw this, I knew education was the route I had to take. Out of the 12 years I was in school, only three of them have drastically impacted my dream of being an educator and continue to have a lasting impact. The teacher that has impacted me was my education and training teacher. I had her for three consecutive years and I was so grateful she was my teacher. She made the class more than just learning what was in our textbooks. She spent the first part of the semester just building a good rapport with us. She was so good at forming connections with her students that we felt we could go to her for anything. She taught me that no matter what, a good relationship must be built between the teacher and their students for the classroom to run effectively. The way she connected us caused us to not only excel in her class, but we enjoyed learning from her. This is where I learned that learning can be made joyous instead of a burden. I know that if I can connect to my future students the way that she did with us, I can make a difference in their lives. Students never forget the teachers who made them feel heard and important. If an educator can reach their student on a personal level they have a better chance of making a difference in that child's life. I am an example of that. I have never forgotten my teacher and I don't think I ever will. With my future students, I want them to leave me not only knowing that learning can be fun but that their teachers all care for them. If I can do that for my students, that would fulfill my goal as a future educator.

Ever since I was a young child, I knew I wanted to work with children. My mother was not only a teacher, but she was my teacher. As a child, watching her change the lives of my peers made me want to do the same. I would help her around the classroom and I would even imitate the things she did at work when I was at home. This was the foundation upon which I started to build as I got older. Fast forward to when I got into high school. I took an academic sequence called public services and in that section, I took Education and Training. This is where my path to teaching started. In this course sequence, I learned the ins and outs of education and even got some hands-on experience in different classroom settings. In the first section, we learned how to get into the education field as well as basic classroom management. The next course in this sequence was human growth and development. In this class, we applied the things we learned in the first section at different points of a person's life. We learned how the mind develops (which sparked my interest in psychology and sociology) and how to effectively teach all different minds. The third and fourth part of this sequence is where the hands-on part comes to play. I took instructional practice and practicum of education and training. In these classes, I worked in small groups/one-on-one to help provided guided instruction to students. It was during these years I learned why I wanted to be an educator. I was helping a student and she was not understanding the content or attempting to understand. In order to help her and reach her as a person, I decided she needed much more one-on-one time. As I started to work with her, she started to open up to me about her educational journey and support system. She stated how her parents never pushed for education so she didn't care either. I explained to her how important not only her education was, but how she can find joy in it. After our talk, over the next few weeks, I noticed her grades started to go up in all of her classes. Seeing her start to enjoy school and thrive in her classes is what made me realize this is what I love to do. I currently am seeking a Bachelor of Arts in English with a minor in Secondary Education. I aspire to be not only a high school English teacher but a support system for children who do not have one. Students come from different walks of life and have their own aspirations, but some need an adult there to push them along and keep them going. If I can reach every single one of my future students and help them find joy in the things that they do to get to their goals, I will have fulfilled my life-long dream. Teaching to me is more than prepping for a standardized test. Teaching is all about learning exciting new things and relating them to one's life. If I can get students to see that, I will be complete.

Ever since I was a little girl, my heart was set on being a teacher. This goal of becoming an educator stuck with me through my life and my drive to be one had grown with me. I knew I loved the subject of English and I loved working with kids of all ages so it was only fitting that I would teach English to kids. It wasn't until my junior year in high school that I specified what and who I wanted to teach. I took a class called Instructional Practices. In this class I shadowed a ninth grade English teacher for two class periods in order to gain hands-on learning experience. I had a memorable moment while working with a student that solidified my reason to be an educator. There was a young girl in this class who was struggling to not only keep up in the class, but also engage and be connected with her learning. I asked the teacher who I was shadowing if I could catch her up and assist her in his class. He allowed me to take her out in the hallway and work alongside her to complete the assignments. After doing this one-on-one work we saw her grades start to get better in the class. She revealed to me that her parents are not huge supporters behind education and they don't show much care about whether she gets good or bad grades. When I found this out, it not only motivated me to help her and other kids who were struggling in the class, but it also showed me why I wanted to be an educator. One of the main reasons I want to become an educator is so that I can help students be actively engaged in their learning so that they can retain more of it. Many students, especially in high school, pay little attention during class because they are not connected. I heavily believe that it is the teachers job to make sure the students are connecting and engaged during the lectures. As an educator I will make sure students are engaged by making the lessons relatable to them and make sure they are tracking what we are going through. Another reason I want to be an educator is so that I can make sure students understand not only what the concepts are, but how they will use them outside of my class. Students commonly ask "why do I need this outside of school" and that is a question that has to be answered. As an educator I would make sure my students understand how what they have learned can be used. Given the other reasons there is one that always keeps me going. As an educator you are not only a person who teaches concepts, but you are a support system for students. Some students show a lack of care for their education because their parents may not encourage or guide them like they can. For the students that do not have this support, an educator can fill that void. Filling that position can help students understand their education is important and push them to not only connect with it, but to continue on and achieve their educational goals.

My best skill is that I am very hard working. Whether it be writing essays for scholarships or doing household tasks, I always give it my all and complete everything as best I can. There are a couple of common ways that I use to improve this skill. One way is by breaking larger tasks into smaller ones. For example, when writing a scholarship essay, I will start by making an outline of the essay and listing the points I will make. Then I will do a rough draft of the essay. Once the rough draft is complete, I read it over to make any edits I deem necessary and then I write the final draft. By breaking the essay process into steps I ensure that my essay is as good as it can be. Another way I improve working hard is by remembering why I am working hard. Without hard work, nothing I do would turn out as good as I want it to. Hard work, to me, is needed in everything I do like writing scholarship essays, completing college assignments and so much more. I learned from a young age that you cannot expect the best if you give less than your best. That motivates me to always work hard everyday so I can only perform my very best.

Ever since I was young, I always wanted to be a teacher. My mom and her closest friends were all teachers and I always remember helping them with simple tasks. It was not until my junior year of high school when I learned what I wanted to teach, the age group, and most importantly my purpose for teaching. Prior to high school however, I loved anything that had to with English. So, going into high school I knew English and teaching had to fit together someway. Back to junior year I took an Instructional Practice class where I would sit in a classroom of my choice and be a teachers assistant. I picked a ninth grade English class and in this class there was a young girl who struggled with her education. She said her parents did not care so neither did she. I would take her to the hallway and help her catch up in her English class. She grasped not only English but all of her other subjects really well. This was when I found why I would study education and why I would pursue teaching. In the future I hope that the education I received, and the experience from my education, will impact my students positively. I won't just teach my students the things that they need to pass from ninth grade to the tenth grade, but things like how to write an effective scholarship or make their job resume sound outstanding. They would get more from their education than those before them did. That is why education is important to me. It gives us, specifically children, the ability to learn the basic foundations of life that they could utilize it in their future. Teaching students to use their grammar and punctuation rules they learned in school in order to write a required evaluation for their job demonstrates that without education students do not have a base line for anything. With education they can achieve so much more in their future and that is what I want my future students to realize.

Giving to me is not only about gifts. It could go into giving away time from my life in order to help someone in need or recognizing they need help without them asking. One way I give back is helping my parents. It is the absolute least thing I could do for them since they have taken care of me my whole life. I give back to them by helping with daily tasks such as: getting their clothes ready for work the next day, cooking dinner, and even cleaning around the house. Giving back is very important because it is a nice way to acknowledge the things someone has done for you and return the favor. Without giving back to those who have given to you whether it be time, gifts, etc. it can change their perspective of you and it may affect how much they give to you in the future. When giving it shows someone you care and appreciate them and the things they have done. Without giving these things wouldn't be known.

There are multiple problems facing the world right now. There are wars everywhere and climate change has always been an issue. However, there is still one that is a major problem that doesn't get talked about nearly enough. This world problem deals with homelessness. As days pass, there are more and more people being spotted sitting under highways and on the sides of the road. There are many solutions to this issue for example, government assistance. One major way we as people can work on ridding of the problem is by having more homeless shelters with accessibilities for them to get back on their feet. In these homeless shelters there would be essentials: food, water, clothing, a bed to sleep on, and more. Also in the shelter people can help those who are homeless practice interview questions and prepare them for future jobs and teach them life skills so that way they can survive much better than they previously did. If it is a homeless teenager with no parents, this would a be a great place for them to try and finish their education and get back on their feet so that way they can support themselves. To many, homelessness does not seem like it is a big problem but as time goes on one can see the population of homeless people rise expeditiously. Having these homeless shelters will greatly help reduce the amount of individuals who are homeless and possibly put an end to one of the world's biggest problems.