My Sophomore year of high school was a huge year for me. It was the first time I was back to "regular" school after COVID-19 extended our 8th-grade spring break indefinitely. I was taking all of the classes you have to attend at my school, including a Chemistry class that I was looking forward to. I loved math, so combining it with science made for a class I was super excited about! My teacher, Mr. Grace was out that day, he had injured himself right before we came back for the year and left in his stead 4 assignments. Everyone was shocked, 4 assignments on the first day?? We all begrudgingly completed them and just hoped that the rest of the class would be easier. When Mr. Grace came back to school the next week, the class changed entirely. He began to tell us stories about himself and make sure that everyone stayed engaged during the class. He turned a class I had begun to dread into a class I looked forward to each day. One of the most memorable moments I had with him was the first day he was in class, and was explaining the class rules to us. The program his class was situated in was not supposed to offer extra credit, so Mr. Grace followed this rule to the letter to invent “metacognitive thinking points”. These points allowed for people who weren’t as strong at test-taking to help boost their grades without technically doing anything extra, these points were earned by participating in class. I think it helped to take the edge off of the class, knowing that we had something to fall back on in case we needed it. This unwavering support towards all of his students helped Mr. Grace to have an impact on all of us that year, despite only being our teacher for a semester. My classmates and I still bring his class up on occasion. It was through his support of us that I realized I wanted to be a teacher. Even after he had left us for the year, there was a short period where we had a substitute and I was allowed to help my classmates with the topics we had been learning. His policies helped me gain a lot of confidence in front of my peers, which I still carry with me today. His impact helped me to get my first job and has allowed me to develop my work ethic to put me in the position I have today.

I didn't know myself until my Sophomore year in high school. Coming off of Covid-19, and jumping right into a new school had my mind spinning. I didn't know it yet, but the year was going to be packed full of highs and lows. It was that year that I met 3 teachers who had a huge impact on me. First was Dr. Stalnaker, a stern man who taught AP Psychology. As a sophomore, an AP class was already terrifying, and from my first impression, Dr. Stalnaker was going to make it the hardest class I had ever taken. After the first day though, all of my worries were gone. He taught lecture style, which I enjoyed, and tried his best to find fun activities for our class to do. We learned a lot from him, outside of the classroom too while he shared his ex-military and police force experiences with us. One day we had a lockdown, except for this time everyone knew that it was not a drill. Dr. Stalnaker worked to make us feel safe by sitting beside the door ready to attack anyone who might try and break through. That day I think I learned the impact that teachers can have on a student’s perception of safety. I aspire to be someone who my students deem as a safe person to lean on, and someone they know will protect them against all odds, just like Dr. Stalnaker did for me. Next, I met Mr. Grace. My former chemistry teacher had a self-proclaimed “problem with authority”. He would often go on tangents during class, leaving us all with homework to do before the next time we saw him. I’ll admit, it annoyed me at the time. I was the kind of student to do everything at school no matter what, just so I wouldn’t have anything to do when I got home. Mr. Grace also offered what he called “metacognitive thinking points”, our class wasn’t supposed to offer extra credit to students so he found this loophole to give us all a chance to boost our grades if we could. Mr. Grace was a prime example of a teacher who cared for his students first and foremost. I grew to enjoy his class and I want to become a teacher who sparks the same kind of respect within my students. Finally, I met Mrs. Troutman. She ran the prom committee and taught me economics, a class I had already taken before. I was abrasive towards her at first, and she just let me be. Over the year she took a genuine interest in me, asking questions about how I was and helping to build me up. I’ve participated in the prom committee each year since I met her and her trust in me has helped me to realize that I can be depended on. So, why start with my teachers instead of myself? These three teachers helped make me who I am today. They made me realize my love for teaching, helped me to get my first job at Mathnasium which solidified me even more in my path to become a teacher, and created a confidence I could have never dreamed of before now. I want to create the same environment for my students. I’d love to become a teacher that everyone can remember, and if not everyone, I would love to change at least one student’s life for the better. Having that impact would make becoming a teacher more than worth it for me.

Education is the backbone of what I want my future to be. I have wanted to work as a teacher for the last few years, and as I have become more involved with education, the more I have wanted to help give back to this awesome community. I have wanted to help people since I was a little kid, and was always described as having a "bleeding heart". I think that in going into Education and teaching as a career path, I will be able to fulfill the dream I have had to help others.I am planning on majoring in Math and minoring in Education. In doing this I will be able to build my base knowledge of the subject and help out in STEM related fields, as well as become an educator myself in the future. Education will help me to develop a broader world perspective while also allowing for me to gain so many new experiences to share with others when I can. My teachers have always provided me with a strong support system, and I know that I have wanted to be that person for others for a long time. In getting a higher education in Math and Education, I will be able to confidently help my students in the future, and maybe even make math into a class that they enjoy. I want to help the next generation build their confidence and knowledge so that they can help to create a change within the world. I know that fighting for dreams is worth it, and I want to be able to show the next generation that their dreams are worth fighting for. Students tend to struggle with STEM related classes, and I know a lot of my peers dread going to their STEM classes. I want to create an environment that encourages students to learn not only math but about themselves, and give them an environment that allows for them to have fun while they are at school. The next generation of students are a critical part in creating a better tomorrow. In building up the next generation of students, they will have the confidence and drive to try and change the world into a place that they can not only survive but thrive. There are so many ways that I can help them as a teacher in the future, and I think that through helping others I can create the largest impact possible on building a future that everyone can be proud of.

---The STEM field has always been my wheelhouse in school. Science and Math have been my favorite subjects for as long as I can remember. They follow processes that I find fun to solve and make sense to me. As a kid I used to enjoy helping my peers with their STEM related questions during class, it allowed me to feel like I was doing a good thing for a friend. I’ve had a bleeding heart for as long as I could remember. Helping people has always been my “thing”. Alongside that, I have always enjoyed music and video games. I joined my school’s orchestra to try and learn some soundtracks as well. Though I was massively successful, I still had a lot of fun with it. These were the ways that I made some of my strongest connections as a child. The world of fiction always captivated and confused me. I would always try to find something about the author’s world-building to memorize in the way I would memorize STEM concepts. Even now, I keep a lot of the same interests. I got into sewing stuffed animals so that I could give them out to my friends and family. Game soundtracks run in the background while I do my homework to help me focus. I decided in my Sophomore year that I wanted to be a math teacher. I have always wanted to do something involving STEM, and the teaching part finally clicked itself into place then. The teachers in my life have always done so much for me, and it made me want to follow in their shoes. I want to positively impact the STEM field through inspiring the next generation to get involved with the field. As a teacher, I will have some influence over my students. I know I want to boost their interests, no matter what they are, and give them the support they might need to jump further into their desired fields. I currently work with younger students in my area, and I enjoy every minute of it. They are so smart and keep me interested in the STEM field and enjoy learning the field themselves. It is important for the future of the STEM field to have more people become interested in pursuing careers that can further our knowledge of all aspects of STEM. As the world changes, it is super important our understanding of the universe through science, technology, engineering, and math is able to keep up with and help the population adapt to the changes we face.

I think that everyone in the world needs a little support. I plan to be whatever my students need me to be inside and outside of the classroom. I want to take feedback to be able to better help them and to know about each student so that they know their teachers care for them. I hope I can make my class somewhere everyone feels safe and accepted, and maybe I can even be a student's enlightening person about what they might want to do in the world. I want to work to make math, and maybe other subjects, something that students see as manageable. My teachers always had a huge impact on me, whether it was keeping me on track or showing me about new things that I could do. They always did their best to foster whatever creative ideas me and my classmates had, even if they didn't go so well in the long run. There were always opportunities to learn, and I think that their ambition helped me to realize that teaching is something that I can see myself doing. There are so many anxiety-causing classes, I want my students to be able to really learn the material, not just to take a test. I hope that when I become an educator, I can take some of the edge off of school for students and make my classroom an environment that students look forward to being on campus. My plan is to inspire my future students into believing that they can do the things that they put their minds to, as long as they are willing to persevere through the changes in their lives I think they will be successful.