From a young age, I always realized that younger generations are our future. In order to best do my part in ensuring that the future is in good, educated, and trustworthy hands; becoming a teacher is the way to go. Specifically, becoming an elementary school teacher. I genuinely believe that elementary school consists of some of the most important and influential years of everyone's lives. Elementary school is the foundation of learning educational topics such as basic math, reading, writing, etc. Along with fundamental social skills such as collaborating, following directions, being respectful, etc. Paramount skills that are beneficial for everyone to carry along with them for the rest of their life. These are attributes that I hope to see in our future doctors, teachers, lawyers, politicians, and humanity. These qualities would be extremely difficult to refine without the guidance of a teacher. I understand that which is why I’m so focused on pursuing a career in early childhood education. I am chasing a career that would allow me to directly make an impact on people’s lives and futures. With that huge responsibility, I am making sure that I am seeking the best path to becoming a teacher. Currently, I am a high school senior taking dual credit education classes through Campbellsville University. During my first trimester, I completed ED 220 Learning Community with an A/100. This class allowed me to be a student teacher and observe both a first-grade class and a third-grade class. This experience was able to validate my feelings of being meant to be an elementary teacher. Along with observing classes, we read and learn about educational theories such as behavioral learning theories, the three characteristics of an effective teacher, etc. The more I learn and interact with the teaching career, the more passionately I feel that teaching is the reason I was put in this world. This is why I’ve fully committed to the University of Kentucky with the chosen major of elementary education. I want to become the best teacher I can possibly be and I trust in the University of Kentucky College of Education which was ranked number fifteen in the year 2021. I feel the reason I am so excited and ready about embarking on the journey of becoming an elementary teacher is because of my passion and belief that I am the most prepared I could be before pursuing an elementary education major. There is no other career I could see myself enjoying as much as teaching.

Right now, I am in a weird space in my life due to being a senior in high school while being a cadet student teacher at my local middle school. I am both a student and a teacher right now which creates a dual, sometimes confusing perspective. However, I am grateful for that unique perspective because it allows me to gain a deeper understanding of a career in education from both a student's and future teacher's point of view. I plan to use my deeper comprehension to help me make a bigger impact and inspire the youth through teaching. I feel that when someone knows that there is someone out there who understands them, they feel inspired to do their best. In the education field, there is nothing more important than a student trying their best. So, I plan to continue developing connections and understanding with my students to ensure that they always try to do their best no matter how they are feeling.

I’ve been a feminist since I first learned of the feminist movement in the third grade. Over the past eleven years, my interpretation of being a feminist has changed, which is a good thing because our ideas should be constantly evolving along with us. At eight years old, I believed that in order to be a feminist I should beat up every boy on the playground who made fun of any girls. Simutanelsy, I was struggling with feeling strong and comfortable in my femininity. I felt ashamed to be a girl who enjoyed ‘girly’ things. I hated being told I threw like a girl. I refused to say that my favorite color was pink, I loved glitter, or I listened to Taylor Swift. As embarrassingly as it is to admit, this struggle with internal misogyny lasted until I was twelve (I did stop beating up the boys around ten). However, I would still call myself a feminist because I stood up for other girls, I explained to boys why they shouldn’t objectify girls, and most of my essays were written about women’s rights. I was a hypocrite and didn’t realize it until I got to high school. As a freshman, I still was insecure about embracing femininity, but still labeled myself as a feminist. I did not want to be like other girls because women are so looked down upon in our society. Then the Corona Virus pandemic cut my freshman year short. Due to quarantine, I was forced to sit with myself and my thoughts. I spent a lot of time on my phone and one day I came across an Instagram post about Maya Angelou. This post sent me down the Maya Angelou rabbit hole of her quotes, speeches, and poetry. Angelou had such a mesmerizing ability to refute the negative connotations that society puts on women such as being weak and mindless while also embracing femininity to the fullest. She made me realize that it is not a bad thing to enjoy being a woman. I understand that Angelou’s perspective is one of a black woman in a time when women didn't have many rights. So, of course, I will never be able to fully relate to her words, but she has shown me the perspective that as a white woman in modern times I would’ve never even known existed. I think that is what is so special about Angelou, she was able to reach people from all walks of life. She completely changed my idea of what it means to be a feminist. Now at 17, I fully understand that yes, I should continue standing up for other women, trying to educate men, educating myself on all women’s rights, etc. While understanding that I can do all those things without being scared of embracing femininity in whatever way it means to me. I can be a Phenomenal Woman who is strong, independent, intelligent and happens to like the color pink because, at the end of the day, feminism is all about having a choice. Having the choice to be a stay-at-home mom or not. The choice over what we want to do to our bodies. “I’m grateful to be a woman. I must have done something great in another life.” -Maya Angelou.

My entire life, it felt as if struggles fell in love with non-stop chasing me. I was forced to grow up faster than most kids and overcome adversities most kids do not encounter. My first breath was one of Chicago air and prenatal cocaine exposure due to my biological father feeling it was better to force my mom to ingest some cocaine rather than be my dad. So, of course, my father was no longer a part of my life, I was taken out of my mother’s custody and then given to my grandmother. I lived with my grandma in Chicago, Illinois while my siblings and mother were living in Tennesee, where my mother met my future ex-stepfather who ended up being an abusive man. My mom regained custody of me when I was two, and we all moved to Kentucky. At the age of 13, my mother and ex-stepfather got a divorce, and I was officially being raised by a single mother. Then, my grandma moved in with us and she started to tell me more of her stories. I learned that my family has been carried by strong women who didn’t graduate high school, couldn’t go to college, and were forced to work their way up through retail and factory jobs. I was equally inspired and heartbroken when I was told these things; I realized that without them I would have nothing, so I made them a promise that everything I accomplish is for them. Since my mother and grandmother couldn’t graduate high school; I will graduate high school with an Honors Diploma. Since they couldn’t go to college; I will become a first-generation college student and I will bring the perspective of a young woman determined to do right by the women in her family who have come before her and to create an easier path for her niece. I would bring the perspective of a future teacher who wants to give kids the support they need to succeed in life. I would bring the perspective of a great-granddaughter of Irish immigrants who couldn’t accomplish the ‘American Dream’ and the daughter of a single mother who couldn’t escape her family’s cycle of living in the low class. I no longer treat my past as a burden pulling me down, instead, my past incentivizes me to pursue my goals. This change in mindset has allowed me to embrace a life of peace and contentment.

The biggest aspect of who I am as a person is that I’m a very loving and compassionate person. I’ve been told that I feel things too deeply, that it was a bad trait to have, and that I’m too emotional. However, this is the attribute I value most in myself, it makes me who I am. Not only does being emotional allow me to be more in touch with my feelings and process things in a healthy manner, but it also helps me connect with other people who in turn feel comfortable telling me certain things or coming to me for advice or help. For some reason, in our society being an emotional person is seen as a negative quality. It is so closely associated with negative emotions such as being dramatic, angry, etc. But being an emotional person can be positive when it is coming from a good, healthy place. When I say I’m an emotional person, I mean that I cry during eighty percent of the movies I watch or the books I read. I mean that I use journaling and meditation as methods to release my thoughts and feelings in a beneficial manner. I’m talking about how when I’m happy, I am an overly enthusiastic person and want to spread my happiness with those around me. Since I am so in touch with all of my feelings, the negative feelings don’t have as much of an impact on me as they may have on others. Being an emotional person who healthily deals with her emotions creates a domino effect towards honing other positive traits such as patience, communication, and perception. I am proud to be an emotional person who feels things so deeply. Especially since the career, I plan on going into is education. I feel that being emotional will benefit my career choice of being an elementary teacher because it will help me connect with my students while also helping me guide them through their own emotions. Being a kid is hard, you feel so many things and it can be difficult to properly deal with all the feelings. If I’m able to help teach children how to healthily deal with their emotions then I just directly impacted the future seeing as these are the kids who will be our future doctors, teachers, politicians, etc. I feel that there aren’t many things that could be more rewarding and soul-fulfilling than that.

Inadequate financial literacy is like a disease passed through generations to which my family has fallen victim. I live in a single-mother household in Kentucky as my mother lived in a single-mother household in Chicago, Illinois. My family has been carried by strong women who couldn’t go to college and were forced to work their way up through retail and factory jobs in a society where women earn less money than their male counterparts. These women have tried their hardest to provide for their families despite so many hardships. This is what inspired me to take control of my financial literacy so I don’t have to carry the same financial burdens that they have. I got my first job when I was fifteen and I earned eight dollars an hour working in the concession stands. The first year I worked, I was so excited to finally have my own spending money… I treated every payday as a shopping day. After blowing about 4 of my paychecks on clothes and makeup I realized the importance of my money. I was mindlessly blowing one hundred dollars as if I didn’t have to work thirteen hours to earn it. I started saving my money and instead of spending it on things, I chose to spend it on experiences that I get to carry with me forever. After finally processing the importance of financial literacy, I needed to learn how to incorporate good financial practices into my life. Luckily, my school offers classes just for that. During my freshman year, I took family and consumer sciences essentials that along with teaching us life skills such as cooking and sewing, taught us the options we have when it comes to retirement plans, bank accounts, credit vs. debit, etc. I kept all of my notes from that class and refer back to them from time to time. Now going into my senior year, I will be taking personal finance as my math elective. I plan to take advantage of such a great opportunity and attain the information that I will actually use in the hope to be more proactive in my finances. I am so grateful that my school offers classes solely dedicated to teaching students the importance of financial literacy and how to go about having successful finances. Thanks to these classes and teachers I will be able to make better-informed decisions about my finances.

To me, the key to having a growth mindset is simultaneously maintaining a positive one. If you are happy with yourself and have a positive outlook, you are constantly wanting to improve. The two are so interconnected. This is why focusing on keeping a positive mentality is so important to my growth mindset. I started by creating a list of everything I felt improving would enable an outlook focused on positivity and growth. The list consisted of ideas like wanting more time to read books and other things that I felt would make me happy. Looking at the list, I realized for me to focus on those positive things, I would have to get rid of the negative energy holding me back. I stopped putting myself around people or into situations that made me feel unhappy. When I removed the negativity from my life, it opened up so much space that I could give to things that would appease my soul. Once you feel content with yourself, you can appreciate the personal growth that got you to this point. Then, you can start focusing on growth in aspects like your career or passions. You will be more accepting of this growth now that you have that positive mindset. Finally, never forget that the journey of creating and keeping a growth mindset is never-ending.