Pursuing higher education is a way for people to understand how important their role in society is. Higher education is an honor that not a lot of people are able to experience. Being able to have the opportunity to pursue this allows me to have my foot in the door for potential occupations that match what I want to do in the future. Being able to go to college and learn more about the job that I want to do allows me to help benefit younger students and pass my knowledge and love for education down to them. Having opportunities to be able to experience these higher education courses makes it so that I am able to provide meaningful and beneficial lessons to my future students. It allows me to have background knowledge on the importance of education and how to benefit students in their multiple modes of learning. It allows me to make connections with my students in a more meaningful manner and see what ways I can help them on their education journey. It also allows me to grow in my knowledge and present myself to a higher standard. My mom was a big inspiration in why I wanted to pursue a major in education. She always loved being a teacher and had to move away from it when my sister and I were born. This made it difficult for her to want to return to the education field when we got older. What inspired me about her journey is that she never stopped trying to learn. She always wanted to know the next best things in the way that kids learned and tried to implement those in our young years when teaching us at home at young ages. My mother also showed me that there is no reason to not pursue what your dream is. At a young age, I knew I wanted to be a teacher. I was always playing classroom with my dolls and I would be the teacher. My mother would watch me and help me when I was trying to teach my dolls something new that I didn't fully understand. It was also a way for us to bond. We grew closer as I was looking for education schools; it meant a lot to my mother that I wanted to follow in her footsteps as an educator. What also inspired me to be a teacher was my work with kids, both working at my summer camp and at my dance studio while in high school. This volunteer position allowed me to see the full potential of children and their learning capabilities. Being able to help these kids learn new skills and apply them to the things that they enjoyed filled my heart with joy. As the person who taught them those skills, I felt a sense of accomplishment that I put something into the world that benefited one student or many. I received a lot of guidance while in these positions and learned a lot from the children and their backgrounds. I was able to create connections with the kids and it inspired me to be part of more kids lives and help wherever I could. I wanted to be able to make an impact on a child, even if it was just that I was a nice teacher who was there for the day. I want to be able to make an impact on future generations, even if it is small.

When I was younger, I worked a summer camp. I worked with many girls who found themselves loving nature and wanting to work with children to help them discover their love for nature as well. This was at my girl scout camp in the middle of Rhode Island. Here, we were able to learn about teamwork and that there is always something we can learn. I went to this camp many years ago as a camper and absolutely loved the way that everyone was accepting of one another and wanted to be together as one big family. I saw how dedicated many of the counselors were to be able to help show us our love for the great outdoors. Many of these counselors showed me a lot of the skills that I know today, like starting a fire and cooking food over it, as well as pitching a tent and learning to swim. These skills were something that I knew would help me in the future but they were also fun and educational. I went back to this camp many years later, became one of those counselors and attempted to share my love for nature and the knowledge that had been passed down to me many years before. This was the start of when I knew that I wanted to be a teacher. Sharing the knowledge I had, making friends and memories that would last a lifetime, while also learning from those around me, allowed me to really see what the future would be like in an educational field. I knew that I wanted to be someone who was willing to learn and grow with my students while also sharing what I knew with them. I knew that I wanted to be able to create an atmosphere where students felt accepted and excited to learn. I knew that I wanted to be able to share my knowledge in fun and engaging ways that the students would be able to remember for a lifetime. I knew that I wanted to be able to learn from my students about their stories and their lives and help them reach their fullest potential in my classroom. The skills that came with working at this campsite helped me in the long run when working with others in a classroom setting. It allowed me to build my communication skills with both adults and children of multiple different ages. It made an experience for me to look back on and reflect on some of the things that I learned. It made me think about what I would be handing down to my students and what would be presented to me. It helped me identify the best parts of myself and showed me what I want to be when I am older. The people and lessons that I learned from this small campground in the middle of Rhode Island showed me that it is okay to take chances and experiment with new things. It showed me that there are very few things I should be afraid of. With these lessons, I want to be able to pass them down to my students and show them that there is always something to learn and that we are always growing together.