Growing up, I always told people that in my future career I wanted to help people. I have had different definitions of helping people when trying to come up with what to do for the rest of my life, but one way to do this that was always constant was teaching. Ironically, I always claimed that I would never become a teacher solely because my mother is one and people always told me that is what I should do. I am normally against doing what other people tell me to, but all the roads for my future career have lead me to deciding to go into education. I am choosing to major in special education because I have a special place in my heart for kids who are not like everyone else. Growing up, my brother and I struggled with being bullied for quite a while. We were made fun of or treated differently for things that we were born with. I want to be able to positively impact kids that are being looked down upon for the things that they were born with. I would never want them to feel like they are not good enough, so my goal as an educator is for them to leave my room feeling seen, valued, and loved. One of the most important parts of being a teacher is building relationships. As a high school student, the close relationships I have with some of my teachers has been one of the most beneficial parts of high school. While the respect is still there due to them still being over me because of their job, I am still so thankful to be able to talk to them about the good, bad, and ugly. I want to be able to bless future students with this same relationship. Especially since I am aware that some of the students in my class will not only not feel the love at school, but also at home. It is almost normal for people to treat special education students negatively at school, but also very common for them to be treated the same way at home. Some of these students do not even know how to love or feel loved, so one of the main things I plan on teaching is this whole idea in general. Going into education, I want to be able to positively impact the students in my class and at the school in general. My goal is to work at the high school level, and I first-hand understand the stress that comes along with being a high school student. In my future career, I hope to be able to positively affect the students and be able to be a relational teacher.

Growing up, I always told people that in my future career I wanted to help people. I have had different definitions of helping people when trying to come up with what to do for the rest of my life, but one way to do this that was always constant was teaching. Ironically, I always claimed that I would never become a teacher solely because my mother is one and people always told me that is what I should do. I am normally against doing what other people tell me to, but all the roads for my future career have lead me to deciding to go into education. I am choosing to major in special education because I have a special place in my heart for kids who are not like everyone else. Growing up, my brother and I struggled with being bullied for quite a while. We were made fun of or treated differently for things that we were born with. I want to be able to positively impact kids that are being looked down upon for the things that they were born with. I would never want them to feel like they are not good enough, so my goal as an educator is for them to leave my room feeling seen, valued, and loved. One of the most important parts of being a teacher is building relationships. As a high school student, the close relationships I have with some of my teachers has been one of the most beneficial parts of high school. While the respect is still there due to them still being over me because of their job, I am still so thankful to be able to talk to them about the good, bad, and ugly. I want to be able to bless future students with this same relationship. Especially since I am aware that some of the students in my class will not only not feel the love at school, but also at home. It is almost normal for people to treat special education students negatively at school, but also very common for them to be treated the same way at home. Some of these students do not even know how to love or feel loved, so one of the main things I plan on teaching is this whole idea in general. Going into education, I want to be able to positively impact the students in my class and at the school in general. My goal is to work at the high school level, and I first-hand understand the stress that comes along with being a high school student. In my future career, I hope to be able to positively affect the students and be able to be a relational teacher.

Growing up, I always told people that in my future career I wanted to help people. I have had different definitions of helping people when trying to come up with what to do for the rest of my life, but one way to do this that was always constant was teaching. Ironically, I always claimed that I would never become a teacher solely because my mother is one and people always told me that is what I should do. I am normally against doing what other people tell me to, but all the roads for my future career have lead me to deciding to go into education. I am choosing to major in special education because I have a special place in my heart for kids who are not like everyone else. Growing up, my brother and I struggled with being bullied for quite a while. We were made fun of or treated differently for things that we were born with. I want to be able to positively impact kids that are being looked down upon for the things that they were born with. I would never want them to feel like they are not good enough, so my goal as an educator is for them to leave my room feeling seen, valued, and loved.

When I was 10 years old, my brother was diagnosed with hearing loss and had to have surgery to get cochlear implants. While this may not be seen as "special education," the way that people treated him made him feel that way. Because of the way he was treated just because he was a little different, it made me realize that I wanted to pursue a future career in the area of special education. My first-hand experience with the way he is treated is small compared to the way that students are treated in the special education department. I want to pursue a career in the special education field to help these students feel loved, valued, and seen in ways that they may not feel in other places. My plan for the next four years is to double major in special education and Spanish. I wanted to add a major in Spanish because some students who may not know English very well are also considered to be in the "special education" department. Ever since I was a little girl when people asked me what I wanted to do after high school, I always said I wanted to help people. This idea of helping people comes differently for everyone, but I feel like the most beneficial way I can do this is in this department. My biggest goal in my future career is to not let my students or anyone else feel less than because of something that is outside of their control. I have seen people be ridiculed, treated differently, and even bullied because of something that they were born with. I know that I can not completely stop this from happening, as it is inevitable in life, but I want to do everything in my power to help these kids feel like they have a place where they belong. My heart hurts for these kids and I hope that if they are put in my class they feel loved like never before. The way that I am working towards this career right now, is volunteering in my church's Special Buddies program. It has given me a hands-on experience into what it will be like in this career field and I feel like it has benefitted me in more ways than one. I am extremely thankful for this opportunity to prepare me for the upcoming years of my life and excited to see where this career may lead me.