As a child I grew up pretty quiet, I normally kept to myself, and did what many would call “standard kid activities.” I watched my favorite television shows and I played board games. Around age 10, I began babysitting my two cousins. I continued doing that for the next five years, as I became their go-to babysitter. I enjoyed babysitting them, as we’d have fun playing games, making arts and crafts, or even make-believe cooking. Their parents and my mom were impressed with how well I was able to babysit kids, as I also helped them with their school work and tutored them as well. Many people began saying that I should be a teacher. I’d casually just brush it off and laugh and say “I don’t want to be a teacher, I want to be a professional dancer!” This went on for many years I gave the same response. Up until high school, teaching was something I thought I could never see myself doing, but I never did fully dismiss or turn down the idea. It wasn’t until I reached high school was when I learned that I wanted to be a teacher.
Junior Achievement
In high school, I was a part of a program called 3DE by Junior Achievement. The program aimed to help redesign education and help prepare students for the real world while equipping them with the necessary skills to do so. The program was extremely beneficial to me and changed my life. After having many life-changing experiences in the program, I realized that I wanted to provide life-changing experiences for other students through education. Thus in my sophomore year, I realized I wanted to be a teacher, however, being apart of 3DE wasn’t the only thing that inspired me to be an educator.
(Pixabay Images)
I grew up in a low-income community, where 90% of students who attended my school were on the poverty line…including myself. During my senior year in my AP Statistics class, we looked at a statistic that showed how schools in a different area of my county were performing extremely better than us, due to them being middle class and having more resources. After finding this out and seeing how big the education and learning gap was within my county, I knew I wanted to work towards filling the education gap and providing quality education to students in low-income areas. I had teachers who were a part of Teach for America, which is an organization that intentionally places teachers in low-income communities to provide quality education to students. In my senior year, I knew I wanted to work for Teach for America because I knew I wanted to provide quality education to students who are in the same position that I was in. I wanted to make a difference, and work towards giving students a new light on education and a chance to thrive. I went through my junior and high school years with a lot of discouragement from others. Many times I’d get “oh you want to be a teacher? Well, good luck with that” with many people not knowing my reasoning for wanting to be a teacher. However, their words of discouragement didn’t hurt me, they only continued to fuel my eagerness and willingness to teach and change lives through the gift of education.