College Admissions Essay: The Teacher Who Changed My Life

I am a fortunate soul. I have two loving parents who raised me in a Christian home. We went to church every Sunday, both my parents worked, and they gave me everything I needed. My mother and father both gave me everything that I wanted, or better yet everything I asked for they tried to get. They didn’t just give me anything, no questions asked, there was discipline, respect, love, and humility. They thought I deserved the world and they tried to provide it. Was that so bad?

Even though my father never went to college, I have always wanted to go. I knew I wanted to be better and do more than my deadbeat dad did. My father always told me “you are a smart girl”, and to him anything below a C grade wise was utterly unacceptable, well for everyone besides my brother who could never manage more than a D. The amount of punishment he had to endure for that I didn’t want to imagine how much it hurt. I remember the pit in my stomach every time report cards were sent out even though I knew I did well, but the better grades I got the easier it became to keep them up. I thank my father for his strict parenting when it came to education because I know now if I didn’t have rules like that I don’t think I would be where I am now, and better off than him.

“You know Kwesi, I only came to this country with forty bucks in my pocket and the clothes on my back and look where I am today.” -- words from my father I thought to myself the first time I saw a rifle plummet down to my head.

During both my fourth and fifth grade years of elementary school, I participated in our math club that annually competed in the math pentathlon in Indianapolis. Although I had always enjoyed math in general, I never really understood how the concepts behind it could apply to real life. Becoming a part of this talented group of students and preparing for the competition by playing a variety of different logic-based puzzle games really allowed me to see math as well as the world in a new light. Through my experiences, I discovered a love of problem solving and a passion for finding logical solutions. I also uncovered an irreplaceable comradery with the rest of my team through working so hard together to become the best we could be. Math club and the many things I learned

It was only last year, my math teacher opened my eyes about the importance of math and how we need it to survive. On the first day of school, sophomore year, my math teacher started the class off with why does math matter? Mr. Howard, my teacher, recognized my vintage New York Giants shirt at the time, so he used that as his example. With a background in construction, he was familiar with architecture. He explained the mathematics involved in cutting the metal, making the field, setting up the bleachers, the goalposts, the field distance, constructing the actual shirt. After that class, I realized math is all around me, I just need to look for it. My experience in math class changed that year. In the previous years, I actually didn’t care about what I was learning, I just wanted to receive a good grade. Math, in my mind, went from a bleak, strange nightmare, to a fun, engaging environment, full of ideas that could potentially change the

Throughout my childhood I grew up with encouraging parents who constantly reminded me that I could grow up to be anything I wanted as long as I tried hard enough. They told me that I could do something tremendous such as colonizing mars, which as a kid seemed like something I could do. Progressing from elementary school to middle school was when I realized the world was vast; becuase of the substantial competition, I found myself facing the truth, there are limits on growing up to be anything. Tying back to the idea that if you try hard wnough you can become anything you want- I find that to be true- but only for those who are capible to rise up and conquer the raid which we refer to as life. For me, I was not able to do such a viorous task. However, most people are not able to do so as well. If they could, you would see a race where everyone has a 5.0 Grade point average. My goal was no longer to be something out of

In the summer of 2015 my friend Bethany asked me to be her Student Representative for our schools Associated Student Body (ASB). Bethany has been a part of ASB since seventh grade and had always tried to get me involved; finally this time when she asked I said yes. I had always thought ASB would be boring but throughout the course of the school year I liked it more and more. I enjoyed the feeling it gave me of helping my school, it made me feel a part of something bigger.

Often times children, especially girls, are told that mathematics is not a subject in which they should excel. “Math is for losers” or “math is pointless” are common things said in a third grade classroom. What is incredibly shocking is that the people saying these things are often not the nine year olds sitting in the desks, but the teachers who are standing at the front of the classroom. However, more than just the children are suffering from this uprising against mathematics. The society as a whole is hurting because we, as Americans, need children to be better at math. Children are our future and so is engineering. Therefore, if teachers are not promoting mathematics we will fall even further behind. America is already ranked 27th in the

The human mind intrigued me since an early age. I was the child that would always ask why and how and I was never satisfied with the answer. I always stated my input and needed to solve any problems that were in front of me. My parents always thought I was a chatter-box that stuck my nose in everyone’s business, but I thought I was doing everyone a favor. As I got older, I was the friend everyone would go to about their problems. I enjoyed listening to their situations, just as much as I wanted to give my advice. Being the person that knew everything that was going on, and being able to have a say in what people did gave me satisfaction. When I took my personality test for my volleyball team my freshman year of college, it was not a shock that

Nelson Mandela once said, “What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.” Moments in our life shape who we become; our character, our thinking, who we are and who we want to be. How we live our life is so much more than going through the motions, it is about how we change other’s lives and how other’s change our life. I have been fortunate enough to grow up with astonishing people who have changed who I am and I have also had so many opportunities that have shaped who I am today.

First of all hello, I’m currently a high school senior planning to attend college in the fall. In elementary “school,” teachers tell you school is important, and, as a child, you don’t really comprehend-- all you want to do is play and have fun. When you reach high school you began to open up your mind and see how education and knowledge help you improve as a human being. This is what happened to me. I began to value education as “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world,” as Nelson Mandela says. Education has helped me realize what I want to do and who I want to be in life.

During Summer 2014, I took my first college course “Math 10: Elementary Algebra” also known as remedial math. However, ever since I can remember, I have always liked math and this seems to contradict how I started my college career. My interest in math goes back to second grade when I received a 100 on my report card. In Bangladesh, grades are believed to reflect one’s identity, so I took a greater interest in the subject thereafter. After moving to New York, I continued to enjoy the subject though the language barrier prevented me from fully understanding the “universal language.” My passion for math waned, yet never fully extinguished, until eleventh grade when I took geometry. I was fortunate to have a teacher who made the class more enjoyable than any math I have experienced before. It was then I entertained the idea of becoming a high school math teacher in the future.

Many people assume that teachers are just people who come into our lives in order to teach us everything we need to know about a subject or two, before we move on to the next teacher and learn whatever it is we need to know next. That, however, is simply not the case. The best teachers, in my opinion, are the ones who become our friends, our mentors, and our inspiration. For me, these things were all accomplished by one person: my math and science teacher, Chris Price.

For some reason or another certain students are drawn to particular teachers while other students are more fond of others. In my life I have studied under three memorable teachers. Teachers with which I was able to connect, to laugh, to share my misgivings. While I may have been close with each of these teachers, it is very clear, in retrospect, that each was very unique, and represented an entirely different class of teacher.

There would be few who would agree to this line of thinking. Mathematics underlies everything we do; from building strong businesses to building strong bridges. It is hard to imagine a world without math, which is even responsible for helping a land-locked country like Switzerland win a sailing competition (University of Minnesota School of Mathematics, n.d.). Therefore, I would like to focus on a specific area of research in the area of mathematics instruction. If math is causing students to feel pain, how can math instructors make their subject more accessible, and more fun, for all students? To make this