Personal Narrative: My Higher Education Career

Saginaw, Michigan, has a population of a little over 50,000 people. When I was between the ages of 6 and 13, my hometown was considered to be the most dangerous city (with 50,000 and up population) per capita in the United States according to the FBI. In 2013 it feel to the third most dangerous. Everybody in the city knows these statistics by heart. Dangerous cities are brewed from a combination of many things including lack of jobs, opportunities, and options. In Saginaw, like many other low-income, predominantly black cities, the education system works wonders in assisting in lead their products to prisons. Growing up in the part of city that has the most violence, I’ve seen cousins join gangs, die from being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and students with little options go down a path that leads to less options. Since growing up in these conditions

Enrolling into college was a huge decision in my life, because of the fact I was a first generation student. As the first to attend college in my family, I was sending a message that I am competent enough to accomplish my goals. The goal that I had my heart set on was to become a nurse. I have already taken a step by enrolling into Mount Carmel College of Nursing. Mount Carmel College of Nursing is a program that allows you to earn your bachelors in nursing. I transferred to Mount Carmel from Columbus State Community College. While in Columbus State, I remember vividly thinking about how the career I choose will impact me lifelong. So it seemed reasonable to be a nurse, and help those in need. In helping my patients, I am also helping my community. Becoming a nurse will help me take care of patients during important moments in their life, and to make sure they receive quality care.

I do not consider myself the normal college student seeking out a degree in education. I am a 37 year old single mother of four children and I work full time. When I started out my college journey I wanted to be an accountant. I was set on becoming a CPA and running my own business. I had always loved math, but when I had taken accounting and finance classes in high school and feel in love with numbers even more. My first years in college were a little tricking between working for a bank and taking the accounting classes, two careers where debits and credits meant the exact opposite. This challenge did not deter me from accomplishing my goal of becoming a CPA. What did deter me was when I started working for a CPA. That love for the field started to

When I started college, I learned I have to do everything on my own. I had no idea what all I needed to do before the first semester began. I first learned that my mom couldn’t keep doing everything for me. It was my job to find out everything I needed. It was a tough adjustment from what I was used to but I was excited to get started.

When I was a freshman, without an idea about my future or any knowledge of college outside my state, I watched Gossip Girl, a TV show, with my mom.One episode, the characters were discussing colleges-Harvard, Yale, Brown, NYU. I'd never heard of these places so I grabbed my computer and started researching. At the time, no one in my family had been to college and graduated; this was new territory. I was enthralled. Every school was so interesting and exciting. I continued down the magical, mainly Ivy League, college rabbit hole until I came across something particularly interesting: Stanford EPGY (Education Program for Gifted Youth) Online. I've always been the girl to take chances and see what happens, so I spent the summer filling out an

“Go ahead, underestimate me. You won't be the first… You won't be the last… But you will be wrong”- Steve Maraboli. All throughout my life, people have doubted me and said that I can't and won't do that. The thing is that they are always wrong and I always prevail. Going into my junior year, I knew it was going to be a big year for me physically and mentally. I decided to take my first two Ap courses of my high school career. I knew it was going to be challenging, but I was up for it. I decided to get more involved in school by going to sporting events and joining tech crew. Academically I believe I have been decent despite letting myself down through procrastination and my personal life. This year like every year has been tough. My emotions

I have not had many jobs. However, the few that I did were meaningful and taught me a great deal. One such job was the one I held during the summer of my sophomore year. I worked at one of the many North Star Charter schools that serve students of several minority groups in my hometown of Newark, NJ. During my time at North Star, I helped design curriculum for the General Educational Development (GED) program. I gained insight into methods used to teach adults, some far removed from high school by as many as twenty years. I had the opportunity to see how the teachers would adapt the methods originally used to teach their elementary students to educate their GED students. This experience sparked my interest in alternative methods of education

My time at Wheeler has taught me mant lesson. I have learned lessons that helped me with my academics. I also learned extremely priceless life lessons, such as the importance of setting goals. When I was in third grade i wanted to have an objective for my remaining years at Wheeler. I decided that my goal was going to be to become a productive student. I wanted to get better grades and be involved in school activites when i had the chance. In fourth grade i came in with a negative adittude thinking i could never accomplish my goal. However with the support of my friends and fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Greco I managed to get better grades and stay focused on my goal. I was a completley different person. In my fifth grade year I was a member of

Throughout my educational journey, I have tussled with many elections that have assayed my personal values, beliefs, moral and priorities. My first encounter with an ethical dilemma was in the fifth grade. Naturally, like most fifth graders, I was quite content with being at school; I actually loved my teacher and had many friends. I never gave much thought to the fact that all my friends (and school faculty) looked like me until the day Suhail was introduced to the class. Suhail and her family had recently moved to Florida from New Jersey (they were originally from Dominican Republic) so that her parents could pursue the "American Dream". With each passing day, a different student from the class would join in on the teasing and bulling of Suhail; they would shout racist slurs at her and tell her to get on her raft and paddle back to Cuba. I never

My experiences beyond graduate school will help make me a successful educator. My experience working in different areas of government helped give me a better understanding of what diversity truly means. It helped me realize that communities have different needs. Schools are a reflection of the communities of they are located and the needs of the students will vary and constantly change, that adaptiveness will allow me to continue to grow as a

In the beginning of my college academic career I thought I had it figured out. Like most naive young adults, I soon came to the realize that I didn’t. My first year of college I decided to go away to upstate New York and study at a vocational school to be veterinary technician. I had always loved animals, and I thought that this was the career for me. I slowly came to realize that it wasn't. For some reason the career was not fulfilling, and I quickly lost interest. I struggled a lot balancing a rigorous course load my first year of college, and on top of that I was far away from any support from my family. After my first year had ended, I felt lost and had no idea what to do next. I knew that I wanted to study something in the health or sciences,

I believe the time of evaluation, it is a challenge that most teachers, instructors, educators have. When I was a nursing student I fervently desired to become a teacher, nevertheless I have never had the patience to sit down and teach someone, but I believe adult learners are completely different on several ways. I always wanted to have an instructor that was able to bring theory and practice together, however I didn’t get into the Educator track, not sure why. Fortunately, I never had a similar experience than the one presented but had a friend who was placed on probation and had to repeat a class. She graduated later than the group as a result of not having met the minimal requirements for one of the classes but also was not too perfect on the rest.

I work for Westwood College, in-fact I started working for Westwood when I was 22

My graduate educational experience is far more different then undergraduate experience, because as a graduate student I’m more self-directed and self-motivated. While attending Saint Leo University as undergraduate student I didn’t put in the time and planning required having successful undergraduate program. Allow things in my life and having a lay back attitude toward things. Now starting my graduate studies, I have put more planning, time management skills, and being proactive in how will accomplish my assignment, class reading materials require for me to successful complete my graduate degree.

My educational goals are to take everything that I`ve learned from college and high school and but it into my career in the future . Which what i want to do is major in culinary arts (Pastery Cheif) and open my own bakery its been a dream of mine since I was a little kid and my grandmother was the one who inspired me to own my own bakery. When I little my grandmother and me used to bake stuff all the time for like a church gathering, a funrasier, or just for a family get together and it was always so fun. We would laugh and smile there some of my favorite past memories and they encouraged me to do my dream.