Scholarship Essay: To Be a History Professor

My father is going to retire in some years and my mother is a house wife. They both have invested in their house heavily therefore these reasons might affect my family’s ability to fund my college tuition.

History is one of the classes that I’ve always put to the side. Because, between the names, dates and different facts, and stories. It just has never been I think relatable to me. Therefore, I end up losing interest on the class. But, found myself relating to the different topics. I think the main focus on the Native Americans, seeing their suffering, and struggles. Which I can relate to up to a certain point as a minority, made me want to be a part of the discussions, I wanted to put my “two cents in” making it easy to understand the different topics, and giving me a connection to the rest of the class.

The famous philosopher, Francis Bacon once said, “Knowledge is power”. But how do you change the world without having the right knowledge to do so? You can`t. Whatever you are doing in life, whether you are a firefighter, politician, painter or a person with big ambitions in making the world a better place, it's important to have the right knowledge in order to succeed at what you are doing.I believe that one of the best ways to gain valuable knowledge is by knowing the history of the country we live in. I think we can learn a lot from the history of the country we live in order to not to make the same mistake twice in attempts of making a better world. Before I took my first US history class in college; I made it a priority to learn as many useful and interesting life lessons as I can. Now, I am at the end of finishing my US history class and I would like to share with you interesting things that I learned and realized in US History class.

History engages me like no other subject. History is unrivaled in complexity and depth compared to other areas of study, but many do not realize this because we choose to gloss over the vast majority, reducing entire sagas into little more than a footnote on a single page. The American revolution, while celebrated in the US, is little more than a paragraph in European history, overlooked because of the more relevant Napoleonic era. My passion for learning encourages me to read into these footnotes and discover the lessons and ideas that are ignored by the common curriculum.

Since I was little, I have always loathed history. I never understood why there was a need to learn about events that already happened; only the future mattered. But when my history teacher from sophomore year described AP US History as the class where students learned to appreciate history, I doubted how one class could change my mindset and decided to take the challenge and enroll.

Growing up, my family attended countless historical sites and museums, which taught me to appreciate history at a young age. This appreciation and passion for history was enhanced by one of my high school history teachers, Stephanie Hornstein. She is an exuberant, intelligent and dedicated teacher whose excitement for history is contagious. In her AP United States History class, I was able to develop my critical thinking skills and my passion for being able to study history in greater depth and share that with others. I hope that studying history will provide me with a greater perspective on world and United States events and their impact today on society.

Throughout secondary school, instead of accepting the facts stated in my textbooks, I continued to ask questions. Disillusioned by how complex historical events were taught like equations with a simple cause and effect, senior year of high school I determined that I would become a teacher. As a teacher, I aspire to not be hindered by standardized requirements and teach history in a way that resonates with students and evokes passion.

The ugly truth about my education was that I was not being taught the whole history of the United States. In my classes, historic tales were being told. Beginning with Once upon a time on the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria came the settlers along with their servants indentured and otherwise to Jamestown, and ending with Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights movement left gaps, no, canyons, that needed to be filled. To get a glimpse of what I had been missing in History class for the past twelve years was overwhelming, especially since it often required me to alter my thinking about my world; the events and people in it.

Over the years, my family and I have visited numerous forts, museums, and parks during summer vacation that tell the story of our nation’s past. Standing in the same places as many influential people have stood tends to make me want to explore the stories of the events which unfolded there. History is a giant story of the entire world which I can use to learn from the mistakes and victories of the past. Studying history allows me to understand how events unfolded and affected other people. Through thorough study of history, it becomes easier for me to find parallels between the past and present day events. Taking AP US History would allow me to challenge myself to better understand the history of our nation and the way our nation has

The main reason I wanted to take a history course to gain both college and highschool credit was because I am just so intrigued by the past. There are just so many complex strands that construct our world's DNA, so to speak. Not only is the guide for the present, but also the impending future. Correspondingly, I loved that this United States History course dwelled deeper into the rich era's that brought forth the great nation of America. If only we could have continued to learn more about just the entire essence of the timeline. Additionally, I really enjoyed how we detailed the colonization of America and the American Revolution. In my opinion, those events are the strongest building blocks that supports the growth and welfare of the country.

I have learned a lot about our History this semester. Much more than I have learned through all my years in public school. It is crazy to see just how skewed the information that we were taught throughout our lives is. Our History classes lacked genuine information about our History, we were really taught only what they wanted us to know and not exactly what had happened in the past. This semester we talked about many subjects that our education system has failed to talk about accurately. For example we talked about Christopher Columbus, the Pilgrims, Slavery, the Civil War, the Progressives, the Gilded Age, World War II, the Cold War and The Vietnam War.

However, my junior humanities class taught me how history can put perspective on problems in today's society. For example I remember vividly discussing how the debate between Trump and Hillary Clinton parallels to the election of 1828 between Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams. The election questioned political integrity by using the candidates own personal backgrounds to attack their morals. More extreme than the accusation of exposing confidential documents in the current election, Adams went to the extent of labeling Jackson a murderer while serving in the military. This insight puts new perspective the current generation, making an election that seems so radical more plausible. Thanks to your lessons I received the opportunity to study how events in American history such as elections can lead to the divide or unity of the country. When Lincoln won the election of 1860 by receiving only 40 percent of the popular vote, the country's built tensions finally exploded in the form of a Civil War. With this valuable knowledge the study of the current election becomes less arduous, and young people like myself have greater opportunity to form an opinion not biased by today's news, but built upon my own

I have been a nurse for 34 years and have enjoyed my experiences beyond belief, however there comes a time in anyone's life where you have to make the decision on whether to stay stagnant or broaden your horizons. I choose to broaden my horizons and put the many hours of education that I have accumulated into good use. I do get excited about learning and have always enjoyed going to school so this is a dream come true for me to finally get my associate degree. Travel with me as I take the journey to decipher all the events, influences, and obstacles that have aided in my educational decisions. If there was any event that sparked me to come to CCU it was the fact that I see men and women, way younger than me, become leaders over our clinics,

Ever since I was a young kid I have always been interested in movies. My grandma, who was full of the wise the life experience left, always knew about my interest in movies. She feed my vain for the art. Even though her religion, she professed Adventist of seven-day religion, didn't let her go to the cinema, she always found the way to took me to the cinema. She and I enjoyed watch movies. We used to sit in the darkness room, with our faces illuminated from the reflection of the light which rebooted from the screen, both absorbs in the plot of the movie which made us laughed or cried. After the movie, while we went back to her home, she started to talk about the movie. She had a particular point of view where the main story

     The first day of class for a college student is like drawing cards in a poker game. Just as the cards that one receives determines their outcome in poker, the types of professors a student gets on the first day will determine the success of their year. The difference between a helpful and a harmful professor can easily result in a much lower grade. College professors have a wide range of personalities and backgrounds. However, professors fall into one of 3 categories: helpful, malicious, or uncaring.