A Happy Accident?

School has always been a major part of my life, and more than half of my life has been inside of a classroom. I have faced the good, the bad, and the ugly in classrooms growing up, which of course has influenced my decision to become a teacher. I go by a saying that Tim Cook once said “You want to be the pebble in the pond that creates the ripple for change.” The education system needs a lot of change, and it needs people to advocate for new horizons. Students are facing many adversities and I want to be a part of the solution. The reason I am becoming a teacher goes beyond shaping minds, but I want to continue to advocate for minority and first generation students to venture into higher education, and to manifest compassion into my student’s lives so they can spread onto this world and their communities.

If you would have asked me when I was younger what I wanted to be, the last answer would have been a teacher. I always downplayed the profession of a teacher because I believed they didn’t have the power to change the world. But in reality, teachers have the power to cause so many positive changes, that in fact does shape the world. The world right now needs positive and impactful people to create changes, and I want to be one of those people who inspires. One of the teachers that really showed and embodied this was Professor Lowder. Professor Lowder would constantly go above and beyond his classroom duties and would show humanness and empathy onto the surrounding community. He would always try and incorporate his students with his outside research and showing the positive impact that we could have on our community. Professor Lowder would be heavily engrossed in cancer research in Houston’s low income neighborhoods. A lot of the research incorporated women from around the community, and he made alternative cancer solutions accessible so that women in low income neighborhoods in the Houston area would be able to participate. Seeing a teacher go above and beyond for the communities inspired me to keep striving to do the same. After taking his class, several of the other students and I continued to volunteer in his campus research or activities for people in the community throughout college. Professor Lowder inspired his students to help keep creating positive outreach in their communities and to always lend a helping hand.

The community I grew up was full of poor minorities and first generation students. Many kids in my community did not strive for higher education and sometimes would not finish high school. When you lead by example, people will look at you and say “If he/she was able to do it, then I can do it.” This often helps people to see themselves in another person and can inspire to achieve the same.Minorities are constantly discouraged and pushed down by teachers who don’t understand the situations that they are in. One of the teachers that I really saw as a major role model growing up was my high school AP Spanish teacher, Ms. Jaramillo. She grew up in the same community, and she faced the same struggles. She knew our culture and our cultural expectations about school, and she motivated so many students to seek for higher education. She constantly strove for us to achieve great things so we could go back and help the community and our families. Approximately 80% of her students actually continued onto higher education. Students are constantly being pushed down, and sometimes education is a clash of cultures that an abundant of minorities face. Some teachers and staff do not know the struggles that these students face in school and at home. But by having a teacher who has been in the same position, they can see that is many more things can be achieved.

Being a teacher is like throwing a stone in a pond- the stone being thrown will cause ripples. Teaching allows for individuals to show creativity and compassion to help shape the minds of the futures of generations. I want to mold students that have compassion towards the world and their communities, who want to continuously give back and help. I want to also continue to help create paths for minority students in the world that wants to keep them down. Teachers have the impact to change so many things, but I want to create the changes that I needed while growing up.