Student Successes
students to represent the humanities disciplines . In its description , the scholarship is meant to provide financial support for those who have displayed " academic excellence " in their major ( mine is English w / Secondary Education ). When the announcement was made , I had multiple past professors e-mail me to congratulate me on the award- at the time I didn ' t know how flattering winning it was . Then , one of the professors on the scholarship committee shared with me that my application " stood out among the other applications to an extent that made it clear to all of the committee members that you were worthy of the support of the scholarships ." I have since realized that what I aim to do in my career is defend the humanities in education , so I like to believe that this award was not in vain .
Tonight , I am writing a sample unit plan for a class I might teach one day , 12th grade English . It ' s about antebellum literature , specifically themes of romanticism using Bartleby the Scrivener and excerpts from Moby Dick by Herman Melville as the unit texts . It ' s one of the hardest and best things I ' ve worked on the past four years . I would blow these imaginary students ' minds , I swear .
In the future , I plan to gain experience teaching high school for a few years . I want to help guide the future of education in this country down a path that is productive and true to the original purpose of institutionalized education . I want to inspire students to love learning , not for a future job or because being smart is a contest , but because school truly shapes who you are , and if approached in a certain way , can help shape you into a truly great , intelligent , prepared and cultured person . Next , I plan to attend graduate school and work towards my PhD in Education , a Masters in English . My end goal ? To be a professor , of English and education . I don ' t ever want to stop close reading the classics . At the same time , I don ' t want to ever stop doing my part to change the climate of edu-
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