Having an Impact
Who and What Do I Want To Impact
Education has revolutionized my life and I would like the same for others. Like millions of others around this country, my childhood was filled with difficulties and hardships. Life at home was not always the life I wanted to live, but school gave me an opportunity to live somewhere else for a while. Rather than thinking of the issues at home, I got to surround myself with friends, supportive figures and, my favorite part, learn about new topics everyday. Learning gave me a purpose in life and I felt truly welcomed, loved and purposeful at school. Getting an education and attending school has made such a positive impact on my life and I want others to be able to have this same experience.
I have always loved education, but attending college has showed me not everyone has the same relationship. Learning of the various inequalities that exist in education and our society, I became frustrated that not everyone is able to receive the same positive impact from their education as I was - even if they wanted to. In addition to societal constraints on education, our educational system may not be set up in such a way to promote a love for learning and critical thinking that is needed for students to truly enjoy school. I want to not only improve our educational system, but improve how students perceive their own educational progress and remove any societal and class barriers keeping students from obtaining the progress they wish to obtain.
I have always loved education, but attending college has showed me not everyone has the same relationship. Learning of the various inequalities that exist in education and our society, I became frustrated that not everyone is able to receive the same positive impact from their education as I was - even if they wanted to. In addition to societal constraints on education, our educational system may not be set up in such a way to promote a love for learning and critical thinking that is needed for students to truly enjoy school. I want to not only improve our educational system, but improve how students perceive their own educational progress and remove any societal and class barriers keeping students from obtaining the progress they wish to obtain.
Making My Impact Lasting and Intentional
Positively impacting education and students is obviously a right move, but how exactly can I go about making an impact? For me, research has provided me with not only tremendous opportunities for my future, but a chance to explore what I found interesting my classes in the real world. To me, research is the perfect stepping stone for students who really love their education and want to learn even more. Sadly, research is not available to all people, and many individuals, especially at my home institution Cal State Monterey Bay, are either afraid of or do not know they have the opportunity to conduct research. For psychology students especially, research can be seen intimidating due to the statistics involved, or they do not realize research in psychology even is conducted. With psychology students having to take introduction to statistics, this would be a great opportunity to show students that research is done in their field, how it is done using statistics and that they can conduct research even at CSUMB.
This is an opportunity to really try and connect core concepts from the classroom and how students how what you learn in class is used every day in research, and you can use it too if you are passionate about something and want to get involved.
This is an opportunity to really try and connect core concepts from the classroom and how students how what you learn in class is used every day in research, and you can use it too if you are passionate about something and want to get involved.