I come from a long line of teachers, and my passion is leading people. Because of that, my future academic plans are to major in secondary education with hopes of becoming a United States history teacher. I love helping people; I have always known that about myself, so when I got to high school, I leaned toward teaching as a possible career pathway. I was not sure of what grade or subject that would be, so I waited fill in those blanks with time. After junior year, it was clear to me where my passion fell. AP United States history was easily the best class that I have ever taken. Every day I came to class excited to learn. The more I thought about teaching that class as a career, the more I was hooked. It intrigues me that I could teach others about something that I am so passionate about. History allows me to teach both historical and current events, while continuing to allow me to learn, and that is all that I could ask for.
An academic opportunity that I would love to participate in would be studying abroad. Although I am partial to United States history, I am interested in traveling to experience other countries and their history. Traveling has always been a passion of mine, so the possibility of traveling to a dream destination for school is exhilarating. I would love to explore the teaching styles of other countries as well. I have had teachers who talk the entire period while students take notes, but I have also had teachers that only teach with hands-on processing activities. I have had teachers that are in love with their career, but I have also had teachers that frankly do not like children. I would love to see how teaching is outside of the United States. Are teachers more one-on-one with their students, or do they have a lecture-style classroom? How do students and teachers interact? I was able to explore these questions to an extent in Honors French, via a cultural dive project in which I researched the differences between French high schools and American public high schools. This month-long project challenged and excited me to learn, so I would love to dive deeper into another country's education system. At Indiana University, opportunities like these are endless, and I am ecstatic to explore these opportunities in the future.
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