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Parental involvement and academic performance
Parental involvement and academic performance
Parental involvement and academic performance
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All throughout my childhood my mom advocated the importance of higher education. Aware that my mom struggled to raise three children single-handedly on her small income motivated me to start focusing heavily on school, so that I could improve my situation. When ninth grade finally arrived I knew everything that I did at that point would affect me going to college. I became really focused on having the best GPA and being part of a lot of clubs. I always strive to have the best grades during the grading period and when I didn’t I made sure I stayed after school for tutoring. Since I knew that my mom could not afford to send me to college I realized that I would have to work twice as hard to reach my goals. After three rough years finally I did it. I graduated from high school with the highest honors and high up in my class and I was so pleased to receive my diploma. My childhood up brings had a lot to do with my achievements in high school and it continues to be my inspiration throughout my college career. I have a very identical story that most children of African American ethnicit...
I was raised in an encouraging household where both of my parents greatly valued education. Although they were high school graduates, neither could afford to attend college; a combination of family and financial woes ultimately halted their path. As a result, my parents frequently reminded me that getting a good education meant better opportunities for my future. To my parents, that seemed to be the overarching goal: a better life for me than the one they had. My parents wanted me to excel and supported me financially and emotionally of which the former was something their parents were not able to provide. Their desire to facilitate a change in my destiny is one of many essential events that contributed to my world view.
My mom and dad always taught my brother and I about the importance of going to college to complete our education. My parents themselves never went to college, but worked hard to become upper middle class and always wondered “what if” they had received a college degree. When my brother applied to college, it proved much more difficult than he'd imagined to get the money to help him out, and now that I am planning on completing my college education in the near future, I am faced with the same difficulties. In some cases I am finding it even more difficult than my brother did to get the money I need for college. The sad thing is that in a country that preaches the importance of attaining higher education, many students cannot afford it, making a once bright possibility, a fading light at the end of a long tunnel.
Even before joining the Schuler Scholar Program, it was already an expectation for me to go to college. Coming from a low income family with parents who never got a chance to finish their studying, my siblings and I were expected to go to college. My mother would tell us that since we have the opportunities that she never had, there is no reason why we shouldn’t be able to go to college. Growing up my mother was always very strict on my studies. I started studying vocabulary words, spelling, math and how to read at the age of two. My mother used some of my sibling old homework and give me some problems from the assignments. During elementary school, teachers would always tell us that we are too young to think about college.
The necessity of my education is immense. I will be the first of my family for many generations to graduate college. I almost suffered the same fate as my current and past family members in not realizing my dreams. I regret the time that it took me to realize that I longed for more out of life but somehow it put my determination into overdrive. I have both the want and the need to achieve a higher education. As I have mentioned before, even though earning my desired degrees and desired grade point average will take me a while I have the drive to do so. During college I will not only help myself but I will also have the opportunity to help others through volunteer work. I am so excited with every new class I take and I am going to continue to be excited about my career and every job leading up to it well after my degrees have been earned.
My mother knew that I was afraid of going to school because I didn’t feel like I was smart enough, but she motivated me to at least try school before I write it off. Before I started school I wrote down some goals I would like to change during my college career. My first goal is to be more confident academically, lack of academic confidence is the reason I didn’t want to enroll. Second goal is to the best student I can be; by that I mean actually trying my best rather than doing the bare minimum. Third goal, don’t give up when things get rough for me. My passion for environmental science is my motivation while in school, because I have the opportunity to learn more about my
Throughout my life my mother has always been my backbone and push me to strive for excellence and be academically perfect. I was taught to go above and beyond everyone else in class and work nonstop without excuses. However, the pressure from my mom triggered a negative effect in me and I eventually shutdown. Though I still managed to finish strong I felt that I did it to please my mom. That is why going to college is so important to me because I know that I can go to college and be triumphant on my own, so right now I am pushing through adversity in an attempt to prove myself right.
To obtain or not obtain a college a degree has been the thought running through every person’s brain that has gone through and completed high school. For me, I remember sitting down with my mom one Sunday morning watching Good Times while she was reading that day 's paper and drinking coffee; just out of the blue I dozed off into my state of consciousness and started wondering what and how life could be if I decided not to go to college at all. So I turned around on the couch and faced my mom, who was highly concentrated on the article she was reading, and I just blurted out, “Mom what if I choose not to go to college?” She sat her coffee and newspaper down on the table and said “Well if you don’t go to college then you will be stuck working 2 or 3 minimum wage jobs just to survive and support yourself. And I’m not going to be of any help to you if decide this route. I will back you 100%, but I will not be of any good use when you need help paying your bills.” I whined, “But mom I don’t even see why it’s important for me to waste four more years of my life just to work for someone else.” She then took a sip of her coffee that was still noticeably hot
My Grandfather (on my mother’s side) was never able to receive a higher education because of the break out of war world 2. After my grandfather informed me about this I knew that I was going to go to college. I believe going to college and getting a degree is the most important choice a person can make in this day and age. Getting a degree gives one so many options to improve their life. Those can be getting a job that lets them live the life they want or to provide for one’s family. In my life I’ve had many other influences in going to college and getting a degree besides that it lets me get a nice job. My grandfather is a huge influence on my reasons to go to college. Another influence would be my current employment at Hollywood Market, and
The fundamental values taken from the lessons my mother, Samara D. Kendrick, has taught me that I am in control of my destiny and the future success and/or failure that will result based on my actions, decisions and beliefs. While being told by the administrative staff of my high school that "one day only a handful out of five-hundred students would go to college", with direction from my mother, I have learned to motivate myself with alternative goals and convictions. For the past four years, this statistic has stuck in my mind and has served as a catalyst for me to work diligently and with purpose. While attending high school, I have taken college dual-enrollment classes, participated in the schools H.O.S.A (Health Occupations Students
My mother being a single mother has worked hard to provide for me with my circumstances even if it adds a burden upon her. She has always taught me to never let my shortcomings stop me from pursuing my goals. While my mother is not able to financial contribute much to my college education. She has however, contributed by continuing
"Let us sacrifice our today so that our children can have a better tomorrow.” (A. P. J. Abdul Kalam) I am a young single mom who always dreamed of attending college, but I grew into the belief that somehow I could only achieve this by attending school part-time. I worked twelve hour shifts, four days a week, thinking that this was the only way of realizing my dream. I wanted to graduate without sacrificing time with my daughter, my reputation as a mother, or our finances. Every time I recalculated how long it would take me to graduate, a sense of dread would pass over me. I had to acknowledge that going to college two classes at a time was going to be too slow and that I would not pass if I went full-time and worked full-time. Meanwhile, my life continued. Soon, I was expecting to get married and have more kids. I thought of giving up on my dream of a college education, but I eventually realized that going to college was the way I could achieve a happier life. I also had to come to the conclusion that I was not a bad mom, nor should I feel ashamed for being poor while attending college. I then began my college life with one constant reminder running through my head, "It's better I do it while I'm still young."
Going to college did not seem like a reality when I was submitting applications senior year. My choices were to stay home, work, attending the local university, and pay my way through, or get a scholarship to attend another university. Fortunately, I have been able to receive enough aid to support me without having a need to work. I have always been grateful for having a supportive mother who raised and put my sister and I through college. My mother came to this country where she worked while getting an education, ambition that has rubbed off. From a young age, I quickly learned the value of the dollar, and if I wanted something it was not going to come at my request, but would have to be earned, meaning I would have to pay for it. While in
As a single mom with four children, I realize the importance of setting a good example for my children. It is difficult trying to instill in them how vital a college education is for their future when I lacked one myself. So making the decision to earn a college degree was easy. The hard part was deciding what area to focus on for a degree, what type of school I wanted to attend and where I saw myself in the future.
Many years ago I remember my parents telling me that in order for me to become successful a college education was a must. They always told me that if I wasn’t in school I could no longer live at home. Both of my parents attended college but neither of them finished. They did not want me to go down that same road because they really regret not getting their degrees.
My journey as a student has always been focused on the path to college and success. Before I even set foot in kindergarten my mother, a college dropout, always told me that “honor roll wasn’t an option” and that I would be attending college in the future and achieving a degree. Most of the time I made these requirements. Most of the time I was awarded honor roll or had a newly edited list of colleges to attend, but sometimes life got in the way of my dreams of achieving success.