Why I Want To Be An Exceptional High School Student

I was not an exceptional high-school student. I did not participate in sports, nor did I achieve straight A’s and the only thing I participated in was PALs because of my love for young children. I was bland, exceedingly bland until I got tired of being average. Average was not going to be enough for me. My senior year of high-school, my Quantitative Reasoning teacher, Mrs. Cooley, made me develop a love for mathematics. I had been lucky enough to have been given incredible math instructors, however, Mrs. Cooley taught in a way that I could finally understand concepts of math that I had not been able to grasp prior to being in her course. Mrs. Cooley instructed her students with various methods to ensure that each student had a chance to grasp the material. Mrs. Cooley changed the way I not only felt about myself but my outlook on math as well. Senior year was the first year I got higher than a C in a math course, it was also the year that reinforced my desire

The first week being on campus before classes was nothing like I had thought it would be; I had been assaulted on campus prior to classes starting as a result, I spent the majority of that week planning a study schedule and applying to various part-time jobs. When classes began I was in awe, I had never been around so many professors that were so eloquently passionate about what they were lecturing about. I discovered intelligence in a lecture room, brimming with students, while the boy next to was eating Chinese take-out and I was hooked. Study schedules, an abundant amount of reading, countless hours in a study room as well as multiple office hour visits became my daily hobbies. No longer did I shy away from research papers, class discussions or presentations; I was eager to learn all that I could. I desired to get the most out of my classes so I would be able to teach my future students as effective as my professors had taught