Thank You Berry Much by Alicia

Alicia's entry into Varsity Tutor's June 2021 scholarship contest

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Thank You Berry Much by Alicia - June 2021 Scholarship Essay

The most influential teacher I have had was Mr. Berry. I was fortunate enough to be placed in two of his classes, American History and World History AP. Overall, Mr. Berry was an excellent teacher because he made the material relatable to his students, effectively prepared us for the exams, and cared about our personal success.
When I first met Mr. Berry I was immediately impressed by his charismatic presence. He sort of drew in the attention of the class in a way that was casually theatrical and met us where we were at. On the very first day he stood in the front of the room and dropped a raw egg on the floor of his classroom. We were told to write what we had seen. The point was to show how different everyone’s accounts had been depending on our different perspectives and how we must keep this in mind when studying history. I still remember that lesson to this day.
I always left that class feeling happy and satisfied thinking, “Wow, Mr. Berry is such a nice teacher.” He always greeted the class with his excellent music taste, whether it was classic rock, jazz, or traditional indian music. Sometimes the music had to do with the time period we were learning about, other times it was simply good music. He always dressed for success which usually meant a button down shirt tucked into dress pants accented with a tie. The ties were quite distinctive and were sometimes themed seasonally with a series of festive Christmas ties. But I’m getting off topic here, what I mean to say is that this contented feeling would be juxtaposed with the shock at the sometimes hefty reading assignments we had to do. Mr. Berry expected considerable work from us as well. However he prepared us with study guides for which we could fill with our own copious notes. Using these guides I was well prepared for any tests including the midterm, finals, and when the time came, the AP Exam.
Mr. Berry did his best to make the lessons dynamic and come to life. I remember in my junior year we would sing the Dynasty Song repeatedly to memorize the Chinese Dynasties. During our India unit Mr. Berry invited his grandfather to speak to us on the various Indian religions. We had opportunities to express our creativity with open ended projects. One of my favourites was a Silk Road advertisement for which I spent hours collaging a mini magazine advertising the many offerings of the Silk Road. We also got the opportunity to collaborate and created well-appreciated large scale posters representing different land-based empires. We culminated our study of the Mongols with a heated debate on whether Genghis Khan was moral or not and learned about industrialization by planning our own towns and cities in a simulation.
When it came time to prepare for the AP Exam we unfortunately had to move online due to the coronavirus pandemic. However Mr. Berry did not miss a beat, immediately continuing his high quality lessons. In addition he often helped an older teacher that struggled with the transition to virtual learning with tech support. As soon as possible he sent out resources to help us review for the exam including websites with gathered information and youtube channels with review videos. As the date drew closer I completed practice essay after essay and sent them to Mr. Berry for review. He always gave helpful constructive criticism, except for the day before the exam when I sent him my final essay. He simply said that he felt I was fully prepared. I received a 5 on the exam. Mr. Berry sent out an email thanking our class for all of the effort we had put into preparing for the exam.
Mr. Berry was inclusive in his teaching and was always certain to show multiple perspectives. There were sources included from both sides of wars, from colonists and the colonized, from modern day and from when the events actually took place. Mr. Berry considered the perspectives that were previously left out including those of women, the colonized countries in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean that fought back, children, as well as people from all religions and political ideologies. We were always encouraged to think critically and really understand the contexts of our information.
When it came time to ask for teacher recommendations for college applications I knew I had to ask Mr. Berry for one. He was more than willing to help me and even gave me pointers on how to improve my resume. Mr. Berry met with me on a google meet to discuss the letter of recommendation to make sure it best reflected me. In addition he helped me in the early drafts of my college essay and almost brought me to tears by how accurately he understood what I was trying to convey. I am happy to say that with his help I have been admitted to three universities so far, all of which I am eager to attend. As you can see I can not say enough positive things about Mr. Berry, but I’ll close this essay for now.

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