Rise and Shine by April

Rise and Shine by April - July 2014 Scholarship Essay

Ms. Connie Portice-Brown has positively affected my attitude towards education. Ever since I started high school, I was like any other students. I thought that my education didn't matter. I thought that as long as I didn't fail, I was okay. I thought that if my best friend didn't try, I shouldn't have to try either. During the end of my freshman year, I did fail two classes. One failure was due to not caring; the other due to an error in my attendance that was never fixed. But in my mind, these classes did not matter. I was thinking that no one counted these credits anyways since no other school has a “May Term” schedule. Our school had college-length semesters but just because our semesters were the same length did not mean we could leave at the end of April. Instead, we have an entire month (for the people who passed all their classes) for an entire elective schedule. Those who failed would take credit recovery classes for the classes they failed. After I thought about it for a long while, I realized that those failing grades did matter but there was no way for me to fix this. I promised myself I would try harder the next year.

My sophomore year rolls around and I am doing better in school. I am not doing the absolute best, but it was better than always having Bs and Cs. During my second semester, my grades dropped down, and I gave up again. I had no motivation due to the struggles I was currently facing such as the divorce of my parents. I couldn't focus and I never studied even when I should have studied very hard. I didn't care about standardized tests since they held no real value compared to the ACT. I didn't fail any classes at all that year, so in a way I did do better.

At the end of the school year during my Sophomore year, I received a letter from the school saying that I was recommended to take AP Government & Politics. I was not sure if I should bother taking the class due to my high procrastination levels. I decided to take the chance on it, knowing I could not drop out if the work proved to be too difficult for me. I signed the contract and completed the summer work for the class. My junior year began soon.

Ms. Connie Portice-Brown was the teacher of AP Government. She warned us many times before the class even began for the year that this would be a very tedious and difficult class if we were not ready to deal with the workload. If we could deal with it, the class would be easy. It frightened me but I was up for the challenge. Months passed by and I did amazing in that class. I maintained a B+ throughout the entire year. In my other classes, I had all As. My GPA had risen like no other and it was such an amazing feeling.

This wonderful teacher impacted me in ways I cannot even begin to explain. She was a kindhearted spirit who never looked down on you for asking questions. She had a sense of humor that lured you into the world of education and she really got you to understand. She was witty and charming and she always motivated her students to do well. When the entire class failed our very first test, she realized we needed a little extra help. She did not get angry because we failed; she helped us learn the material in a different way, and when we retook the test, we all did very well. As the year progressed, some did worse than others. In the end, I was one of the very few people who passed her class. Her class motivated me! Her teaching motivated me! The feeling of success was wonderful. Her spirit motivated to do more. Because of her I will soon be pursuing a future in teaching English.

She motivated me not only with her personality, but with her strong words of help and support. For my upcoming Senior year, I will be taking 2 AP classes and will be challenging myself even more. Out of the 20+ students in our class, only 3 of us decided to take the AP exam, and I will soon be receiving my scores. She motivated me to study. Ms. Connie Portice-Brown motivated me to challenge myself and to do way better than simply getting by. I am surpassing my potential and I have risen to educational greatness, and perhaps so much more. I cannot thank her enough for helping me see clearly now. I entered high school as a young teen who didn't care much about school or grades. I will be leaving high school as an adult who takes pride in her education and will be impacting the world in the same, realistic way as Ms. Connie Portice-Brown.