How My Teacher Helped. by Breann

How My Teacher Helped. by Breann - October 2019 Scholarship Essay

When thinking about this question, I would have liked to say my family inspires me the most, but personally it would have to be my teachers. My parents have both passed away and I lost the sense that making the honor roll would make them proud. Now, I look to having good grades and participating in class to be seen by my teachers as my motivation. My teachers are the ones that are there when I need help with a math problem, they ask me challenging questions to make me think instead of just giving me an easy question, or even stay in their room well after their paytime just to make sure I am understanding the material. I have known in the back of my mind since I was little, that I wanted to help people. How I would be helping them, I had no clue. Once I was in middle school I found a love for everything history related and this was elevated by my history teachers.

To be specific about which teachers inspire me the most, I would have to say my social studies teacher, Josh Benson. Mr. Benson was my grade ten history, government, economics, sociology, and psychology teacher, along with my best friend's dad. He taught his classes in a way that no other teacher did. He would find examples that were crazy and blown out of proportion, just so we would remember them once it came to the test. He didn't set up his tests like every other teacher, he had a section called creative matching. In this section he would have a persons name that we learned about and then use a weird sentence with keywords that would clue you into which person it was. I enjoyed this part of the test the most since it was challenging and you actually had to think, you couldn't just memorize information.

I can recall countless times just this year where he would stay more than a half hour after school hours to proofread an assignment for me or even when I need help with figuring out my college major. He showed me that even though he is just my teacher, he has time for anybody to come talk to him, even if it is just to tell him a joke or two. I honestly believe that if I didn't have Mr. Benson in my life as a teacher, I would not be going to college for a major in social studies.