The Teacher Who Prepared Me for the Future by Constance

The Teacher Who Prepared Me for the Future by Constance - March 2023 Scholarship Essay

The one person who has made a positive impact on my education is my AP Human Geography and AP US History teacher, Mr. Arnold. In all my years of schooling, I have never had a teacher push me so far outside of my comfort zone. Normally, I am able to study a fair amount for each of my classes and pass each test and assignment with ease. However, when I took AP Human Geography my sophomore year of high school with Mr. Arnold, that norm changed. He was a firm believer in challenging each of his students in order to prepare for the national exam. He would always say, “This is a college-level class, and it will be graded as such.” As a result, I had a very difficult time finding my way in his class.

Mr. Arnold has taken my education to new heights and given me the tools to deliver college-level work with ease. His ability to not give any of his students an easy way out to achieve excellence was admirable. He could have easily given me and my classmates a simple twenty question test that just restated the notes we took in class, but he did not. He challenged each of us to apply the concepts we learned to each question we encountered. He thoroughly prepped us for the exam and ultimately for what we should expect from classes we take in college. Mr. Arnold is the one teacher that opened my eyes to what a college course and higher education most likely entails.

In addition, I admire Mr. Arnold’s willingness to provide us with resources that would aid in experiencing success in his class. He would always post various YouTube videos and other study materials that would help reinforce the information he taught in class; and in my experience, not all teachers take the time to do that. His method of teaching required me to grow significantly. I had to work harder and become more disciplined in the way I approached school. I was forced to intently focus on topics of information that did not necessarily garner my interest. I lessened my tendency to procrastinate and grew the courage to ask for suggestions that could optimize my studying strategies. I had to change my own perfectionist mindset and accept the reality that I was not going to do exceptionally well on every test.

Currently, he is my teacher for AP U.S. History. and I now know how to tackle each assessment he administers. I have been making more satisfying grades and feel more sound in navigating the course material. I have the skills to be successful in his class. All in all, Mr. Arnold is the teacher who prepared me to better handle moments of difficulty. I always thought I would be able to breeze through each class with minimal challenges, but I was definitely mistaken. A life without challenges is completely unrealistic. His teaching gave me the opportunity to assess for myself how much effort I was willing to put in, even in times where I just wanted to quit. Mr. Arnold prepared me for a future of obstacles, not only just in education, but in life.