Hello History, Goodbye STEM by Elizabeth

Hello History, Goodbye STEM by Elizabeth - August 2016 Scholarship Essay

Let’s just start off by saying that science, technology, engineering, and math were never a source of comfort for me. Even as a child when I was placed in my elementary school’s honors program they told my parents, “She has a pure talent for the humanities...But we’re concerned about her success in higher-level math and science classes.” Complex analysis, q-analogs, stoichiometry, and atomic structures were never something I looked forward to learning about. I would, and still do, spend an inordinate amount of time understanding and comprehending the most basic of STEM concepts in classes like Chemistry or Algebra 2. I managed the first two weeks of Pre-Calculus before I had decided to drop the course for fear of failing. I went my entire junior year without a math course.

When I had to let go of that class, I felt lousy and low. I didn’t understand why I was taking harder liberal arts based classes like AP English and advanced Spanish when I “clearly” was not intelligent enough for them. After all, I could not last more than two weeks in a higher-level math class. Feeling glum, I walked into my AP United States History class.

I always had a passion for History and often enjoyed it more than any other class. I would fall in love when learning about the checks and balances system, the Battle of Antietam, and the Potsdam Conference. I would brighten up when watching various Ken Burns documentaries ranging from Jazz Music to the Civil War. During both semesters of the class, my love for history grew leaps and bounds. I would discuss the subject at home with my family and tell them about the Truman Doctrine and how that relates to modern-day Cuba, and how America’s distrust of other countries goes back decades to the widespread belief of the Domino Theory. I knew the importance of our past and why it matters for our future. In AP U.S. History, I excelled and learned more and more every day that passed.

It was not until second semester when we learned about older civilizations not being afraid to show children the importance of liberal arts concepts like dance, English, and philosophy through education. I realized that one does not need to have a God-given gift of STEM to have intelligence. Not everyone needs to show proficiency in mathematics or sciences to be considered intuitive or insightful. History helped me to understand our world and why we are the way we are. It helped me find myself and made me realize everyone has their strengths. The Humanities subjects share an equal amount of weight in terms of difficulty. After all, remembering who the 8th King of England was and why he contributed to the birth of Calvinism takes skill.