Learning to Love Learning - Creating a Positive Impact on my School by Gabriella

Learning to Love Learning - Creating a Positive Impact on my School by Gabriella - July 2018 Scholarship Essay

When I envision running for the position of a student body president I think of what children always exclaimed in their elementary elections: “Free ice cream for all students!” and “I’ll ban homework!” While these promises were childish and never kept, they still maintained the idea that the role of a student president is to aid their peers and improve their academic lives. A student body president is supposed to improve their school in a way that improves the lives of the students. The president modifies the school life or adds to it in order to make students more susceptible to learning. If I was to positively impact my school in one way, I would create a new system of introducing students to new classes fit towards their educational needs.
My high school is extremely competitive; a 4.0 GPA won’t get you anywhere close to the top of the class ranking and straight A’s are extremely common. High school teens are constantly striving for the very top, scrambling over each other to reach the very best of colleges. Because of this fact, many students take classes that they are not fit for. I have known many kids who take classes they are not interested in because those classes improve their GPA or make themselves appear better to colleges. A friend of mine found herself choosing AP Statistics over another art course because statistics looked better on her application than another art class. I have seen other students struggling in my honors or AP courses because they are not interested in the topic but simply need the boost to their grade.
In addition to this, I have witnessed many students growing bored with school because they are taking courses at levels too low for them. Advanced Placement, Honors or IB can seem intimidating to students who don’t typically perform well in school. I know another friend who has taken the lowest levels of classes for fear that they would fail in higher level courses- abandoning their chances to participate in an in-depth study in something they enjoy- like literature and reading. From my experience, I have found that students who receive low grades suffer from boredom and disinterest in what they are learning.
These two issues, while seemingly different at first glance, are very similar and can be solved with a singular solution. If a student takes a course that they are interested in and may focus on what they enjoy, they are more likely to perform better in that course. As student body president, I would campaign to create a way of encouraging students to pursue what they enjoy. A small questionnaire may be offered at the beginning of the year to find a student’s interests. After discovering what that student wishes to pursue after high school (or simply what they enjoy learning about), they could be encouraged to take a class that better fits their need. The student that enjoys art but felt they needed to take an AP and a core subject could be introduced to AP Art History. The student taking lower level classes that enjoys reading may be pushed towards Honors English or AP Literature.
I didn’t enjoy school until my Junior year of High School when I was able to focus on what I truly enjoyed and loved to learn about. My favorite subject is history, and this year I was given the ability to take an Advanced Placement US history class and also the option to partake in history electives. I performed very well in these classes and took lessons from history with me to other subjects. Each day was exciting for me and I began to look forward to going to school. If I could improve my school, I would attempt to give each student the experience that I had. The most positive change I could create would be to inspire the same thrill of learning that I have acquired to other students.
The change I could generate in my school would be alleviating stress or anxiety and motivating students to follow their interests. I believe that if students were encouraged to step out of their comfort zone by their school or student body president then they may take steps for themselves without GPA or college in mind. The source of a successful academic career is truly learning and receiving excitement from what one is learning. As a student body president, I would motivate the students of my school to chase what makes them happy and learn to love learning, as I did. Having a student body that understands the value of information and is beaming with excitement at the thought of hearing their teacher speak is the greatest, positive change that I am able to envision.