Failure should open Learning opportunities, not close them by Jose Luiz

Failure should open Learning opportunities, not close them by Jose Luiz - December 2020 Scholarship Essay

As a Latinx first-generation college student, I have faced many challenges throughout my academic career. Growing up I lived in poverty where my father worked long hours to support a family of six financially. My father had done landscaping and gardening for fifteen years for multiple individuals within the neighborhood; however, there was one problem that he faced daily. That was communicating with the owners. I constantly had to be by his side supporting him with the English that I have learned through the hours I dedicated in school. On the other hand, my mother was by our side supporting us through our academics. While my mother immigrated to the United States at a young age Spanish was her primary language and communication in English was almost impossible; however, she was there cheering us on. Throughout middle and high school I always thought to myself how what we were learning in school will overall help us in our future careers. I remember learning about World War 1 and Algebra 1; however, I constantly told myself, “Can’t we search this up online.” The answer is yes. On the other hand, there are valuable learning opportunities that cannot be taught online. For example, communications, literacy proficiency, maturity, and achieving our goals. These opportunities are taught within the school system to provide us as individuals to take advantage of. We can use these opportunities to better the world around us or we can do nothing with what we learn.

Throughout high school, I wanted to use what I learned to make a change within my community and I was committed. While I did not have the money to help financially I felt passionate about helping others within my community that was not fortunate and struggling with their literacy proficiency. So I decided to become a literacy tutor at my local Boys and Girls club. In the program, I was able to support students from the same background as I and began improving their literacy skills. Throughout the accumulation of 780 hours at the program, I saw many students benefit from the time that I was supporting them. Through the program, I saw myself happier, and my willingness to help increased dramatically. While I was not at grade level reading during my high school I realized that using what I do know to support my community academically had a greater impact than my literacy status. At that moment I began to remember the time I questioned the importance of education within the community and realized that education opens many doors within the community that can be taken advantage of.

As I finished my first semester at San Jose State University I began to reflect on what I learned through the courses I took. I remember I took communications, introduction to engineering, and calculus 1. I’ll be honest these classes were a lot of fun and I learned a lot; however, if I would have taken a step further in being involved within different projects outside of the classroom it would have been a better learning experience. Throughout my life I have always been told to get the best grades possible and to succeed academically; however, there are more valuable opportunities waiting for us as individuals. Yes, grades are important but wouldn’t we want to use what we have learned to make a change and support our community. If you begin to think about it a grade is only a letter that is obtained from completing assigned work and does not determine what we are capable of doing as individuals. The grades that we receive come from academic work that must be learned from a textbook and doesn’t test you about the real world. As the 2021 Spring semester is almost 1 month away I am committed to using what I have learned to make a change and have a purpose within society. As a New year’s resolution I want to be involved within different clubs, organizations, and events within San Jose State University and contribute to technology waiting to be discovered.

At the end of the day our college journey is going to come to an end eventually and what we do during that time will change us as individuals. Through my first semester at San Jose State, there were these great opportunities that were presented to me through the different clubs within the school but I did not take advantage of the opportunities. You might be wondering why you are leaving these opportunities and the answer was fear. As a first-generation college student, I was scared of failing and not knowing enough of college to be part of these opportunities. As I look back at the decision that I made I realized that it was the worst decision I could have made as an individual. Fear and being wrong should not be a deciding factor on whether we should participate within our school. Failure opens great opportunities for improvement and learning within the material because if you are not failing you are not learning. As I continue my education at San Jose State University being part of the different opportunities within the campus is my number one 2021 New Year's resolution.